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THE  UNIVERSITY 
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NELSON  &  PHILLIPS, 

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NOTICE. 


<$ld  Testament  Volumes. 


ALREADY  ISSUED  : 


Vol.  Ill— JOSHUA  to  II.  SAMUEL. 

Vol.  IV— KINGS  to  ESTHER. 


IN  PREPARATION  : 


Vol.  I — Genesis  and  Exodus. 

Vol.  II — Leviticus,  Numbers,  Deuteronomy. 

Vol.  V — Psalms. 

*Vol.  VI — Job,  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  The  Song  of 
Solomon. 

Vol.  VII — Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Lamentations. 

Vol.  VIII — Ezekiel,  Daniel,  Minor  Prophets. 


♦ 


ALREADY  ISSUED  *. 

Vol.  I— MATTHEW  and  MARK. 

Vol.  II— LUKE  and  JOHN. 
Vol.  Ill— ACTS  and  ROMANS. 

Vol.  IV— I.  CORINTHIANS  to  II.  TIMOTHY. 


IN  PREPARATION  : 


Vol.  V — Titus  to  Revelation. 

*  In  order  to  bring  the  Psalms  into  a  single  volume  Job  is  placed,  contrary  to 
ordinary  custom,  subsequent  to  the  Psalms.  Vol.  VI,  including  Job,  will  be  issued 
before  Vol.  V,  embracing  the  Psalms. 


fr 


February,  1^76. 


COMMENTARY 


ON 

THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Intenhb  for  popular  2ts*. 


By  £>•  D-  WIIEDON,  LL.D. 


VOLUME  IV. 


CORINTHIANS-II. 


TIMOTHY. 


NEW  YORK : 

NELSON  &  PHILLIPS. 

CINCINNATI : 

HITCHCOCK  &  W  ALDE  N, 

1377. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1873,  by 

NELSON  &  PHILLIPS, 

in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


a  a  sr.n 

V,  4r. 


PREFACE. 

- - 


One  volume  after  the  present  will  complete  our  Commentary 
on  the  New  Testament.  The  favour  with  which  it  has  been 
received,  both  in  England  and  America,  has  cheered  the  author 
in  his  labours.  The  whole  work  thus  far  has  been  done  by 
himself,  with  the  exception  that  in  this  Fourth  Volume  the 
Notes  and  Introductions  to  Philippians  and  Colossians  have 
been  contributed  by  his  nephew,  the  Rev.  D.  A.  Whedon,  D.  D. 
Meanwhile  a  Commentary  on  the  Old  Testament,  in  similar 
style,  is  in  preparation  by  several  eminent  biblical  scholars.  Two 
volumes  on  the  Old  Testament  have  already  been  published, 
prepared  by  Rev.  D.  Steele,  D.  D.,  and  Rev.  M.  S.  Terry,  A.M., 
and  have  been  received  by  the  public  with  great  approval. 
Six  more  volumes  on  the  Old  Testament  are  in  advanced 
progress;  and  an  entire  set  on  the  whole  Bible,  consisting 
of  thirteen  Manual  Volumes,  well  illustrated  with  Cuts  and 
Maps,  will  be  before  the  public  in  due  time. 


New  York,  November  1,  1875. 


D.  D.  W. 


OUTLINE 

OF 

ST.  PAUL’S  APOSTOLIC  HISTOKY. 

- - 

In  our  Note  to  Acts  ix,  1  we  have  given  the  history  of  St.  Paul  up 
to. the  time  of  his  conversion  and  apostolic  commission.  As  our  com¬ 
mentary  of  the  present  volume  consists  entirely  of  notes  upon  his 
epistles,  this  is  a  proper  place  for  tracing  the  facts  of  his  apostolic 
ministry.  These  we  classify  into  four  epochs. 

I.  St.  Paul’s  Preparatory  Apostolate. 

At  the  memorable  point  of  Saul’s  conversion,  at  about  thirty- one 
years  of  age,  (A.  D.  37,)  the  glorified  Jesus,  being  personally  present, 
conferred  upon  him  an  apostleship  to  the  Gentiles.  It  was  a  glorious 
yet  fearful  commission.  He  was  to  be  the  leading  figure  in  the  bring¬ 
ing  the  Gentile  world  into  the  Church,  a  fact  implying  the  downfall 
of  old  Judaism;  and  his  life  was  to  be  a  life  of  daily  death  until  its 
fatal  terminus.  After  the  first  shock  of  this  vital  revolution  was  over, 
he  retired  to  the  Arabian  solitudes  for  over  eighteen  months,  to  learn 
the  mysteries  of  his  new  future.  Of  the  modes  and  methods  of  that 
desert  theological  school  we  know  nothing.  But  he  re-appears  at 
Damascus,  to  the  amazement  of  all  who  recalled  to  memory  his  late 
mission  thither  of  persecution.  The  Damascan  Jews  at  length  sought 
his  destruction,  and  he  retired  to  Jerusalem,  there  to  encounter  the 
cold  suspicion  of  the  Church,  whose  memories  associated  scenes  of 
cruelty  and  bloodthirstiness  with  his  person  and  visage.  Here  the 
noble  heart  and  stately  figure  of  apostolic  Barnabas  interpose  to 
recommend  him  to  the  confidence  of  the  apostles  and  the  Church. 
The  hostility  of  Judaism  soon  confirms  the  certificate  of  Barnabas. 
Other  apostles  can  stay  in  peace  at  Jerusalem ;  but  wherever  this  apos¬ 
tate  from  high  Rabbinism,  and  advocate  for  the  Gentiles,  appears,  there 
is  an  outburst  of  wrath.  For  him  the  city  is  no  longer  safe,  and  the 
Church  secures  him  a  secret  retreat  to  his  native  Tarsus. 

Meanwhile  the  new  Gentile  center  of  Christianity  at  Antioch  had 
risen  into  importance.  Barnabas  is  deputed  by  the  Jerusalem  apos¬ 
tles  to  go  and  superintend  the  rising  Church  in  that  great  metropolis. 
It  occurs  to  him  that  the  very  man  to  aid  him  in  the  work  was  young 


6 


OUTLINE  OF  PAUL’S  KPOSTOLIC  HISTORY. 


Saul  now  at  Tarsus.  He  was  specially  fitted  for  this  work,  for  it  was  by 
the  very  persecution  lighted  up  by  Saul  at  Jerusalem  that  the  believers 
were  driven  from  that  city  to  found  a  new  communion  in  Antioch. 
For  a  whole  year  the  two  apostles  assembled  their  congregations  and 
completed  the  structure  of  the  Antiochian  Church. 

II.  St.  Paul  as  Missionary  Apostle. 

First  Missionary  Journey . — The  divine  Head  of  the  Church  now  de¬ 
cided  that  the  time  for  holy  aggression  had  come.  By  a  special  man¬ 
date  of  the  Spirit,  and  a  special  ordination  from  the  leaders  of  the 
Church,  Barnabas  and  Saul,  with  John  Mark  for  servitor,  are  sent 
from  their  metropolitan  position  into  the  missionary  field.  From 
Seleucia,  the  sea-port  city  of  Antioch,  the  native  island  of  Barnabas, 
Cyprus  was  dimly  visible,  and  thither  they  sailed.  Passing,  with 
brief  stoppage,  the  nearer  capital,  Salamis,  they  journeyed  to  Paphos, 
at  the  farther  end  of  the  island,  where  Saul  encountered  Elymas,  the 
sorcerer,  with  divine  power,  and  converts  the  Proconsul  Sergius 
Paulus.  Henceforth  his  name  is  Paul,  and  that  name  takes  prece¬ 
dence  of  the  name  of  Barnabas.  As  if  his  genius  were  now  in  the 
ascendant,  they  direct  their  way  from  Cyprus,  the  home  of  Barnabas, 
northward  toward  the  native  province  of  Paul.  They  enter  the  rug¬ 
ged  province  of  Pamphylia,  and  their  servitor,  Mark,  the  nephew  of 
Barnabas,  the  future  evangelist,  retreats  and  deserts  them.  Boldly 
penetrating  the  semi-barbarous  region  northward,  they  pass  Perga, 
Antioch  in  Pisidia,  Iconium,  and  Lystra,  to  Derbe  ;  and  thence  by 
the  same  line  back  to  Perga,  having  left  permanent  Churches  as  mon¬ 
uments  of  their  mission.  Hence  they  returned  by  ship  to  Antioch, 
their  starting  place. 

A  remarkable  appendix  to  this  first  mission  was  Paul’s  attendance 
as  delegate  from  Antioch  to  the  Jerusalem  Council  to  settle  the 
Judaistic  question:  Should  Gentiles  be  accepted  as  Christians  without  the 
Mosaic  circumcisio7i  and  ritual  ?  As  a  successful  young  missionary,  Paul 
was  a  powerful  demonstration  that  Gentiles  would  accept  Christ  and 
his  cross  without  the  ritual.  Under  James,  as  presiding  presbyter, 
and  in  accepted  association  as  apostle  with  Peter,  James,  and  John, 
our  Paul  and  the  progressive  party  obtained  a  decision  requiring,  in¬ 
deed,  a  tenderness  toward  Jewish  customs,  but  an  emancipation  from 
the  Jewish  burdens.  Paul  and  the  Amtiochean  delegates  were  escorted 
home  by  Silas  (who  here  first  appears)  and  others  from  Jerusalem. 

Second  Missionary  Journey. — From  Antioch  again  starting,  our 
apostle,  substituting  Silas  for  Barnabas,  commenced  that  most  mem¬ 
orable  missionary  tour  which  brought  Christianity  into  Europe.  His 
own  immediate  purpose  was  simply  a  revisitation  of  his  Churches  of 


OUTLINE  OF  PAUL’S  APOSTOLIC  HISTORY. 


7 


Syria  and  Cilicia.  He  came  to  Derbe,  and  there  adopted  Timothy  into 
the  place  of  John  Mark  as  servitor.  As  he  veers  more  deeply  into 
Asia  Minor,  towards  Bithynia,  the  Spirit  warns  him  westward.  Grop¬ 
ing  toward  the  coast  of  Troas,  a  man  at  Macedonia,  in  a  vision  by 
night,  invites  him  over  the  Hellespont  into  Europe.  He  crosses  and 
establishes  the  first  European  Church  at  Philippi;  the  second  at 
Thessalonica  ;  the  third  at  Berea.  Driven  by  persecution  seaward, 
he  leaves  Silas  and  Timothy,  and  sails  for  southern  Greece,  and  lands 
at  Athens  alone.  From  Athens  he  goes  to  Corinth.  There,  after  a 
lonely  and  spiritless  ministry  for  months,  he  takes  new  courage  on  the 
arrival  of  Silas  and  Timothy  from  Thessalonica.  Arraigned  before 
Gallio,  he  is  triumphant.  For  three  years  these  three  ministers  are 
engaged  in  rearing  the  fourth  and  greatest  Church  of  Europe  at  Cor¬ 
inth.  The  reports  brought  by  Silas  and  Timothy  drew  from  Paul  his 
first  two  Epistles,  those  to  Thessalonica.  Paul  then  crossed  the 
^Eoean,  and  landing  at  Ephesus  briefly,  leaving  promise  of  future 
visit,  sailed  thence  to  Cesarea,  and  having  paid  his  respects  to  Jeru¬ 
salem,  returned  to  his  starting-place,  Antioch. 

Third  Missionary  Journey. — Leaving  Antioch  for  the  last  time  (so 
far  as  history  knows)  Paul  ranges  over  his  Asian  Churches,  and  coming 
down  to  fhe  seacoast,  pays  his  promised  visit  to  Ephesus,  A.  D.  54. 
Here  it  takes  him  twTo  or  three  eventful  years  to  rear  one  of  the  great¬ 
est  of  his  Churches.  The  twelve  Johnite  disciples,  the  debates  in  the 
school  of  Tyrannus,  the  encounter  with  exorcist  Jews,  and  the  mob  of 
Diana,  are  among  its  exciting  scenes.  Before  this  last  commotion  Paul 
wras  planning  to  make  excursion  again  over  his  route  through  northern 
and  southern  Greece,  revisiting  his  Churches;  thence  returning  to 
Jerusalem,  and  then  to  finish  with  seeing  Rome.  For  this  purpose  he 
sent  two  harbingers,  Timothy  and  Erastus,  into  Macedonia,  and 
wrote  his  third  letter ,  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians. 

Bad,  and  fearing  as  to  the  effect  of  this  epistle  on  the  Corinthians, 
and  longing  for  the  return  of  Titus,  whom  he  sent  thither  to  bring 
back  reports,  Paul  started  from  Ephesus  for  Macedonia.  Expecting 
Titus  in  vain  at  Troas,  he  crossed  the  Hellespont  to  his  beloved  Church 
at  Philippi.  There,  in  Macedonia,  Titus  came  with  joyful  report  from 
Corinth,  and  thence  he  wrote  his  fourth  letter ,  the  Second  Epistle  to 
the  Corinthians. 

He  completed  his  visit  to  Corinth,  where,  for  three  months  making 
his  headquarters,  he  preached  the  Gospel  in  Achaia.  Here  learning 
of  their  apostatizing  tendencies,  he  wrote  his  fifth  letter ,  his  Epistle 
to  the  Galatians.  And  in  view  of  his  expected  visit  to  the  great 
capital,  he  wrote  his  sixth  and  greatest  letter,  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans. 


8 


OUTLINE  OF  PAUL’S  APOSTOLIC  HISTORY. 


From  Corinth  he  purposed  to  cross  the  AEgean  direct  to  Syria  for 
Jerusalem;  but  a  plot  of  the  Jews  to  assassinate  him  compelled  him 
to  go  round  by  Macedonia,  and  again  cross  the  Hellespont.  A  gath¬ 
ering  retinue  of  friends  from  Macedonia  attended  him,  intending  to 
bear  to  Jerusalem  the  money  contributions  made  from  Paul’s  Churches 
to  the  impoverished  Christians  of  Palestine.  Passing  through  Troas, 
and  stopping  at  Miletus,  Paul  sent  for  the  elders  of  Ephesus,  and  gave 
them  his  parting  charge.  He  skirted  the  Asian  coast  to  Cesarea,  and 
amid  sadness  and  presentiments  of  evil,  went  up  to  Jerusalem.  There 
he  in  full  retinue  met  James,  the  apostle  resident  of  Jerusalem,  with 
his  full  eldership.  He  was  greeted  with  Christian  courtesy.  Fatally, 
he  was  advised  to  enter  the  temple  to  complete  the  ceremonies  of  a 
Nazarite  vow.  There  assaulted  with  murderous  intent  by  the  Jews,  he 
is  rescued  by  the  Roman  cliiliarch,  Lysias,  and  put  in  chains.  So  are 
terminated  Paul’s  three  missionary  tours,  A.  D.  58,  at  about  the  fifty- 
second  year  of  his  age. 

III.  St.  Paul  an  Ambassador  in  Bonds. 

Henceforth  through  Paul’s  known  history  we  must  think  of  him  as 
a  prisoner,  with  his  w^rist  in  a  ring  fastened  by  a  chain  usually  at¬ 
tached  to  the  wrist  of  a  Roman  soldier.  He  is  at  length  sent  by 
Lysias,  in  order  to  save  him  from  the  Jews,  to  Felix,  at  Cesarea, 
where  he  is  in  bonds  for  two  years.  Under  Festus,  successor  of 
Felix,  he  pleads  his  case  before  king  Agrippa,  and  appeals  to  Cesar 
at  Rome.  To  Rome,  and  to  the  bar  of  the  Emperor  Nero,  he  must 
go.  He  embarks  at  Cesarea,  (A.  D.  60,)  and,  through  shipwreck  and 
varied  hazards,  lands  in  Italy,  and  journeys  to  Rome.  For  two  full 
years  he  preaches  the  Gospel  in  the  capital. 

IV.  St.  Paul  in  Historical  Mystery. 

From  the  moment  that  the  faithful  Luke  closes  his  narrative  Paul 
is  lost  to  history.  It  is  mainly  from  the  scattered  hints  found  in  his 
epistles  that  we  dubiously  trace  the  remainder  of  his  life.  We  know 
with  some  clearness  that  the  Epistles  to  the  Colossians,  to  Phil¬ 
emon,  to  the  Ephesians,  and  to  the  Philippians,  are  voices  from  his 
prison.  We  know,  too,  with  fair  certainty,  that  he  was  beheaded 
with  the  axe  under  Nero.  But  whether  this  mart}7rdom  took  place  in 
A.  D.  68,  at  his  first  imprisonment,  or  whether,  being  acquitted  and 
allowed  to  spend  years  in  further  labours  for  the  Gospel,  he  met  his 
fate  A.  D.  68,  is  an  unsettled  question.  Of  this  discussion  we  give  a 
brief  notice  in  our  Introduction  to  First  Timothy. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  FIRST  CORINTHIANS. 


- +♦+ - 

CORINTH. 

Of  the  ancient  and  opulent  city  of  Corinth,  and  of  St.  Paul’s  first  in¬ 
troduction  of  Christianity  there,  we  have  a  full  account  in  the  pages 
of  Luke,  Acts  xviii,  1-18,  and  our  notes  on  the  passage.  The  ancient 
and  purely  Greek  Corinth  of  the  classic  ages  had,  when  St.  Paul  vis¬ 
ited  it,  ceased  to  exist.  Burned  by  the  Roman  Consul  Mummius,  it  had 
lain  a  desolation  for  a  century.  Less  than  half  a  century  before  Christ 
it  had  been  rebuilt  by  Julius  Cesar,  and  colonized  largely  with  Roman 
freedmen.  It  was  restored  to  more  than  its  ancient  opulence;  its 
schools  of  eloquence  and  philosophy  were  flourishing,  and  it  was  the 
acknowledged  capital  of  Achaia,  a  name  then  embracing  that  south¬ 
ern  and  central  Greece  to  which  the  glory  of  ancient  Hellenic  civiliza¬ 
tion  properly  belonged.  But  unrestrained  profligacy  was  in  the  ascen¬ 
dant.  Near  her  suburbs  lay  the  palestra  of  the  ancient  Isthmian  games ; 
and  there,  even  through  the  century  of  her  desolation,  these  contests 
had  been  uninterruptedly  celebrated.  A  sensual  paganism  was  the 
sole  religion  of  the  Gentile  population.  And,  what  sounds  strange  to 
Christian  ears,  the  sacred  temple  of  Yenus  was  munificently  endowed 
with  a  thousand  priestesses,  whose  ritual  was  prostitution.  This  mak¬ 
ing  a  religion  of  debauchery  was  an  inheritance  from  the  old  Pheni- 
cian  abominations,  by  which  Israel  was  so  often  sensualized.  It  was 
first  based  in  a  celebration  of  the  generative  powers  of  nature,  and, 
through  long  centuries  of  heathenism,  had  found  ready  acceptance 
and  perpetuity  from  the  passions  of  men.  It  was  the  deification  by 
man  of  his  own  lowest  appetites,  and  furnished  occasion  and  conse¬ 
cration  to  their  unbridled  indulgence. 

It  was  into  this  hotbed  of  wealth,  intellectual  excitement,  and  vice, 
consecrated  by  false  religion,  that  Paul,  alone  and  silently,  entered  to 
plant  a  pure  Christianity.  He  had  left  his  associates,  Silas  and  Tim¬ 
othy,  in  Macedonia,  and  his  sympathetic  heart  pining  for  them,  his 
vigour  was  paralyzed.  After  three  months’  sojourn  with  the  faithful 
Aquila  and  Priscilla,  and  preaching  in  the  synagogue,  he  was  enabled 
to  welcome  his  faithful  aids  from  Macedonia.  Then  followed  the  seces¬ 
sion  from  the  angry  synagogue  and  the  preaching  in  the  house  of  Jus¬ 
tus  ;  the  arraignment  and  triumph  before  Gallio ;  and  the  consequent 
peaceful  closing  of  his  first  mission  of  a  year  and  a  half  in  Corinth,  in 
which  he  established  his  fourth  and  greatest  Church  in  Europe. 


10 


INTRODUCTION  TO  FIRST  CORINTHIANS. 


TIME  AND  PLACE  OF  WRITING  THE  EPISTLE. 

Our  apostle,  then  taking  his  affectionate  leave  of  a  Church  then  in 
a  high  state  of  unity  and  prosperity,  crossed  the  HEgean  to  Palestine, 
and  thence  returned  to  Ephesus.  It  was  during  his  three  years’  sojourn 
at  Ephesus,  perhaps  in  the  last  seven  weeks  after  the  commotion  of 
Diana,  that  this  epistle  was  written.  He  had  kept  up  communication 
with,  and  received  intelligence  from,  Corinth.  The  eloquent  Apollos, 
after  his  theological  training  under  Aquila  and  Priscilla,  had  gone 
there,  had  won  great  popularity,  gained  large  accessions  of  converts, 
and  given  the  Church  a  new  prosperity.  Even  St.  Peter,  if  the  state¬ 
ment  made  by  a  learned  bishop  of  Corinth  a  century  or  two  later  be 
true,  was  there  for  a  time.  After  the  return  of  the  noble  Apollos  to 
Ephesus,  (whence  Paul  sends,  1  Cor.  xvi,  12,  his  greetings  to  Corinth,) 
things  grew  dark  in  the  Corinthian  Church.  Partisanships  arose  be¬ 
tween  different  sections  of  the  Church,  who  placed,  without  authority, 
the  great  names  of  Paul,  Peter,  Apollos,  and  even  Christ,  upon  their 
schismatic  banners.  Various  questions  upon  Christian  morality  and 
doctrine  arose.  And,  what  was  worse  than  all  this,  the  licentiousness 
of  the  city  had  entered,  in  a  most  flagrant  form,  into  the  Church 
itself.  Nay,  the  very  eucharist  had  been  desecrated  into  a  secular 
banquet,  and  made  a  scene  of  envy  and  strife.  Paul  first  sent  Timothy 
and  Erastus  before  writing  his  epistle  to  Corinth.  It  was  then  that 
three  delegates  arrived  from  Corinth,  namely,  Fortunatus,  Achaicus, 
and  Stephanas,  bringing  an  epistle  from  the  Church  asking  for  an 
apostolic  solution  of  various  questions  which  they  presented.  Paul 
thereupon  wrote  this  epistle,  bearing  on  its  face  the  twofold  purpose 
of  reasserting  his  apostolic  authority,  and  of  furnishing  an  authorita¬ 
tive  series  of  responses  to  the  queries,  stated  or  unstated,  which  had 
arisen  in  the  Church. 

.  SUBSEQUENT  PHASES  OF  THE  CORINTHIAN  CHURCH. 

About  twenty  years  after  St.  Paul  had  met  the  martyr’s  fate, 
(A.  D.  68,)  the  Church  of  Corinth  received  from  the  Church  of  Rome 
a  fraternal  epistle,  written,  as  is  commonly  supposed,  by  St.  Clement, 
third  bishop  of  Rome.  This  invaluable  epistle,  written  by  an  apos¬ 
tolic  man,  and  addressed  from  one  great  Church  to  another,  was  de¬ 
posited  by  the  Church  of  Corinth  in  her  archives,  and  was  ordained 
to  be  read  in  its  turn  in  her  Sunday  service.  The  only  copy  of  it 
coming  down  to  modern  times  was  found  in  the  Alexandrine  Codex 
of  the  New  Testament,  being  apparently  held  by  the  copyist  as  be¬ 
longing  to  the  canon.  In  this  epistle  we  find  that  the  Church  of 
Corinth  had,  after  a  period  of  holy  Church  harmony,  been  divided 


INTRODUCTION  TO  FIRST  CORINTHIANS. 


11 


into  factions  by  her  ambitious  leaders,  and  it  was  by  these  dissensions 
that  Clement’s  letter  was  called  into  existence.  This  our  epistle  of 
St.  Paul  to  the  Corinthians  was  retained,  as  St.  Clement  indicates,  in 
the  archives  of  the  Churches  both  of  Corinth  and  Rome.  “  Take  into 
your  hands,”  says  he,  “the  epistle  of  the  blessed  Paul,  the  apostle. 
What  did  he,  at  the  first,  write  to  you  in  the  beginning  of  the  Gospel. 
Verily  he  did,  by  the  Spirit,  admonish  you  concerning  himself,  and 
Cephas,  and  Apollos,  because  that  even  then  you  did  form  parties.” 
The  authenticity  of  Paul’s  epistles  to  the  Corinthians  has,  indeed, 
never  been  called  in  question  by  any  respectable  criticism. 

About  seventy-five  years  after  this  memorable  correspondence  flour¬ 
ished  Dionysius,  the  most  celebrated  of  the  bishops  of  Corinth.  His 
epistles  were  many,  addressed  to  various  sections  and  individuals  of 
note.  His  epistle  to  Soter,  bishop  of  Rome,  in  reply  to  an  admonitory 
letter  from  Soter,  has  these  words:  “You,  by  this  your  so  suitable  ad¬ 
monition,  have  blended  together  the  gardens  of  the  Romans  and  the 
Corinthians  planted  by  Peter  and  Paul ;  for  they  both  having  planted 
us,  taught  alike,  and,  having  alike  gone  into  Italy,  suffered  martyrdom 
at  the  same  time.”  Probably  Dionysius  inadvertently  assumed  here 
that  Peter  had  been  at  Corinth  from  the  fact  that  his  name  was  placed 
by  one  of  the  factions  at  its  head.  In  another  passage  Dionysius  says 
to  Soter,  “To-day  we  kept  the  Lord’s  holy  day,  in  which  we  read 
your  epistle,  which  we  shall  always  have  for  occasional  reading  for 
our  admonition,  as  also  the  former  epistle  of  Clement.”  This  shows 
that  apostolic  writings  were  kept  for  regular  public  reading  in  the 
Church.  It  was  a  little  before  this  time  that  Hegesippus,  the  earliest 
Church  historian,  made  a  journey  from  Syria  to  Rome,  and  having 
visited  many  bishops,  declared  that  “he  found  every-where  the  same 
doctrine.”  “And  the  Church  of  Corinth,”  he  says,  “had  continued 
in  the  true  faith  when  Primus  was  bishop  there,  with  whom  I  had 
familiar  conversation  on  my  voyage  to  Rome,  having  stopped  several 
days  at  Corinth,  during  which  we  refreshed  ourselves  with  the  same 
doctrine.” 

From  all  these  pleasing  testimonies,  it  is  clear  that  the  Church  of 
Corinth  retained  her  reverence  for  her  great  founder,  preserved  his 
epistles  in  her  archives,  read  them  in  the  Sunday  service,  maintained 
the  purity  of  his  doctrine,  and  usually  enjoyed  a  high  state  of  pros¬ 
perity. 

LATER  HISTORY  OF  CORINTH. 

In  the  year  268  the  city  was  captured  by  the  Goths,  and  in  523  was 
destroyed  by  an  earthquake.  In  1462  it  was  captured  by  the  Turks, 
and  remained  under  their  power  until  the  late  revolution,  which  made 
Greece  independent.  During  Turkish  times  the  cathedral  of  the 


12  INTRODUCTION  TO  FIRST  CORINTHIANS. 

Church  was  in  the  Acrocorinthus.  But  a  small  village  is  now  exist¬ 
ing  bearing  the  ancient  name.  There  are  the  remnants  of  an  old 
temple,  which  are  the  sole  survivors  of  two  or  three  successive  Cor- 
inths,  and,  indeed,  are  the  most  ancient  relics  in  Greece.  There  are 
also  faint  traces  that  mark  the  grounds  of  the  Isthmian  games.  The 
lines  of  Byron  which  commence  his  Siege  of  Corinth  are  blended  his¬ 
tory  and  poetry : — 

Many  a  vanished  year  and  age, 

And  tempest’s  breath,  and  battle’s  rage, 

Have  swept  o’er  Corinth;  yet  she  stands 
A  fortress  formed  to  Freedom’s  hands. 

The  whirlwind’s  wrath,  the  earthquake’s  shock, 

Have  left  untouched  her  hoary  rock, 

The  key-stone  of  a  land  which  still, 

Though  fallen,  looks  proudly  on  that  hill ; 

The  landmark  to  the  double  tide 
That  purpling  rolls  on  either  6ide, 

As  if  their  waters  chafed  to  meet, 

Y et  pause  and  crouch  beneath  her  feet. 

But  could  the  blood  before  her  shed 
Since  first  Timoleon’s  brother  bled, 

Or  baffled  Persia’s  despot  fled, 

Arise  from  out  the  earth  which  drank 
The  stream  of  slaughter  as  it  sank, 

That  sanguine  ocean  would  o’erflow 
Her  isthmus  idly  spread  below  ; 

Or  could  the  bones  of  all  the  slain 
Who  perished  there,  be  piled  again, 

That  rival  pyramid  would  rise 

More  mountain-like,  through  those  clear  skiea, 

Than  yon  tower-capt  Acropolis, 

That  seems  the  very  clouds  to  kiss. 


PLAN  OF  THE  EPISTLE. 

- +*+ - 

A-S  this  Epistle  must  necessarily  be  an  exercise  of  apostolical  authority  in 
response  to  the  needs  of  the  Church,  it  required  two  things :  First ,  a  distinct 
and  full  settlement  of  his  apostolic  authority,  (i,  10-iv,  21;)  and,  Second ,  the 
utterance  of  apostolic  orders  through  the  remainder  of  the  epistle. 

Taking  his  starting-point  from  those  parties  which  the  Corinthians,  after  the 
Greek  fashion,  were  forming  around  their  leaders,  just  as  in  philosophy  the 
schools  were  formed  around  their  founders,  such  as  Democritus,  Zeno,  Plato, 
and  Aristotle,  our  Paul  proceeds  to  disown  the  whole  body  of  philosophies. 
Neither  he  nor  his  fellow-apostles  are  philosophic  founders.  As  leader  in  orig¬ 
inal  wisdom  he  is  nothing.  But  it  must  not  for  one  moment  be  imagined  that 
in  this  profound  self-abnegation  he  abates  one  jot  of  his  apostolic  authority. 
As  the  originator  of  a  philosophy  he  is,  indeed,  nothing;  but  as  the  organ  of  a 
revelation  which  is  from  God,  and  so  is  absolute,  his  decisions  are  ultimate. 
And  he  closes  this  firm  self-assertion  (iv,  18-20)  with  the  most  unequivocal 
apostolic  warning  and  menace. 

That  settled,  he  goes  over  the  list  of  their  requirements,  and  thereto  fur¬ 
nishes  his  ten  successive  responses,  as  detailed  in  the  following  scheme: — 

PART  FIRST. 

Paul's  Settlement  of  his  Authority  over  the  Co¬ 


rinthian  Church . i,  10-iv,  21 

I.  As  Founder  or  Leader  in  a  Philosophy  he  is  Nothing.  . .  i,  10— ii,  5 

1.  Starting  from  their  partisan  preferences  of  leaders. . .  10-17 

2.  He  abases  all  philosophy  beneath  the  cross  supreme. .  18-31 

3.  As  he  had  renounced  it  at  first  coming  to  Corinth _  ii,  1-5 

II.  But  as  Organ  of  a  God-given  Revelation  his  Authority 

is  Decisive . ii?  6-iv,  21 

1.  A  philosophy,  nevertheless,  the  Gospel  is,  which  is  not 

human  but  God-given,  and  understood  solely  by  the 
spiritual .  ii,  6-16 

2.  And  which  was  not  understood  by  their  partisan  car¬ 

nality  .  iii,  1-4 

3.  Herein  appear  the  preacher’s  God-imposed  responsi¬ 

bilities  .  5_]  5 

a.  His  success  (based  on  Christ)  is  solely  from  God .  5-11 

b.  His  work ,  even  if  based  on  Christ ,  must  undergo  God's  test 

of  fire . 12-15 

4.  And  also  hence  appears  the  people’s  position  as  the 

God-founded  temple,  above  all  party  and  all  phi¬ 
losophy  . 16-23 

5.  The  true  dignity  of  the  apostles .  iv,  1-13 

a.  Dispensers  of  God's  mysteries  to  God  alone  responsible .  1-5 

b.  Not  to  be  treated  with  partisan  arrogance .  6-8 

c-  The  effects  of  such  arrogance  on  the  suffering  apostles  depicted.  9-13 

6.  Paul’s  final  assertion  of  his  apostolic  authority .  14-21 


14 


PLAN  OF  THE  EPISTLE. 


PART  SECOND. 

Paul’s  Exercise  of  his  Apostolic  Authority  over 

the  Corinthian  Church — in  Ten  Responses. .  v,  l-xvi,  3 

I.  Response  to  rumour  concerning  Incest .  v,  1-13 

II.  Response  concerning  going  to  Law  with  Brother...  vi,  1-20 

HI.  Response  to  Questions  concerning  Marriage .  vii,  I--40 

1.  Advisory  counsel  as  to  marriage  and  celibacy. .  1-9 

2.  Law  and  counsel  as  to  separation  of  married 

persons .  10-17 

3.  Counsel,  generally,  as  to  abiding  in  present  call¬ 

ing .  18-24 

4.  Response  on  marriage  under  present  pressure, 

especially  of  maiden  daughters .  25-40 

IY.  Response  to  Questions  of  Eating  Offerings  to  Idols 

viii,  1-13 ;  x,  14-xi,  1 

Y.  Response  to  Questionings  of  his  Apostolicity .  ix,  1-x,  13 

1 .  Assertion  of  his  apostolic  right  and  prerogative .  1-6 

2.  Ministers  entitled  to  support  by  law  of  compen¬ 

sation .  7-15 

3.  Reason  why  St.  Paul  renounced  his  right .  15-22 

4.  These  self-denials  undergone  for  an  eternal 

prize .  23-27 

5.  Israel’s  wilderness-sojourn  a  type  of  the  Christ¬ 

ian  race .  x,  1-13 

YI.  Response  as  to  Head-dress  of  the  Sexes  in  Religious 

Service .  xi,  2-16 

YII.  Response  as  to  Disorders  at  the  Lord’s  Supper .  xi,  17-34 

1.  The  Corinthians  abuse  of  the  Lord’s  Supper. . . .  17-22 

2.  History  and  nature  of  the  Lord’s  Supper .  23-27 

3.  Reform,  and  treatment  at  the  Lord’s  Supper. . . .  28-34 

YIII.  Response  as  to  Exercises  of  Spiritual  Gifts .  xii,  1-xiv,  40 

1.  Of  gifts — their  true  place  and  value .  xii,  1-30 

2.  Infinite  superiority  of  love  over  gifts .  xiii,  1-13 

3.  Management  in  use  of  gifts .  xiv,  1-40 

IX.  Response  as  to  Denial  of  the  Resurrection .  xv,  1-58 

1.  The  Christ-history,  especially  of  resurrection, 

stated . •  •  1-1 1 

2.  Denial  of  resurrection  is  a  repudiation  of  Chris¬ 

tianity .  . •  •  12-19 

3.  Reaffirmation ;  position  of  resurrection  in  Chris¬ 

tianity . • .  20-28 

4.  Devastating  results  of  the  no-resurrection  doc¬ 

trine . 29-34 

5.  Contrast  of  mortal  and  immortal  bodies  illustrat¬ 

ed  by  contrast  between  other  material  bodies. .  35—41 

6.  Correspondence  of  the  differences .  42-50 

7.  Picture  of  resurrection,  paean,  and  admonitory 

inference .  51-58 

X.  Response  as  to  the  Collection  for  Saints .  xvi,  1-4 

Personal  Matters  in  Conclusion .  xvi,  5-24 


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THE 


FIRST  EPISTLE  TO  THE  CORINTHIANS. 

♦  ♦♦ . 


CHAPTER  I. 

AUL,  a  called  to  ~be  an  apostle 
of  Jesus  Christ  b  through  the 
will  of  God,  and  cSosthenes  our 
brother,  2  Unto  the  church  of 

a  Rom.  1.  1. - b  2  Cor.  1.  1 ;  Eph.  1.  1 ;  Col. 

1.  1. - c  Acts  18.  17. - dJude  1. - eJohn  17. 

19 ;  Acta  15.  9. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Apostolic  Style  and  Greeting,  1-3. 

1.  Paul,  called  to  be  an  apostle 

• — See  note  on  Romans  i,  1.  Neander 
says,  “  K aXeiv,  to  call ,  is  used  to  de¬ 
note  the  way  in  which  God  specially 
appoints  men  to  any  particular  end.” 
Hot  quite  correct.  It  strictly  desig¬ 
nates  only  God’s  own  act  of  summon¬ 
ing  or  inviting  to  an  end.  It  expresses 
the  divine  side  of  calling ;  but  the  hu¬ 
man  side  of  obedience  to  the  call  being 
implied ,  the  word  does,  in  cases  of  obe¬ 
dience,  presuppose  the  consequent  as¬ 
signment  of  the  man  to  the  mission. 
Notes,  Rom.  i,  1 ;  viii,  30 ;  1  Cor.  viii,  20. 
Will  of  God — And  so  not  an  uncalled 
apostle,  through  man's  will  only,  as  we 
shall  find  in  the  two  epistles  that  Paul’s 
opponents  at  Corinth  maintained.  Sos¬ 
thenes  our  brother — Literally,  the 
brother;  so  that  the  great  apostle  and 
the  humble  brother  unite  in  this 
epistle.  And  this  subordinate  coop¬ 
eration  of  the  brother  in  this  epistoliz- 
ing  is  beyond  question  best  explained 
by  supposing  that  Sosthenes  (like  Ter- 
tius  in  Rom.  xvi,  22,  and  Sylvanus  and 
Timothy  in  1  Thess.  i,  1)  was  his  aman¬ 
uensis.  And  as  we  find  a  Corinthian 
Sosthenes  in  Acts  xviii,  17,  (see  note 
on  Acts  xviii,  8,)  so  what  is  called  in 
logic  the  “law  of  parsimony,”  namely, 
the  law  that  we  should  not  suppose 
more  things  than  necessary,  requires 
that  we  should  not  make  more  than 


God  which  is  at  Corinth,  dto  them 
that  eare  sanctified  in  Christ  Jesus, 
f  called  to  be  saints,  with  all  that  in 
every  place  ^call  upon  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ  hour  Lord,  'both 

f  Rom.  1.  7;  2  Tim.  1.  9. - g  Acts  9.  14,  21; 

22.  16;  2  Tim.  2.  22. - h  Chap.  8.  6. - £Rom.  3. 

22 ;  10.  12. 

one  Sosthenes  where  one  will  suffice. 
If  Sosthenes,  the  synagogue-ruler  of 
Corinth,  became  a  Christian,  he  was, 
doubtless,  the  proper  man  to  be  Paul’s 
aid,  and  his  fellow-epistolizer  to  the 
Corinthians. 

2.  Sanctified  in  Christ  Jesus — 

For  every  justified  man  is  also,  in  some 
degree,  a  sanctified  man.  Every  true 
Christian  is  a  saint.  And  the  word 
saints  is  a  usual  New  Testament  ap¬ 
pellation  for  the  body  of  true  believers. 
Rom.  xv,  23 ;  1  Cor.  vi,  1,  2 ;  Eph.  i, 
1,  18 ;  Phil,  i,  1 ;  Col.  i,  2.  Called  to 
be  saints — Literally,  called  saints.  As 
Paul  was  a  called  apostle ,  so  they  were 
called  saints.  Saints — That  is,  holy 
ones;  a  term,  as  just  said,  with  dif¬ 
ferent  degrees  of  verity,  applicable,  as 
it  is  here  applied,  to  all  Christians. 
With  all — That  is,  they  are  called 
saints  not  alone;  but  in  blessed  unity 
with  the  living,  universal  Church. 
Call  upon — So  that  there  is  a  mutual 
call ;  Jesus  Christ  calls  them,  and  they 
call  upon  Jesus  Christ.  By  call  upon , 
is  meant,  praying  to.  So  Stephen,  in 
Acts  vii,  59 ;  and  so  Acts  ix,  14,  and 
Romans  x,  13.  This  last  text,  in  par¬ 
ticular,  shows  that  the  phrase  means 
prayer  in  its  highest  sense  as  to  God, 
and  is  a  very  conclusive  proof  that  tho 
very  mark  of  a  Christian,  in  Paul’s 
view,  was  truly  praying  to  Christ,  as 
that  of  a  Jew  was  blaspheming  him, 
and  that  of  a  Gentile  was  worshipping 
idols.  In  every  place — The  Greek 


16 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.D.  57. 


theirs  and  ours:  3  k Grace  be  un¬ 
to  you,  and  peace,  from  God  our 
Father,  and  from  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. 

4  1 1  thank  my  God  always  on 
your  behalf,  for  the  grace  of  God 
which  is  given  you  by  Jesus  Christ ; 
5  That  in  every  thing  ye  are  en- 

*  Rom.  1.  7 ;  2  Cor.  1.  2 ;  Eph.  1.  2 ;  1  Pet.  1.  2. 

- I  Rom  1.  8. m  Chap.  12.  8 ;  2  Cor.  8.  7. 

- n  Chap.  2.  1 ;  2  Tim.  1.  8;  Rev.  1.  2. 


riched  by  him,  m  in  all  utterance, 
and  in  all  knowledge ;  6  Even  as 
Dthe  testimony  of  Christ  was  con¬ 
firmed  in  you :  7  So  that  ye  come 
behind  in  no  gift ;  0  waiting  for  the 
1  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ: 
8  p  Who  shall  also  confirm  you  un¬ 
to  the  end,  *  that  ye  may  be  blame- 


o  Philippi ans  3.  20 ;  Titus  2, 

1  Gr.  revelation ,  Col.  3.  4.- 
- Q  Col.  1.  22;  1  Thess.  5.  23. 


13;  2  Pet.  3. 12. - 

3?  1  Thess.  3.  16. 


order  of  words  is  thus:  with  all  that 
call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  in  every 
place,  both  theirs  and  ours.  Theirs  and 
ours — Some  make  this  mean  their  place 
or  locality  of  residence  and  ours.  Ours 
would  then  include  Paul  and  his  Corin¬ 
thian  brethren ;  theirs  would  refer  to 
all  others  praying  to  Christ.  But  our 
English  version  makes  a  richer  sense. 
Jesus  is  declared  to  be  Lord  alike  of 
the  Corinthian  and  the  universal  Church. 
Paul  exults  to  address  his  Corinthians 
as  not  solitary  Christians,  but  as  part 
of  the  great  body  of  saints. 

3.  Grace — Note  on  Rom.  i,  7.  In 
both  passages  both  God  and  Christ  are 
made  sources  of  peace  and  grace. 

Gratulatory  Exordium,  4-9. 

Before  unfolding  to  the  Corinthians 
their  errors  of  practice  and  doctrine, 
Paul,  in  the  exordium,  touches  briefly 
upon  their  brighter  points.  And  this 
favourable  description  must  not  be 
viewed  as  a  flattery,  or  an  unreality, 
or  a  contradiction  to  the  reproofs  that 
follow,  but  a  truthful  view  which  the 
apostle  rejoiced  to  give.  They  were, 
in  spite  of  defects,  a  true  Christian, 
apostolic  Church.  The  apostle’s  com¬ 
mendations,  however,  are  merely  gen¬ 
eral,  allowing  ample  exceptions;  and 
he  dwells  more  fully  on  their  charis¬ 
matic  endowments,  and  less  on  their 
sanctifled  graces,  than  in  some  other  of 
his  epistles. 

4.  My  God  — The  possessive  my  is 
intensive,  expressive  of  the  earnest 
faith  of  the  apostle  that  God  was  truly 
his,  and  of  the  intimate  approach  to  God 
which  he  made  in  his  thanksgiving  for 
his  Corinthians.  By  Christ — Rather, 
im  Christ.  That  is,  the  grace  which, 
treasured  in  Christ ,  is  thence  imparted 


to  you.  This  grace  in  Christ  is  the 
basis  and  substance  of  the  charisms 
which  he  next  specifies. 

5.  Every  thing — Every  respect. 
Utterance — Preaching,  prophesying, 
and  tongues.  Knowledge — The  per¬ 
ception  of  sacred  doctrines,  the  dis¬ 
cerning  of  spirits,  and  the  interpreta¬ 
tion  of  charismatic  tongues. 

6.  Testimony  of  Christ— The  apos¬ 
tolic  testimony  to  Christ’s  history  and 
doctrine.  W as  confirmed — W as  firm¬ 
ly  grounded  in  your  faith. 

7.  Come  behind — Such  was  the 
vivid  Greek  temperament  of  the  Co¬ 
rinthian  Church,  and  such  the  opera¬ 
tions  of  the  Spirit  within  it,  that  they 
equalled  any  Church  in  charismatic  man¬ 
ifestations.  This  was  the  bright  side 
of  their  case.  The  shadier  side  was, 
the  fact  that  this  was  no  demonstration 
of  their  preeminent  piety;  and  even 
in  the  use  of  their  gifts  there  was  such 
a  mixture  of  human  with  divine,  that 
they  needed  the  guidance  of  apostolic 
wisdom.  Gift  —  Grace,  xdpt g,  is  sanc¬ 
tifying  ;  gifts ,  charisms ,  are  edifying  as 
manifestations  of  divine  power.  Com¬ 
ing — Note  on  2  Thess.  ii,  2. 

8.  Who — Referring  to  J esus  Christ. 
Shall  confirm — Will  confirm;  being 
the  simple  future.  Fatalistic  doctrine 
interprets  this  will  confirm  to  mean 
that  there  can  be  no  failure  of  their 
firmly  enduring  to  the  end ;  that  the 
passage  “  furnishes  a  guarantee  against 
that  greatest  of  dangers,  the  fickleness 
of  the  human  will.” — Lange’s  Bibel- 
werke,  on  the  passage.  Such  an  inter¬ 
pretation  violates  the  true  doctrine  of 
probation,  and  ignores  the  true  nature 
of  the  freedom  of  a  responsible  wiL, 
which  must  be  allowed  the  power  and 
the  area  for  choosing  either  way.  See 


CHAPTER  I. 


17 


A.  D.  57. 


jess  in  the  day  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  9  rGod  is  faithful,  by 
whom  ye  were  called  unto  s  the  fel¬ 
lowship  of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord. 


10  Now  I  beseech  you,  breth¬ 
ren,  by  the  name  of  our  Lord  Je¬ 
sus  Christ,  ‘that  ye  all  speak  the 
same  thing,  and  that  there  be  no 
2  divisions  among  you  ;  but  that  ye 


Isaiah  49.  7;  Chap.  10.  13;  1  Thess.  5.  24; 

Thess.  3.  3  ;  Heb.  10.  23. - s  John  15.  4 ;  17.  21 ; 

John  1.  3  ;  4.  13 


£  Romans  12.  16;  15.  5 ;  2  Corinthians  13.  11; 

Philippians  2.  2;  3.  16;  1  Peter  3.  8. - 2  Greek, 

schisms ,  chap.  11.  18. 


our  note  on  Rom.  ii,  9.  Hence  Grotius 
well  says,  “  God  does  his  own  part,”  in 
confirming  We  say  as  above,  verse  1, 
the  apostle  expresses  only  the  divine 
side  of  the  work,  implying  the  required 
performance  of  the  human  conditions 
which  are  elsewhere  expressed  in  count¬ 
less  cases.  That  is,  assuming  that  the 
Corinthian  Church  are  earnestly  anx¬ 
ious  to  be  confirmed  blameless  to 
the  end,  he  promises  that  God  on  his 
part  will  be  faithful  to  confirm  them. 
Blameless — Being  forgiven  of  every 
sin  and  sanctified  unto  all  holiness ;  so 
that  at  the  end  we  are  perfectly  blame¬ 
less.  Note  Rom.  viii,  33.  The  end — 
the  coming  of  Christ  to  judgment.  See 
note  on  xv,  24. 

9.  God  is  faithful — If  you  fail,  it 
will  be  from  no  want  of  faithfulness  in 
God.  Note  above  on  verse  1.  Fel¬ 
lowship  of  his  Son.— Not  a  fellow¬ 
ship  with  Christ,  but  a  common  shar¬ 
ing,  with  all  Christians,  of  Christ.  So 
x,  16,  fellowship,  or  common  participa¬ 
tion  or  communion  of  his  blood  and  of 
his  body.  And  with  this  earnest  sym¬ 
bol  of  Christian  union,  Paul  prepares  for 
the  contrast  of  disunion  which  follows. 

- ♦♦♦ - — 

PART  FIRST. 

PAUL’S  ANALYSIS 

op  his  Apostolic  Relations,  and  As¬ 
sertion  of  his  Authority  over  the 
Church  at  Corinth,  i,  10-iv,  2 1. 

I.  As  a  Founder  or  Originator  in 
Philosophy  he  is  Nothing,  i,  1 0— ii,  5. 

1.  He  starts  from  their  partisan 
preferences  preparatory  to  this  dis¬ 
claimer  of  philosophic  leadership, 
10— 11.  w 

As  Corinth  was  now  the  proudest, 
wealthiest,  and  most  dissolute  city  of 
Greece,  so  part  of  her  pride  was  exer- 

Vol.  IV.— 2 


cised  in  philosophy,  philosophical  lec¬ 
turing  and  debate,  and  the  parting  into 
sects  or  schools  under  different  leaders, 
as  Aristotle,  Plato,  Zeno,  Epicurus,  and 
later  philosophs.  In  olden  time,  it  was 
proudly  remembered,  one  of  the  seven 
sophoi  or  sages  of  Greece  was  Perian- 
der  of  Corinth.  Influenced,  or,  as  the 
apostle  expresses  it,  inflated ,  (puffed  up, 
iv,  6)  with  much  of  this  Corinthian  spir¬ 
it,  the  Church  had  divided  itself  as  parti¬ 
sans  of  Christian  leaders,  among  whom 
Paul  finds  himself  nominated  as  one. 

10.  Beseech — The  apostle  begins 
with  supplication,  but  he  will  end  with 
self-assertion  and  even  menace,  iv,  1 8-2 1. 
It  is  not  as  such  a  leader  that  he  will 
serve ;  yet  on  the  proper  basis,  the 
basis  of  the  cross,  (verse  18,)  as  him¬ 
self  a  complete  imitator  of  Christ,  and  as 
their  special  founder  and  father ,  (iv,  15,) 
he  will  claim  their  following  of  himself. 
Brethren — As  in  spite  of  their  short¬ 
comings  they  still  were.  By — Rather, 
through.  The  name — This  powerful 
name  has  thus  far  been  nine  times 
mentioned ;  so  that,  as  Chrysostom  well 
says,  “He  nails  them  to  this  name.” 
And,  we  add,  the  very  purpose  of  nail¬ 
ing  to  this  name  is  to  substitute  it  as 
the  basis  of  his  apostolic  authority, 
instead  of  any  sectarian  leadership. 
Speak  the  same  thing — Not  that 
there  should  be  a  forced  unity  of  talk 
where  there  was  no  unity  of  thought. 
That  can  be  only  by  insincerity ;  or,  as 
among  Papists,  by  despotism.  But,  as 
he  will  further  say,  their  unity  of  speak¬ 
ing  must  be  based  on  their  unity  of 
mind.  For  at  bottom  there  was  a  unity, 
Christ  and  his  cross;  and  all  their  par¬ 
tisan  talk  was  simply  the  superfluous 
result  of  diverging  in  puerile  pride  and 
loquacity  from  that  deep  and  holy  cen¬ 
tre.  Deep,  central,  praying  piety  is 
the  true  healer  of  Church  strifes.  No 
divisions — No  Gxlopara,  schismata , 


18 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


be  perfectly  joined  together  in  the 
same  mind  and  in  the  same  judg¬ 
ment.  II  For  it  hath  been  de¬ 
clared  unto  me  of  you,  my  breth¬ 
ren,  by  them  which  are  of  the  house 

u  Chap.  3.  4. v  Acts  18.  24 ;  19.  1 ; 

schisms.  Schism  is,  here,  a  division  in 
a  Church  rather  than  a  departure  from 
it ;  as  heresy,  at  the  present  day,  is  a 
departure  from  true  Christian  doctrine. 
Mind — Interior  mental  state.  Judg¬ 
ment — Exterior  'purpose ,  as  exhibited 
in  action  and  practice. 

It  is  curious  that  Ignatius,  years  af¬ 
terward,  quotes  in  substance  this  verse, 
yet  reversing  the  order  of  thought  and 
words:  “That  in  one  common  obedi¬ 
ence  ye  be  united  in  the  same  mind 
and  the  same  judgment,  and  all  speak 
the  same  thing.”  Paul  proceeds  from 
external  speech  to  internal  mind;  Ig¬ 
natius  proceeds  from  mind  to  the  result¬ 
ing  speech.  The  cause  of  Paul’s  be¬ 
ginning  with  speech  was,  that  it  was 
the  talk  of  the  parties  that  had  been 
reported  to  him.  If  people  will  cease 
their  quarrelsome  talk ,  that  may  stop 
their  quarrelsome  feeling. 

11.  Declared  unto  me — I  left  you 
in  Corinth  a  short  time  ago  a  unit;  I 
am  told  here  in  Ephesus  that  you  are 
split  into  fractions  and  factions.  Of 
Chloe — The  words  which  are  of  the 
house,  are  in  italics,  as  being  not  in  the 
Greek  but  added  by  our  English  trans¬ 
lators.  Chloe  seems  to  have  been  an 
eminent  Corinthian  lady,  known  to  the 
Church,  who,  like  Lydia  at  Philippi, 
kept  an  establishment,  and  her  peo¬ 
ple,  perhaps  her  children,  were  ample 
vouchers  for  their  report  to  Paul.  It 
is  not  probable,  as  Wordsworth  sug¬ 
gests,  that  Eortunatus  and  Achaicus 
were  they ;  for  these  two  were  evi¬ 
dently  delegates  selected  by  the  Church. 

12.  Now  this  I  say — Now  what  I 
mean  to  say  is  this.  The  preceding 
general  report  is  to  be  expanded  into 
its  particulars.  Every — Rather,  each 
one  of  you.  Paul’s  each  is  not  to  be 
pressed  as  absolutely  including  the 
whole,  as  the  same  word  every  does 
not,  iv,  5.  It  signifies  individuals  gen¬ 
erally.  I  am  of — The  present  para- 


of  Chloe,  that  there  are  conten¬ 
tions  among  you.  12  Now  this  I 
say,  “that  every  one  of  you  saith, 

I  am  of  Paul ;  and  I  of  v  Apollos ; 
and  I  of  w  Cephas ;  and  I  of  Christ. 

chap.  16.  12. - id  John  1.  42. 

graph  furnishes  a  glimpse  of  the  divis¬ 
ions  in  the  apostolic  Church,  on  which 
see  our  note  on  Acts  xv,  6,  and  the  notes 
to  which  reference  is  there  made.  As 
in  most  cases,  the  partisanships  were 
based  partly  upon  personal  preferences, 
especially  so  in  the  instances  of  Paul 
and  Apollos,  who  had  both  been  at 
Corinth,  and  who  essentially  agreed  in 
their  views ;  and  partly  upon  the  prin¬ 
ciples  the  persons  were  held  to  repre¬ 
sent,  as  specially  in  the  case  of  Peter 
and  Christ,  who  had  neither  been  at 
Corinth.  The  leaders  who  were  named 
participated  not  in  the  partisanships 
of  these  their  professed  followers. 
Of  Paul — Paul  mentions  himself  first ; 
partly  as  their  known  founder,  and 
partly  to  lead  the  way  in  rebuking  the 
partisans  who  used  and  abused  his 
name.  The  followers  of  Paul,  of  course, 
maintained  the  non-necessity  of  cir¬ 
cumcision  and  the  ritual  for  salvation, 
and  the  complete  oneness  of  Jew  and 
Gentile  in  the  new  Church.  There 
may  have  been  a  tendency  to  Marcion- 
ism  ;  that  is,  in  addition  to  the  rejection 
of  the  Jewish  ritual,  there  may  have 
been  a  predisposition  to  reject  the  Old 
Testament — to  hold  the  Jehovah  of  the 
Old  Testament  to  be  a  malignant  being 
inferior  to  the  true  God,  and  to  base 
Christianity,  as  a  separate  religion,  on 
it  own  sole  foundation.  Of  Apollos — 
Though  Apollos’  style  of  oratory  was 
much  more  rhetorical  than  that  of  Paul, 
yet  his  theology  was  doubtless  the 
same.  He  was' taught  Christianity  by 
Paul’s  dear  friends  and  pupils,  Aquila 
and  Priscilla,  and  his  intimate  friend¬ 
ship  for  the  apostle  remained  unbroken. 
Yet  some  tinge  to  his  views  there  may 
have  been  derived  from  Alexandrian 
influences.  Such  tinge  we  recognize  in 
the  book  of  Hebrews;  and  something 
resembling  it  in  the  writings  of  J ohn, 
both  gospel  and  epistles.  Cephas — * 
The  name  of  Peter  in  the  colloquial 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  I. 


19 


13  x  Is  Christ  divided  ?  was  Paul 
crucified  for  you  ?  or  were  ye  bap¬ 
tized  in  the  name  of  Paul?  14  I 
thank  God  that  I  baptized  none 
of  you,  but  y  Crispus  and  zGaius; 

&2  Cor.  11.  4  ;  Eph.  4.  5. - y  Acts  18.  8. 

Hebrew  of  the  day,  (the  Syriac  or  Ara¬ 
maic,)  signifying  rock ,  of  which  Petros 
(Peter)  was  the  Greek  equivalent.  See 
note  on  Matt,  xvi,  18.  According  to 
the  best  readings  the  form  Cephas  is 
used  in  the  following  places :  John  i,  42 ; 
1  Cor.  i,  12 ;  iii,  22  ;  ix,  5  ;  xv,  5 ;  Gal. 
ii,  9 ;  i,  18 ;  ii,  10,  14.  It  is  uniformly 
used  in  the  Syriac  (Peshito)  version, 
and  uniformly,  as  a  Jew,  by  St.  Paul. 
The  Petrine  party  at  Corinth  were, 
probably,  mostly  Jews.  They  were  in¬ 
clined  to  question  Paul’s  apostleship, 
to  exalt  themselves  above  their  uncir¬ 
cumcised  brethren,  to  maintain  the 
value  of  the  ritual,  and  the  extremists 
among  them  tended  to  Ebionism.  Of 
Christ — It  seems,  at  first,  strange 
that  the  special  advocates  of  Christ 
should  lie  under  the  apostle’s  condem¬ 
nation.  But  in  our  own  age  and  coun¬ 
try  we  have  a  special  sect  of  Christ¬ 
ians,  who  profess  the  name,  but  deny 
the  deitjq  of  Christ.  Many  rationalists 
at  the  present  day,  who  reject  evangel¬ 
ical  doctrines,  profess  special  reverence 
for  Christ.  That  is,  they  admire  the 
moral  sayings  of  Jesus,  especially  the 
sermon  on  the  mount,  while  the  doc¬ 
trines  of  his  Godhead,  his  substitutional 
atonement,  etc.,  they  reject.  So  this 
sect  of  Christ  probably  rejected  the 
apostles,  and  professed  to  be  admirers 
and  followers  of  the  traditional  sayings 
of  Christ.  They  approved  his  ethics, 
but  rejected  the  doctrines  outlined  in 
the  Gospels,  and  more  fully  expanded 
in  the  epistles.  They  were  probably 
Christianized  rationalists  from  the 
Greek  side  of  the  Church. 

13.  Christ  divided  —  The  Christ 
here  is  the  Christ  of  verse  30,  the  em¬ 
bodiment  of  an  entire  redemption  and 
all  connected  blessings.  Is,  then,  this 
Christ  whole  and  one,  and  the  one  on 
whom  tiie  Corinthians  can  be  of  one 
mind,  (verse  10,)  or  is  he  torn  in  pieces ; 
each  party  having  a  part,  or  slice,  of 


15  Lest  any  should  say  that  l 
had  baptized  in  mine  own  name. 

16  And  I  baptized  also  the  house¬ 
hold  of  *  Stephanas:  besides,  I 
know  not  whether  I  baptized  any 

sRom.  16.  23. - a  Chap.  16.  15,  17. 

their  own?  Paul  crucified — Your 

true  Lord  and  Master  was  crucified 
for  you ;  can  Paul  show  his  cross  as  a 
claim  on  your  allegiance?  For  you 
— This  clearly  implies  that  Christ  suf¬ 
fered  for  us  as  no  saint  or  martyr  ever 
suffers  for  us.  He  suffered,  then,  not 
merely  as  an  example,  or  simply  for  our 
benefit,  but  in  a  far  higher  sense. 
Baptized  in  the  name — Rather,  into 
the  name  or  authority  of  Paul,  so  as  to 
be  rightly  called  by  his  name.  Bap¬ 
tized  here  expresses  the  import  of  the 
rite,  consecrated.  Note,  Rom.  vi,  3. 

14.  I  thank  G-od — For  the  unex¬ 
pected  good  result  of  our  actions,  we  may 
thank  not  our  own  wisdom,  but  God’s. 
Some  might  have  thought  his  omission 
to  baptize  a  guilty  neglect ;  others  may 
have  felt  the  not  being  baptized  by 
him  a  slight;  he  sees  in  it  a  com¬ 
plete  condemnation  of  their  making 
him  their  master.  Baptized  none 
of  you — A  remarkable  fact  that  of  so 
many  converts  of  Paul,  so  few  were 
baptized  by  him.  A  remarkable  object 
of  thanks.  Baptism,  solemn  as  is  its 
import,  being,  nevertheless,  more  a 
performance  of  the  hand  than  of  brain 
or  soul,  is  subordinate  to  preaching  and 
government.  At  Corinth  the  rite  was 
at  first,  doubtless,  performed  by  Timo¬ 
thy  and  Silas,  Paul’s  attendants,  and  af¬ 
terwards  by  elders  and  deacons  ordain¬ 
ed.  Note,  Acts  x,  48.  But  Crispus 
— Note  Acts  xviii,  8.  The  notability 
of  Crispus,  the  chief  ruler,  being  con¬ 
verted  by  Paul,  induced  his  being  bap¬ 
tized  by  him.  Gaius —  At  whose 
house  probably  he  wrote  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans.  See  our  introduction  to 
Romans,  vol.  iii,  p.  286. 

15.  Lest — Lest  any  should  claim 
from  the  fact  that  they  were  baptized 
by  me  to  be  my  special  disciples  and 
bearers  of  my  name. 

16.  Also ...  Stephanas — Paul  had 
hastened  to  give  his  reason  before  he 


20 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57, 


other.  17  For  Christ  sent  me  net 
to  baptize,  but  to  preach  the  gos¬ 
pel:  bnot  with  wisdom  of  3  words, 
lest  the  cross  of  Christ  should  be 
made  of  none  effect.  1§  For  the 
preaching  of  the  cross  is  to  cthem 

b  Chap.  2.  1,  4, 13 ;  2  Pet.  1. 16. - 3  Or,  speech. 

• - c  2  Cor.  2.  15. - cl  Acts  17.  18 ;  chap.  2.  14. 


had  finished  his  catalogue;  and  he  now 
adds  the  household  of  Stephanas, 
Stephanas  himself,  of  course,  included. 
He  may,  in  this  writing,  have  been  re¬ 
minded  by  Stephanas,  who,  being  one 
of  the  delegates  sent  from  Corinth  was 
with  Paul  at  the  present  writing  in 
Ephesus.  Chap,  xvi,  17.  I  know  not 
— Of  the  limitations  to  inspiration  see 
our  notes  vol.  i,  p.  345,  1 ;  also  on 
Acts  xxvii,  22,  24. 

17.  Sent  —  'ATTEOTeibe,  the  word 
whence  apostle  is  derived.  Note  on 
Matt,  x,  2.  Christ  apostled  me  not  to 
baptize.  Baptizing  was  not  named  in 
his  apostolic  commission.  Acts  ix,  15; 
xxii,  15;  xxvi,  16—18;  Gal.  i,  16.  Yet 
baptism  was  included  in  the  commis¬ 
sion  of  the  twelve,  (Matt,  xxviii,  19,)  to 
be  done,  doubtless,  either  by  them¬ 
selves  or  by  subordinates  appointed. 
Wisdom  of  words  — Not  hereby 
meaning  skill  in  speech ;  nor,  as  Ols- 
hausen,  “  word-wisdom ;”  nor  philo¬ 
sophical  discourse ;  but  wisdom  or  phi¬ 
losophy  which  is  the  subject  of  words 
or  discourse  by  philosophers.  This  will 
appear  in  our  progress.  The  Greek 
word  here  rendered  wisdom,  oocpia , 
sophia,  is  the  last  half  of  the  word 
di?,ooodia,  philosophia ,  philosophy ;  and 
means  throughout  this  chapter  precise¬ 
ly  the  same  thing,  except  that  the  former 
signified  wisdom ,  and  the  latter,  signify¬ 
ing  love  of  wisdom,  was  the  more  modest 
profession  for  a  sage  to  make.  Both 
terms  mean  that  system  of  thought, 
originated  by  the  intellect  of  deep 
thinkers,  which  assumes  to  decide  on 
the  origin  of  all  things,  the  existence 
of  God,  and  the  nature  and  destiny  of 
man.  The  systems  were  admired  for 
their  profundity,  and  men  divided  into 
sects  and  schools  following  different 
leaders  of  thought,  just  as  the  Corinthi¬ 
an  Christians  were  following  different 


that  perish,  d  foolishness ;  but  un¬ 
to  us  e  which  are  saved,  it  is  the 
f  power  of  God.  19  For  it  is  writ¬ 
ten,  si  will  destroy  the  wisdom  of 
the  wise,  and  will  bring  to  noth¬ 
ing  the  understanding  of  the  pru- 

e  Chap.  15.  2. — f  Rom.  1.  16;  verse  24. - 

q  Job  5.  12,  13;  Isa,  29.  14;  Jer.  8.  9. 

leaders.  That  such  is  the  meaning  of 
the  word  here  is  plain  from  verse  22, 
where  the  sopliia  is  expressly  affirmed 
to  be  that  which  was  the  object  of  the 
search  of  the  Greeks.  In  its  best  form 
this  sophia  was  the  nearest  approach  to 
true  religion  that  the  unaided  reason  of 
man  could  attain.  Y et,  source  of  pride 
and  partisanship  as  it  was  to  the  intel¬ 
lectual  Gentile  world,  the  apostle  tri¬ 
umphs  in  declining  a  similar  homage 
from  the  Church,  and  in  abasing  sophia 
to  the  bottom,  and  placing  the  cross  at 
the  summit.  Not  but  that  there  was  a 
value  and  a  grandeur  positively  in  the 
Greek  sophia.  It  was  only  as  it  came 
in  competition  with  the  cross ,  as  a  substi¬ 
tute  for  the  Gospel,  as  a  means  of  en¬ 
lightenment  and  salvation  to  men,  that 
it  was  to  be  abased ;  just  as  all  things 
belonging  to  mere  man  must  be  abased 
before  that  which  is  truly  of  God. 
Hence  the  sophia ,  with  all  of  its  hu¬ 
man  nobility,  power,  and  pretension, 
must  all  be  trampled  in  the  dust  when 
the  triumphs  of  the  cross  were  ap¬ 
proaching.  Socrates  and  Plato  were  il¬ 
lustrious  men ;  their  philosophies  were 
a  noble  product;  but  when  they  come 
into  collision  with  Christ  and  his  cros3 
into  what  nothingness  must  they  not 
sink ! 

2.  He  abases  all  beneath  the  su¬ 
premacy  of  the  cross,  18-31. 

18.  That  perish — That  are  perish¬ 
ing.  Foolishness — The  precise  op¬ 
posite  of  sophia.  Are  saved — Are  be¬ 
ing  saved.  Note  Acts  ii,  47. 

19.  Written — Quotation  oi  Isaiah 
xxiv,  14,  essentially  after  the  Septua- 
gint.  Wisdom  of  the  wise — The  so¬ 
phia  of  the  sophoi;  the  philosophy  of  the 
philosophs ;  the  sagas  of  the  sages. 

20.  Where — An  exclamation  of  as¬ 
sumed  triumph,  as  if  all  these  compet¬ 
itors  of  the  cross  were  nowhere.  The 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  I. 


21 


dent.  20  h  Where  is  the  wise  ? 
where  is  the  scribe  ?  where  is  the 
disputer  of  this  world  ?  '  hath  not 
God  made  foolish  the  wisdom  of 
this  world  ?  21  k  For  after  that  in 
the  wisdom  of  God  the  world  by 
wisdom  knew  not  God,  it  pleased 
God  by  the  foolishness  of  preach¬ 
ing  to  save  them  that  believe. 
22  For  the  1  Jews  require  a  sign, 


and  the  Greeks  seek  after  wisdom  : 

23  But  we  preach  Christ  crucified, 
munto  the  Jews  a  stumbling-block, 
and  unto  the  Greeks  n  foolishness ; 

24  But  unto  them  which  are  called, 
both  Jews  and  Greeks,  Christ  °the 
power  of  God,  and  p  the  wisdom  of 
God.  25  Because  the  foolishness 
of  God  is  wiser  than  men ;  and  the 
weakness  of  God  is  stronger  than 


h  Isa.  33.  18. 

Rom.  1.  22. - k  Rom.  1.  20,  21,  28;  Matt!  ll!  25; 


-i  Job  12.  17,  20,  24 ;  Isa.  44.  25 ; 


Luke  10.  21. - 1  Matt.  12.  38 ;  16.'  1 ;  Mark  8.‘  11 ; 

Ruke  11.  16;  John  4.  48. 


mlsa.  8.  14;  Matt.  11.  6;  13.  57;  Luke  2.  34; 
John  6.  60,  66;  Rom.  9.  32;  Gal.  5.  11 ;  1  Pet.  2.  8. 

- n  Verse  18;  chap.  2.  14. - o  Rom.  1.  4,  16; 

verse  18. - p  Col.  2.  3. 


wise — The  sophos ,  the  pliilosoph.  The 
scribe — As  the  apostle  advances,  his 
mind  recognises  that  the  Jewish  paral¬ 
lels  to  the  sophoi  and  philosophs  of  the 
heathen  world,  namely,  the  scribes , 
must  be  included  in  the  same  humilia¬ 
tion.  He  deals,  mainly,  with  Greek 
philosophs  because  Corinth  is  a  Greek 
city.  Disputer  of  this  world — A 
generic  term  including  both  the  prece¬ 
ding,  sage  and  scribe.  Made  foolish — 
Stultified,  reduced  to  idiocy.  The  max¬ 
im  of  Socrates,  said  to  have  been  inher¬ 
ited  from  Pythagoras,  was,  that  “ sophia , 
in  truth,  belongs  to  God  alone.” 

21.  For  after  that  in  the  wisdom 
of  God  the  world  by  wisdom  knew 
not  God — Rather,  For  after  that  in 
(the  light  of)  GocVs  wisdom  the  world  by 
(human)  wisdom  knew  not  God.  Man’s 
wisdom  ought,  in  accordance  with 
God’s  wisdom,  as  a  lesser  in  a  greater 
light,  to  have  known  God.  Had  the 
finite  sophia  accorded  with  the  infinite 
sophia ,  man  would  have  truly  known 
God:  but  since  in  the  divine  wisdom 
human  wisdom  did  not  learn  God,  it 
pleased  God  to  provide  a  new  method. 
The  foolishness  of  preaching  be¬ 
came  a  method  of  presenting  God  to 
man’s  faith,  and  bringing  about  salva¬ 
tion  by  that  faith.  In  this  word  fool¬ 
ishness,  as  well  as  in  the  words  (verse 
2.))  foolishness  of  God,  weakness  of 
God,  and  (verse  27)  foolish  things,  the 
apostle  ironically  styles  things  as  the 
world  styles  them.  By  a  similar  irony 
the  apostle  asserts  that  since  wisdom 
failed  to  know  God,  God  accomplished 
the  result  by  a  foolishness.  The  fool¬ 
ishness  of  preaching,  is  the  antith¬ 


esis  to  the  wisdom  of  (philosophic) 
words,  or  lecturing,  ver.  17.  Believe 
— By  unbelief  man  lost  God ;  by  faith 
he  recovers  God.  Of  the  nature  of  this 
faith,  as  a  condition  of  salvation,  see 
notes  on  Rom.  xii,  23.  By  what  un¬ 
wisdoms  both  Jews  and  Greeks  missed 
God  Paul  now  declares. 

22.  A  sign — Accustomed,  under  their 
dispensation,  to  miracles,  the  Jews  pre¬ 
scribed  signs.  Christ,  indeed,  worked 
miracles — was  himself  a  miracle;  but 
they  demanded  that  he  should  come  in 
Messianic  glory,  renew  the  earth,  and 
give  to  them  its  supremacy.  That  is, 
they  required  at  his  first  coming  the 
manifestations  of  his  second  coming. 
See  note,  Matt,  xii,  38.  But  as  instead 
of  the  throne  he  received  the  cross,  this 
became  to  them  a  stumbling-block. 
Wisdom — As  to  the  Jew  miracle  was 
the  route  to  truth  and  God,  so  to  the 
Greek  philosophy,  demonstration,  start¬ 
ing  from  intuition  and  winding  through 
logic,  was  the  sole  guide  and  test.  But 
though  Christ  is  thus  a  stumbling-block 
instead  of  a  sign ,  and  a  foolishness  in¬ 
stead  of  a  philosophy,  yet  Paul  will  soon 
prove  that  Christ  is,  after  all,  truly  and 
transcendently  a  sign  and  a  philosophy. 

24.  Called — With  a  calling  ooeyed 
by  faith,  (verse  21,)  and  so  an  effec¬ 
tual  and  permanent  calling.  Note  on 
verse  1.  Power — Which  is  required 
in  a  sign.  Wisdom — Which  is  required 
in  a  philosophy. 

25.  Foolishness  of  God — A  re¬ 
markable  ironical  phrase,  and  refers  to 
the  preaching  of  verse  21.  Foolish¬ 
ness  is  it  ?  But  it  is  God's  foolishness, 
and  God’s  foolishness  is  wiser  than  man’s 


22 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


men.  26  For  ye  see  your  call¬ 
ing,  brethren,  how  that  <Uiot  many 
wise  men  after  the  flesh,  not  many 
mighty,  not  many  noble,  are  called: 
27  But r  God  hath  chosen  the  fool¬ 
ish  things  of  the  world  to  confound 

q  John  7.  48. - r  Matt.  11.  25 ;  James 

wisdom.  God’s  foolishness  is  the  preach¬ 
ing  of  the  cross ;  man’s  wisdom  is  the 
philosophy  of  the  Grecian  schools,  the 
noblest  efforts  of  the  human  mind  in 
that  direction,  yet  yielding  no  repose¬ 
ful  certainty  for  the  human  soul  on  the 
great  question  of  the  origin  of  things 
or  the  destiny  of  man. 

26.  Ye  see — Rather,  in  the  impera¬ 
tive,  Behold ,  contemplate  your  calling. 
Your  calling — Not,  says  Wordsworth, 
“  7j/v  nld/civ  v/jETEfjav  your  calling ;  but 
tjjv  kXj/glv  vfitiv,  the  calling  of  you.” 
That  is,  God’s  calling  of  you  into  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  implying  your  ac¬ 
ceptance  and  all  its  blessed  results. 
Not  many  wise — Why  were  not 
many  sophoi  called  ?  Because  the  pride 
of  their  sophia  was  in  the  way.  They 
were  called ,  indeed ;  but  they  never,  by 
faith,  became  the  called.  They  were 
called  to  repentance  and  faith ;  but  nev¬ 
er  were  the  called ,  upon  repentance  and 
faith,  to  be  saints. 

How  their  sophia  was  in  the  way  we 
see  in  the  case  of  Gallio,  the  philoso¬ 
pher,  at  this  very  Corinth.  Acts  xviii, 
12-17,  where  see  notes.  Christianity, 
brought  before  him  by  our  illustrious 
apostle,  was  repudiated  even  from  ex¬ 
amination  by  antecedent  contempt,  as  a 
mere  matter  “  of  words  and  names.” 
He  heard  of  it  with  nervous  impatience, 
and  dismissed  it  with  unmannerly  ab¬ 
ruptness.  What  was  true  in  Corinth 
was  true  on  a  larger  scale  in  the  whole 
Roman  world.  The  sages  of  the  age  of 
Tacitus,  Seneca,  Pliny,  and  hundreds  of 
lesser  literati  and  philosophers,  deemed 
Christianity  unentitled  to  investigation. 
And  yet,  according  to  the  skeptical  his¬ 
torian  Lecky,  and  others,  of  the  same 
school,  the  true  cause  of  the  triumph 
of  Christianity  in  the  Roman  empire 
was  not  miracles,  but  the  obvious  su¬ 
periority  of  Christianity  over  all  rival 
systems  of  religion.  Not  many 


the  wise  ;  and  God  hath  chosen  the 
weak  things  of  the  world  to  con¬ 
found  the  things  which  are  mighty  ; 
2§  And  base  things  of  the  world, 
and  things  which  are  despised,  hath 
God  chosen,  yea ,  and  5  things  which 

2.  5;  see  Psalm  8.  2. s  Romans  4. 17. 

mighty — Few  statesmen,  warriors, 
princes.  The  government  of  the  Ro¬ 
man  empire,  civil  and  military,  was  a 
stupendous  system,  at  the  head  of 
which  was  Nero,  a  butcher  and  a  fiddler. 
Ecclesiastically  it  was  paganism,  with 
Capitoline  Jupiter  at  its  head.  Politi¬ 
cally  and  ecclesiastically  it  was  a  sham, 
destined  in  due  time  to  go  down  to 
ruin.  Not  many  noble — Ancient 
Corinth  was  celebrated  for  its  brilliant, 
high-born,  old  nobility.  Its  great,  an¬ 
cient  families,  now  extinct,  were  in¬ 
stances  how  transient  are  all  earthly 
grandeurs.  But  of  the  new  and  rather 
vulgar  aristocracy  of  modern  Corinth, 
restored  from  the  conflagration  inflicted 
by  Mummius,  probably  few  deigned  to 
enter  the  house  of  Justus,  near  the 
synagogue,  where  Paul  held  forth  the 
foolishness  of  preaching  to  busy 
Corinth.  Slaves,  artisans,  and  a  few  of 
the  higher  class,  in  whom  religious  in¬ 
terest  overcame  the  pride  of  rank,  re¬ 
ceived  the  holy  truth. 

27.  God  hath  chosen — It  is  a  divine 
revolution ;  and  we  have  the  divine 
honour  of  being  its  instruments  chosen 
of  God.  In  this  revolution  the  foolish 
things  and  the  weak  overthrow  the 
wise  and  the  mighty. 

28.  Things  which  are  not — Noth¬ 
ings  and  nobodies.  So  are  they  viewed 
by  the  world;  so  in  themselves  they 
are.  Yet,  through  the  divine  gift  which 
they  have  received,  they  are  intrinsi¬ 
cally  and  truly  the  realities,  and  their  op¬ 
ponents  are  the  shams.  Nero,  the  Ro¬ 
man  empire,  Jove,  paganism,  pagan 
philosophy,  are  all  the  transient;  God, 
Christ,  Christianity,  the  Church,  are 
alone  the  permanent  and  the  eternal. 

The  overthrow  of  paganism  and  the 
establishment  of  Christianity  as  the 
religion  of  the  Roman  empire  were, 
however,  but  the  outward  verification 
of  the  apostle’s  words.  Ills  was  a 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  I,  II. 


23 


are  not, *  1  to  bring  to  nought  things 
that  are :  29  u  That  no  flesh  should 
glory  in  his  presence.  39  But  of 
him  are  ye  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  of 
God  is  made  unto  us  v  wisdom,  and 
w  righteousness,  and  x  sanctifica¬ 
tion,  and  ^ redemption:  31  That, 
according  as  it  is  written,  2  He 

t  Chap.  2.  6. - u  Rom.  3.  27;  Eph.  2.  9. - 

v  Verse  24. - w  Jer.  23.  5,  6;  Rom.  4.  25 ;  2  Cor. 

5.  21 ;  Phil.  3.  9. 

more  profound  meaning.  What  he  rec¬ 
ognised  was,  the  infinitely  surpassing- 
spiritual  power  of  Christ  and  his  relig¬ 
ion  in  the  work  of  the  soul’s  regenera¬ 
tion;  in  the  saving  it  from  death  and 
hell  and  the  raising  it  to  immortality 
and  heaven. 

29.  Flesh  should  glory — Or,  as 

it  is  in  the  more  forcible  Greek,  that  all 
flesh  should  glory  not  in  his  'presence. 
For  truly  it  is  God  on  one  side  and  all 
flesh  on  the  other,  arra}red  in  each 
other’s  presence.  It  is  the  infinite  Re¬ 
ality  in  comparison  with  the  finite  un¬ 
reality.  What,  indeed,  are  the  great 
men,  great  things,  and  great  events  of 
this  world,  but  a  phantasmagoria,  gor¬ 
geous  for  a  moment  to  the  eye  of  sense, 
fleeting  and  false  to  the  eye  of  the 
spirit  ? 

30.  Of  him — Paul  now  shows  how 
the  Corinthian  Christians  are  identi¬ 
fied  with  the  real  and  the  permanent. 
The  true  reading,  rightly  translated,  is, 
From  him  ye  are  in  Citrist  Jesus.  Be¬ 
ing  incorporated  into  Christ,  they  are 
sharers  in  his  being  a  id  triumph.  Who 
has  become  unto  us  wisdom  —  Christ 
is  our  sophia ;  our  substitute  for  the 
Greek  philosophy.  On  ii,  6-16  our  apos¬ 
tle  will  fully  explain  the  nature  of  this 
Christian  sophia.  Righteousness,  and 
sanctification — These  two  words  are, 
in  the  Greek,  closely  conjoined  as  two 
parts  of  the  same  work;  justification 
as  the  negative,  and  sanctification  as 
the  positive,  side.  Redemption  em¬ 
braces  Christ’s  whole  work  of  rescue 
from  sin,  even  to  glorification.  The 
whole  verse  shows  how  in  Christ  the 
believer  is  triumphant  over  this  world’s 
wisdom  and  greatness. 

31.  Written — According  to  the  Sep- 
tuagint,  Jer.  ix,  24.  In  the  Lord — 


that  glorieth,  let  him  glory  in  the 
Lord. 

CHAPTER  II. 

HD  I,  brethren,  when  I  came 
to  you,  acame  not  with  ex¬ 
cellency  of  speech  or  of  wisdom, 
declaring  unto  you  bthe  testimony 
of  God.  2  For  I  determined  not 

x  John  17.  19. - 2/ Eph.  1.  7. - s  Jer.  9.  23,24; 

2  Cor.  10.  17. - a  Ch?tp.  1.  17 ;  vers.  4, 13 ;  2  Cor. 

10.  10;  11.  6. - b  Chap.  1.  6. 

That  is,  in  Jehovah,  and  not  in  any  hu¬ 
man  unreality.  In  the  face  of  all  the 
power,  aristocracy,  wealth,  philosophy, 
and  vice  of  Corinth,  the  believer  is 
taught  by  Paul  calmly  to  rest  in  the 
consciousness  that  he  possesses  a  gift 
and  a  glory  before  which  these  were 
pompous  nothings. 

CHAPTER  II. 

3.  This  pride  of  philosophy  Paul 
renounced  at  his  first  coming  to 
Corinth,  ii,  1-5. 

In  continuation  of  the  preceding  para¬ 
graph,  which  is  unhappily  divided  by 
the  chapter,  Paul  resumes  the  reference 
to  himself  which  was  broken  ofl  at  i,  17  ; 
which  is  now  continued  to  verse  4; 
and  is  resumed  iv,  3-21.  The  sub¬ 
stance  of  the  whole  is,  that  while  he 
earnestly  rejects  all  pre-eminence  on 
the  ground  of  intellectual  leadership, 
(such  as  that  of  philosophers  and 
scribes,)  he  did  assert  his  apostleship 
and  fatherhood  of  the  Corinthians  un¬ 
der  the  cross  of  Christ. 

1.  And  I — As  in  myself  one  of  the 
nothings  of  i,  26-28.  Speech  or  of  wis¬ 
dom — The  same  intellectual  or  philo¬ 
sophical  leadership  rejected  by  me  in 
i,  12-17,  was  refused  by  me  when  I 
first  came  to  Corinth  to  preach  the  Gos¬ 
pel.  Excellency  of  speech,  does 
not  mean  oratorical  excellence;  nor 
does  Paul,  as  some  think,  aim  here  or 
elsewhere  any  slants  at  Apollos’  rhe¬ 
torical  style  or  ability,  the  phrase  really 
meaning,  excellency  of  philosophical  lec¬ 
turing  or  discourse.  Or  wisdom — So¬ 
phia,  or  philosophy;  the  invariable 
meaning  of  the  word  as  used  in  i,  22. 

2.  I  determined  not  to  know — • 
Rather,  I  did  not  determine  to  know.  Ho 


24 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


to  know  any  tiling  among  yon, 
c  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  cruci¬ 
fied.  3  And  dI  was  with  you  ein 
weakness,  and  in  fear,  and  in  much 
trembling.  4  And  my  speech  and 
my  preaching  f  was  not  with  En¬ 
ticing  words  of  man’s  wisdom, 
s  but  in  demonstration  of  the  Spir¬ 
it  and  of  power :  5  That  your 

faith  should  not 2 * * 5 6 7  stand  in  the  wis- 

c  Gal.  6.  14;’  Phil.  3.  8. - d  Acts  18. 1,6, 12. - 

€2  Cor.  4.  7;  10.  1,  10;  11.  30;  12.  5,  9;  Gal.  4.  13. 

— -/'Verse  1;  chap.  1.  17;  2  Pet.  1.  16. - 1  Or, 

perviKtsible. - <j  Rom.  15. 19;  1  Thess.  1.  5. - 

2  Greek,  be. 


had  no  purpose  of  holding  forth  any 
philosophical  substitute  for  the  Gospel. 
By  this  is  not  meant  that  a  minister 
must  preach  on  no  other  topic  than  the 
crucifixion  of  Christ.  It  is  not  meant 
that  he  may  not  in  preaching  denounce 
particular  sins,  or  instruct  in  particular 
virtues.  Nor  is  it  meant  that  he  may 
not  preach  the  law,  or  draw  lessons 
from  Scripture  characters  or  events 
even  in  the  Old  Testament.  Nor  is  it 
meant  that  he  may  not  devote  entire 
sermons  to  particular  doctrines  not  in 
immediate  connexion  with  the  cruci¬ 
fixion.  What  Paul  meant  was,  that  he 
knew  nothing  but  Christ’s  atonement — 
no  substitute  for  it  in  the  systems  and 
philosophies  of  mere  men — as  a  ground 
of  salvation.  His  meaning  was,  as  in 
iii,  11,  that  there  can  be  no  other  foun¬ 
dation  than  Christ. 

3.  Weakness. .  .fear. .  .trembling 
— A  blending  of  feelings  arising,  per¬ 
haps,  from  different  causes,  yet  unit¬ 
ing  in  one  effect.  We  have  inti¬ 
mated  that  Paul,  coming  to  Corinth 
fresh  from  his  ill-success  at  Athens, 
may  have  felt  a  check  upon  his  spirit. 
Note  on  Acts  xviii,  3.  The  loneliness 
of  his  separation  from  Silas  and  Timo¬ 
thy  chilled  hi3  courage.  His  experi¬ 
ence  at  Athens  may  have  deeply  im¬ 
pressed  him  with  the  feeling  that  less 
of  appeal  to  natural  reason,  and  a  more 
forcible  pressure  on  the  religious  sen 
sibilities  by  the  presentation  of  Christ 
and  the  atonement,  should  frame  his 
whole  discourse.  This  was  that  fool¬ 
ishness  of  preaching  in  renunciation 
of  all  Grecian  sophia  which  he  proved  to 


dom  of  men,  but  h  in  the  power  of 
God. 

6  Howbeit  we  speak  wisdom 
among  them *  1  that  are  perfect :  yet 
not  kthe  wisdom  of  this  world, 
nor  of  the  princes  of  this  world, 
lthat  come  to  nought:  7  But 
we  speak  the  wisdom  of  God  in  a 
mystery,  even  the  hidden  wisdom , 
m  which  God  ordained  before  the 


h  2  Cor.  4.  7 ;  6.  7. - i  Chap.  14.  20 ;  Eph.  4. 13 ; 

Phil.  3.  15;  Heb.  5.  14. - k  Chap.  1.  20;  3.  19; 

verses  1,  13;  2  Cor.  1.  12;  James  3. 15. - 1  Chap. 

1.  28. - m  Rom.  16.  25,  26;  Eph.  3.  5,  9 ;  Col. 

1.  26;  2  Tim.  1.  9. 

be  the  power  of  God  to  the  founding 
of  the  Corinthian  Church,  and  which 
he  has  described  in  those  flashing  and 
triumphant  antitheses  that  run  through 

i,  22-28. 

4.  Enticing  words — Not  rhetorical 

or  elocutional  in  style,  but  the  persua¬ 
sive  utterances  of  a  true  philosophy. 

Demonstration — Manifestation.  Of 
the  Spirit — From  or  by  the  divine 
Spirit  and  divine  power. 

5.  Wisdom  of  men  —  The  philos¬ 
ophy  of  the  Grecian  schools.  Power 
— The  powerful  influence  of  the  Spirit 
of  God. 

II.  But  he  has  an  Authority,  as 
Organ  of  a  God-given  Revelation, 
which  is  Decisive  and  Ultimate, 

ii,  6-iv,  21. 

1.  Yet  Christianity  has  indeed  a 
wisdom  ( sophia )  of  its  own,  not  hu¬ 
man,  but  God-given,  understood 
by  the  spiritual  alone,  6-16. 

6.  Howbeit — Notwithstanding  all 
this  depreciation  of  sophia.  Perfect 
— Not  to  the  carnal  or  babes,  (iii,  1,) 
but  to  the  adult ,  (for  such  is  the  mean¬ 
ing  of  the  word  perfect)  in  Christ, 
and  who  are,  therefore,  called  spirit¬ 
ual,  verse  15,  and  who  have  attained 
a  higher  Christian  life.  The  carnal, 

iii,  $,  are  under  influence  of  evil  pas¬ 
sions,  iii,  4,  are  to  be  rebuked  for  sin, 

iii,  17,  and  threatened  with  judgment, 

iv,  21.  See  note  on  iii,  1.  The  priv¬ 
ileges  of  the  perfect  are  now  de¬ 
scribed,  9-16.  Princes. .  .nought— 
Notes  on  i,  26-28. 

7.  Wisdom  of  God — Note  on  i,  17. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  II. 


25 


world  unto  our  glory  ;  8  n  Which 

none  of  the  princes  of  this  world 
knew:  for  °had  they  known  it , 
they  would  not  have  crucified  the 
Lord  of  glory.  9  But  as  it  is  writ¬ 
ten,  pEye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear 
heard,  neither  have  entered  into 
the  heart  of  man,  the  things  which 
God  hath  prepared  for  them  that 
love  him.  10  But  9  God  hath  re¬ 
vealed  them  unto  us  by  his  Spirit: 
for  the  Spirit  searcheth  all  things, 
yea,  the  deep  things  of  God. 
1 1  For  what  man  knowetli  the 


things  of  a  man,  rsave  the  spirit 
of  man  which  is  in  him  ?  8  even  so 
the  things  of  God  knoweth  no  man, 
but  the  Spirit  of  God.  12  Now 
we  have  received,  not  the  spirit  of 
the  world,  but  1  the  Spirit  which 
is  of  God ;  that  we  might  know 
the  things  that  are  freely  given  to 
us  of  God.  13  u  Which  things  also 
we  speak,  not  in  the  words  which 
man’s  wisdom  teacheth,  but  which 
the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth  ;  compar¬ 
ing  spiritual  things  with  spiritual. 
14  v  But  the  natural  man  receiveth 


v  Matt.  11.  25;  John  7.  48;  Acts  13.  27;  2  Cor. 

3.  14. - o  Luke  23.  34 ;  Acts  3. 17  ;  see  John  16.  3. 

- p  Isa.  64.  4. - q  Matt.  13.  11;  16.  17;  John 

14.  26 ;  16.  13 ;  1  John  2.  27. 


8.  Had  they  known  it — How  far 

they  were  ignorant,  and  how  far  their 
ignorance  was  an  excuse,  is  discussed 
in  note  on  Luke  xxiii,  34.  Lord  of 
glory — An  epithet  too  lofty  for  a  mere 
man. 

9.  Written — Isa.  lxiv,  4  paraphrased 
by  Paul,  and  adapted  to  his  purpose. 
The  words,  of  course,  describe  not  the 
future  happiness  of  the  redeemed  in 
heaven,  but  their  present. 

10.  The  Spirit  searcheth — A  strik¬ 
ing  ascription  of  personality  to  the 
Spirit.  All  things — Within  the  uni¬ 
verse  nothing  is  hidden  from  the  search 
of  the  omniscient  Spirit.  Deep  things 
— Rather,  the  depths  of  God.  Nothing 
but  omniscience  can  know  omniscience. 
Nothing  but  God’s  Spirit  can  know 
what  is  in  the  divine  Mind. 

11.  For — An  illustration  of  the  di¬ 
vine  consciousness  is  drawn  from  the 
human  consciousness.  The  things  of 
a  man — The  interior  things  of  his 
thought.  Spirit  — Which,  by  the  pow¬ 
er  of  consciousness  turning  our  atten¬ 
tion  inward,  reads  our  own  inner 
thoughts  and  purposes.  The  only  rea¬ 
son  why  human  reason  cannot  absolute¬ 
ly  know  the  existence  of  the  divine 
Personality  is,  that  man  can  only  infer 
it  from  the  works  of  creation  and  provi¬ 
dence,  and  cannot  walk  into  the  divine 
Consciousness,  and  know  it.  But  no 
more  can  a  man  know  the  conscious¬ 
ness  of  another  man,  and  can  only  in¬ 


r  Proverbs  20.  27;  27.  19;  Jeremiah  17.  9. - 

.9  Romans  11.  33, 34. - 1  Romans  8. 15. - u  2  Pe¬ 
ter  1.  16;  see  chapter  1.  17;  verse  4. - Mat¬ 

thew  16.  23. 


fer  his  neighbour’s  possessing  thought 
and  reason  from  his  external  manifes¬ 
tations.  So  that  we  have  the  same 
sort  of  proof  of  the  personality  of  God 
that  we  have  of  the  mentality  of  our 
fellow-man. 

12.  The  spirit  of  the  world — As 

every  man  has  an  individual  spirit,  so 
the  world  has  a  collective  spirit,  a 
common  moral  tone  and  temper;  and 
that  spirit  is  at  variance  with  the  di¬ 
vine  Spirit  As  the  wisdom  of  man 
is  antithetical  to  the  wisdom  of  God, 
so  the  spirit  of  the  world  is  antithet¬ 
ical  to  the  Spirit  of  God.  That  we 
might  know — By  blessed  experience. 
Things .  . .  given — Namely,  (verse  9,) 
the  things  which  God  hath  pre¬ 
pared  for  them  that  love  him. 

13.  Comparing  spiritual  things 
with  spiritual  —  For  as  we  reason 
about,  and  understand,  and  realize,  sec¬ 
ular  things  by  comparison — comparing 
things  secular  with  secular — so  we 
comprehend  and  reason  of  spiritual 
things  by  comparing  spiritual  zuith 
spiritual .  So  that  there  is  a  blessed 
logic  in  spiritual  things. 

14.  The  natural  man — The  secu¬ 
lar  or  worldly  man,  who  possesses  only 
the  worldly  “  understanding  that  judges 
only  by  sense  ”  and  time.  See  note  on 
iii,  1.  The  word  natural  or  psychical, 
derived  from  ^vxy,  psyche ,  (soul,)  seems 
to  presuppose  the  threefold  division  of 
man  into  body,  soul,  and  spirit.  In 


26 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of 
God:  wfor  they  are  foolishness  un¬ 
to  him :  *  neither  can  he  know  them , 
because  they  are  spiritually  dis¬ 
cerned.  15 A  But,  he  that  is  spirit- 

70  Chap.  1.  18,  23. - a?  Rom.  8.  5-7;  Jude  19. 

- y  Prow  28.  5;  1  Thess.  5.  21 ;  1  John  4.  1. - 

3  Or,  discerneth. 

that  division  the  spirit  is  the  highest 
nature  of  man,  in  which  he  bears  the 
nearest  affinity  to  God,  by  which  he  is 
a  moral,  conscientious,  or  religious  be¬ 
ing  :  while  the  soul  embraces  man’s 
animal  and  secular  understanding,  by 
which  he  is  acute  in  things  of  sense. 
Notes  Matt,  v,  3,  and  1  Cor.  xv,  44.  The 
natural  man  is  one  whose  spiritual 
nature  is  torpid  or  deadened  by  sin  and 
the  predominance  of  earth  and  sense. 
His  is  the  spirit  of  the  world  and  the  wis¬ 
dom  of  men,  but  not  the  spirit  which  is 
of  God  or  the  wisdom  of  God.  Receiv- 
eth  not — Ilis  torpid  spirit  is  unsuscep¬ 
tible  to  communion  with  God.  Fool¬ 
ishness — How  intensely  does  the  pure¬ 
ly  secular  man  scout  the  utterances 
of  the  devout  spirit!  How  sneers  he 
at  the  very  thought  of  communion  with 
God !  How  easy  it  is  to  burlesque  the 
language  of  piety!  True,  those  very 
men  have  their  solemn  moments,  and 
their  trying  crises,  when  conscience  is 
touched  and  their  ridicule  is  hushed. 
And  how  will  men  who  scorn  the 
thought  of  communion  with  God  abide 
to  meet  him  in  the  judgment,  face  to 
face  ?  Can  he  know — He  has  an  ab¬ 
solute  incapacity  for  knowing  the  beau¬ 
ty  of  holiness  and  the  blessedness  of 
divine  things.  Spiritually  discerned 
— While  his  spirit  is  torpid  and  un¬ 
susceptible.  Even  in  natural  science 
there  are  recognised  unseen  truths. 
Says  Professor  Tyndall,  “  Besides  the 
phenomena  that  address  the  senses, 
there  are  laws,  and  principles,  and  proc¬ 
esses,  which  do  not  address  the  senses 
at  all,  but  are  spiritually  discerned.” 

15.  Judgeth  all  things — All  the 
things  of  verses  12,  13  ;  the  deep 
things  of  God.  By  these  all  things 
are  not  meant  merely  the  doctrinal 
truths  of  theology,  which  are  compre¬ 
hended  by  the  logical  understanding, 
but  the  deeper  things  of  holiness  of 


ual * 1 2  3  judgeth  all  things,  yet  he  him¬ 
self  is4judged  of  no  man.  16  2  For 
who  hath  known  the  mind  of  the 
Lord,  that  he  5 may  instruct  him? 
HBut  we  have  the  mind  of  Christ. 

4  Or,  discerned. - z  Job  15.  8;  Isa.  40.  13; 

Jer.  23.  18;  Rom.  11.  34. - 5  Greek,  shall. - 

a  John  15.  15. 

heart  and  spirit.  Judged  of  no  man 
— He  is  not  subject,  in  his  experience 
and  realization  of  divine  things,  to  the 
understanding  of  the  natural  man. 
The  spirit  from  God  is  not  to  be  judged 
by  the  spirit  of  the  world.  For  God  is 
right  and  the  world  is  wrong. 

16.  We — The  spiritual.  Mind  of 
Christ — We  having  the  mind  of 
Christ,  whom  none  can  instruct,  can¬ 
not  be  judged  by  any  natural  man. 
Our  experience  and  gifts  from  God  the 
world  knows  not  of,  and  has  no  right 
or  power  to  pronounce  judgment  upon. 
High  communion  with  God,  with  ex¬ 
alted  excitement  of  emotions,  while  it 
has  its  blessedness  is  not  without  its 
dangers.  The  human  imagination  is 
therein  liable  to  catch  fire,  and  a  wild 
fire  it  is  liable  to  be.  The  experience 
of  the  Church  suggests  the  following 
■cautions : — 

1.  Our  spiritual  experiences  must  be 
in  accordance  with  the  teachings  of 
Christ,  and  regulated  by  the  laws  of  the 
inspired  written  word.  Those  whose 
spiritual  emotions,  impressions,  or  cog¬ 
nitions  contradict  the  word  of  God,  are 
actuated  by  a  delusive  spirit. 

2.  Such  spiritual  exercises  should 
accord  with  natural  decency  and  be¬ 
comingness  ;  for  “  nature  itself  teaches  ” 
that  decency  and  propriety  are  of  God. 

3.  Our  spiritual  enjoyments  should 
not  exert  themselves  in  mere  emotional 
pleasure;  but  purify  our  daily  life,  make 
us  honest  in  business,  courteous  in 
manners,  faithful  in  our  secular  duties, 
and  enterprising  in  good-doing.  .  A 
mere  contemplative  or  monastic  piety 
lacks  the  true  spirit  of  Christ. 

4.  True  communion  with  God  is  mod¬ 
est  and  not  boastful.  It  can  bear  with 
patience  the  pretence  of  the  world  to 
sit  in  judgment  upon  it.  Nor  does  it 
endow  its  own  personal  opinions  with 

the  attribute  of  divine  omniscience. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  III. 


27 


CHAPTER  III. 

ND  I,  brethren,  could  not 

a  Chap.  2.  15. 

5.  Our  spiritual  joy  should  give  us 
firm  faith,  and  a  holy  yet  modest  bold¬ 
ness  in  presenting  religion  to  others ; 
not  obtrusively,  but  studying  the  occa¬ 
sion;  not  driving  or  persecuting,  but 
winning  souls  to  Christ  and  goodness. 
When  we  truly  feel  our  religion  to  be 
a  great  treasure,  we  are  most  likely 
best  to  succeed  in  the  effort  to  impart 
it  to  others. 

CHAPTER  III. 

2.  This  God-revealed  philosophy 
not  understood  by  the  partisan  car¬ 
nality  of  the  Corinthians,  1-4. 

1.  And  I — In  accordance  with  the 
elevated  character  of  the  spiritual  in 
ii,  14-16.  Could  not — Consistently 
with  the  reality  of  the  case.  Spirit¬ 
ual.  .  .carnal.  .  .babes — In  ii,  14,  15, 
the  spiritual  man  is  opposed  to  the 
natural,  or  entirely  unregenerate ;  here 
he  is  opposed  to  the  regenerate,  who 
are  in  Christ,  and  yet,  by  being  in  a 
degree  carnal,  are  but  babes.  W ere 
they  wholly  carnal  they  would  not 
even  be  babes,  but  be  unregenerate. 
Short-comings,  infirmities,  and  sins, 
have  reduced  them  from  spiritual  man¬ 
hood  into  babyhood.  For  these  carnal 
are  clearly  a  part  of  that  whole  who  are 
called  in  i,  2,  saints,  sanctified  in 
Christ  Jesus.  They  are  that  same 
class  as  in  vi,  1-11  are  guilty  of  the 
shame  of  going  to  law,  and  yet, 
verse  11,  are  in  part  sanctified.  And 
throughout  this  epistle  the  class  so  se¬ 
verely  reprehended,  and  even  menaced, 
by  St.  Paul,  are  held  by  him  Christians, 
but  faulty  Christians,  who  needed  to 
ascend  into  a  higher  level  of  holiness. 
From  this  it  follows  that  there  may  be 
11  sin  in  believers.”  Not  every  sin  for¬ 
feits  regeneration.  Such  sin  dwarfs 
the  spiritual  stature,  and  lessens  the 
glorious  reward.  But  not  until  all  jus¬ 
tifying  faith  is  lost  is  the  name  blotted 
from  the  book  of  life.  As  babes  is  the 
antithesis  in  the  Greek  to  perfect  — 
adult,  in  ii,  6 — so  it  duly  defines  it. 
Babes  implies  childhood ;  perfect  simply 
implies  adulthood.  So  the  Jews  had 


speak  unto  you  as  unto  a  spirit¬ 
ual,  but  as  unto  b  carnal,  even  as 

b  Chap.  2.  14. 

the  distinction  of  novices  or  babes,  and 
adults  or  full  grown,  in  knowledge  of 
the  law.  And  Alford  quotes  Philo  as 
saying,  “  Since  to  babes  the  food  is 
milk,  and  to  adults  (same  Greek  word 
as  perfect,  ii,  6)  cookeries  of  grain,  so 
also  there  are  of  the  soul  milk  diets 
suited  to  child-stature  ;  adult  foods  for 
men.”  A  perfect  man  in  Christ  Jesus 
is  simply  an  adult  man  in  Christ  Jesus. 
But  this  adult  man  is  also  the  spiritual , 
and  includes  the  full  attainments  and 
privileges  of  ii,  12-16.  Any  thing 
short  of  this  is  short  of  adulthood  in 
Christian  life,  and  approximates  toward 
childhood. 

But  manv  commentators  err  in  mak- 
%/ 

ing  this  adulthood,  or  Christian  per¬ 
fect  growth  or  perfection,  depend,  as 
in  physical  development,  upon  time. 
Scripture  and  experience  show  that  in 
spiritual  life  there  is  many  a  babe  of 
two  and  threescore ;  many  a  soul  that 
springs  almost  from  spiritual  birth,  by 
a  strong,  living,  persevering  faith,  to 
vigorous  adulthood. 

These  two  classes  may  not  be  divided 
by  a  sharp  line ;  they  may,  indeed, 
shade  into  each  other,  just  as  the  old 
and  the  young  are  classes  that  shade 
into  each  other;  but  they  are,  on  the 
whole,  so  clearly  diverse  that  they  can 
be  classified  and  specified  by  two  differ¬ 
ent  terms.  Such  a  spiritual  class  is 
recognised  in  xiv,  37.  It  does  not  ap¬ 
pear,  here  or  elsewhere,  whether  the  in¬ 
dividual  made  a  distinct  profession  of  be¬ 
ing  spiritual  5  though  others  may  have 
recognised  him  as  such  from  his  life 
and  spirit.  Yet  it  cannot  be  required 
of  the  man  who  lives  in  nearness  to 
God  that  he  should  withhold  full  state¬ 
ment  of  the  fact,  whether  profession  or 
not.  It  is  the  best  kind  of  profession  of 
holiness  when  a  man  does  not  so  much 
profess  it  himself  as  oblige  his  friends, 
by  his  holy  life,  to  profess  it  for  him. 
Carnal — According  to  the  best  read¬ 
ings,  the  Greek  word  here  rendered 
carnal  differs  in  termination  from  that 
in  verses  3,  4.  The  former  is  oapKivoig , 
the  latter  oapniKoi  The  terminations 


28 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


unto  c  babes  in  Christ.  2  I  have 
fed  you  with  dmilk,  and  not  with 
meat:  efor  hitherto  ye  were  not 
able  to  bear  it ,  neither  yet  now  are 
ye  able.  3  For  ye  are  yet  carnal: 
for  f  whereas  there  is  among  you 
envying,  and  strife,  and 1  divisions, 

c  Heb.  5.  13. - d  Heb.  5. 12,  13;  1  Pet.  2.  2. - 

e  John  16.  12. — -f  Chap.  1.  11 ;  11. 18 ;  Gal.  5.  3), 
21 ;  James  3.  16. 

differ  nearly  as  our  English  termina¬ 
tions  ine  and  ic  differ ;  the  former  in¬ 
dicating  the  material  of  which  a  thing 
consists ,  the  latter  the  quality •  of  the 
th  ing.  Th  e  former  word,  signifying  con¬ 
sisting  of  flesh ,  is  used  in  2  Cor.  iii,  3  in 
a  good  sense.  As  capuLKoi  is  a  New 
Testament  word,  not  used  in  the  clas¬ 
sics,  Stanley  thinks  that  the  other  word 
has  here  been  substituted  by  copyists, 
to  make  a  conformation  with  classical 
visage ;  but  Alford  believes  it  to  be  the 

O  7 

true  reading.  The  meaning  would  then 
be,  as  unto  beings  made  of  flesh — human 
— like  the  men  of  verse  3. 

2.  With  milk... meat — By  these 
terms  is  not  meant  the  easier  and  the 
harder  doctrines  of  theology,  as  fore¬ 
knowledge  and  predestination,  resur¬ 
rection,  etc.  These  are  easily  intelli¬ 
gible  by  the  logical  understanding  to 
those  who  are  not  even  babes  in  Christ , 
but  are  unregenerate.  Paul  refers  to  the 
principles  of  the  lower  and  the  higher 
Christian  life.  Milk  is  the  doctrine  of 
repentance,  of  avoiding  sin,  while  meat 
represents  those  higher  views  of  the 
spiritual  (ii,  14-16)  which  the  carnal 
could  not  receive,  such  as  deep  com¬ 
munion  with  God,  profound  purity  of 
conscience,  and  the  utter  consecration 
of  all  to  holiness  and  God.  Yet  now — 
This  entire  epistle,  as  to  babes,  deals 
almost  exclusively  with  the  principles 
of  Christian  ethics  and  doctrine ;  where¬ 
as  that  to  the  Ephesians,  as  to  spirit¬ 
ual,  mounts  to  the  very  heights  of 
Christian  spirit  and  life. 

3.  Yet — The  reports  by  the  household 
of  Chloe  indicate  no  advance  in  spirit¬ 
uality.  Carnal  —  Fleshly.  Though 
their  strifes  were  what  are  distinctively 
called  “sins  of  the  spirit,”  their  exist¬ 
ence  proved  to  the  apostle’s  mind  their 
fleshly  quality.  This  use  of  the  word 


are  ye  not  carnal,  and  walk  2 3  as 
men?  4  For  while  one  saith,  &I 
am  of  Paul ;  and  another,  I  am  of 
Apollos;  are  ye  not  carnal? 

5  Who  then  is  Paul,  and  who  is 
Apollos,  but  h  ministers  by  whom 
ye  believed,  ‘even  as  the  Lord  gave 

1  Or,  factions . - 2  Gr.  according  to  man  ? 

- g  Chap.  1.  12. - h  Chap.  4.  1 ;  2  Cor.  3.3. - 

i  Rom.  12.  3,  6;  1  Pet.  4.  11. _ 

flesh  is  not  founded  in  the  doctrine  of 
the  necessary  evil  of  matter,  but  in 
the  fact  that  our  bodily  appetites  are 
so  largely  the  source  of  temptation  and 
sin.  Properly  regulated — fixed  upon 
the  right  object  in  the  right  degree — all 
our  appetites,  desires,  and  passions  are 
right.  It  is  in  their  exercise  on  the 
wrong  object,  or  their  exercise  in  ex¬ 
cess,  that  the  act  of  sin  lies.  As  men 
— Note  on  verse  4.  Are  ye  not  car¬ 
nal — True  reading,  are  ye  not  men ? 
in  which  men  is  a  synonyme  for  unspir¬ 
itual.  So  our  Lord’s  words,  But  beware 
of  men.  Matt,  x,  17. 

3.  From  these  partisanships  are 
deductively  stated  the  true  re¬ 
sponsibilities  of  their  ministers,  as 
imposed  by  God,  5-15. 

a.  Their  success  ( based  on  Christ ) 
solely  from  God ,  5-11. 

As  simply  instruments  of  God,  min¬ 
isters  are  one,  verses  5-10.  But  let 
every  man  (minister)  beware,  that  on 
Christ  for  his  foundation  he  build  truth, 
otherwise  his  building  will  be  burned, 
and  he  escape  like  a  man  from  his  burn¬ 
ing  dwelling,  verses  10-15. 

5.  Ministers — A lclkovol,  deacons  or 
servitors.  Notes  Acts  vi,  1,  and  1  Tim. 
iii,  8-15.  We  are  not  leaders  of  phil¬ 
osophical  sects  (note  on  i,  10,  etc.)  but 
simpfy  servants,  and  servants  under 
divine  selection  and  guidance.  Every 
man — Rather,  and  as  the  Lord  gave  to 
each  one.  That  is,  ye  believed  as  the 
Lord  gave  to  each  minister  the  gift  of 
attracting  your  belief.  Paul  proceeds 
to  show  how  God  gave  different  gifts 
to  himself  and  to  Apollos.  And  this 
connexion  shows  that  every  man,  like 
any  man  in  verse  12,  and  every  man 
in  verse  13,  refers  to  teachers,  and  not, 
as  Alford,  to  hearers. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  III. 


29 


to  every  man?  6  k  I  have  planted, 

Apollos  watered ;  mbut  God  gave 
die  increase.  7  So  then  "neither 
is  he  that  planteth  any  thing, 
neither  he  that  watereth ;  but  God 
that  giveth  the  increase.  §  Now 
he  that  planteth  and  he  that  wa¬ 
tereth  are  one :  0  and  every  man 
shall  receive  his  own  reward  ac¬ 
cording  to  his  own  labour.  9  For 
Pwe  are  labourers  together  with 
God:  ye  are  God’s  a husbandry, 
ye  are  9  God’s  building.  10  r  Ac- 

Jc  Acts  18.  4,  8,  11;  chap.  4.  15;  9.  1 ;  15.  1; 

2  Cor.  10. 14. - l  Acts  18.  24, 27 ;  19. 1. - in  Chap. 

1.  30;  15.  10;  2  Cor.  3.  5. - n  2  Cor.  12.  11 ;  Gal. 

6.  3. - o  Psa.  62.  12;  Rom.  2.  6;  chap.  4.  5;  Gal. 

6. 4, 5 ;  Rev.  2. 23 ;  22. 12. - p  Acts  15.  4 ;  2  Cor.  6. 1. 

6.  Planted — It  was  Paul’s  pre-emi¬ 
nent  gift  to  be  a  founder.  His  was  the 
rare  power,  less  conspicuous  in  Apol¬ 
los  and  John,  to  convince  the  unbe¬ 
liever,  and  create  a  new  Church.  Hence 
he  sought  new  fields,  and  avoided  to 
build  on  any  other  man’s  foundation. 
Note  on  Korn,  xv,  20.  Increase — 
Growth.  As  the  seed  planted  in  the 
earth  produces  no  herb  or  fruit  with¬ 
out  the  showers  and  sunshine  from 
above,  so  the  preached  Gospel,  sown 
m  the  soul  or  in  the  world,  produces 
no  increase  without  God’s  gracious 
aid. 

7.  Any  thing  —  Any  thing  to  be 

followed  by  partisans,  as  if,  like  the 
philosophers,  their  effects  were  all  pro¬ 
duced  by  their  own  brains. 

8.  Are  one — And  so  should  not  be 
divided  between  contending  parties. 
Every  man — That  truly  either  plants 
or  waters  God’s  heritage.  According 
to  his  own  labour — As  is  fully  shown 
in  verses  12-15. 

9.  Labourers . . .  with  God — Liter¬ 
ally,  For  we  are  God's  fellow -labour er s ; 
God's  farm ,  God's  building  are  ye — 
— The  distinction  already  existing  be¬ 
tween  ministers  and  people  is  very 
marked  through  this  and  the  next 
chapter,  as  begun  in  this  verse.  It 
is  by  no  means  correct  to  say  that  in 
the  Church  of  the  New  Testament  this 
division  had  not  commenced.  The*  fig¬ 
ure  of  a  building  here  commenced  is 
continued  to  verse  17. 


cording  to  the  grace  of  God  which 
is  given  unto  me,  as  a  wise  master- 
builder,  I  have  laid 6 7  8 9  the  founda¬ 
tion,  and  another  buildeth  thereon. 
But  Get  every  man  take  heed  how 
he  buildeth  thereupon.  11  For 
other  foundation  can  no  man  lay 
than  "that  is  laid,  v which  is  Jesus 
Christ. 

12  No  w  if  any  man  build  upon 
this  foundation  gold,  silver,  pre¬ 
cious  stones,  wood,  hay,  stubble ; 
13  w  Every  man’s  work  shall  be 

3  Or,  tillage. - q  Eph.  2.  20 ;  Col.  2.  7 ;  Heb.  3. 

3,  4 ;  1  Pet.  2.  5. r  Rom.  1.  5 ;  12.  3. s  Rom. 

15.  20;  verse 6;  chap. 4. 15;  Rev.  21.14. - 1 1  Pet. 

4.  11. - ^Isa.  28.  16;  Matt.  16.  18;  2  Cor.  11.  4; 

Gal.  1.  7. - v  Eph.  2.  20. - w  Chap.  4.  5. 

10.  Wise  master-builder — At  the 

proper  time  Paul  does  not  hesitate  to 
style  himself  a  sophos — a  wise.  I  laid 
.  .  .another — Nor  does  he  at  all  abdi¬ 
cate  his  prerogative  as  founder.  But 
— From  this  point  commences  a  sol¬ 
emn  caution  to  ministers,  even  who 
build  on  Christ  as  their  foundation, 
what  structure  of  doctrine,  or  morals, 
or  churchdom  they  build  thereon.  The 
fire  of  the  judgment  day  will  test 
whether  its  materials  be  combustible. 
If  so,  the  building  will  be  burned  up; 
yet  the  builder,  as  having  built  on  Christ , 
will  escape,  like  a  householder,  through 
the  conflagration  of  his  home,  losing  all 
else,  but  saving  his  life.  All  this,  and 
what  follows  to  iv,  6,  Paul  figuratively 
speaks  as  in  the  persons  of  himself  and 
Apollos,  verses  4-8 ;  but  it  is  equally 
applicable  to  all  other  preachers  and 
to  all  ministers  in  all  ages. 

11.  Can  no  man  lay — For  other 
foundations,  however  laid,  would  prove 
to  be  no  foundations  at  all. 

b.  Every  man's  work  subject  to  the 
test  of  fire,  12-15. 

12?  Any  man — Any  preacher  of  re¬ 
ligion.  Gold  — Paul  mentions  six  mate¬ 
rials:  three  incombustible  and  precious, 
and  three  combustible  and  inferior. 

13.  Work — Whether  doctrine  he 
has  taught,  or  morals  he  has  enjoined, 
or  Church  organization  he  has  founded. 
Made  manifest — Shall  come  under 
clear  review.  The  day  —  Not  as 
Calvin,  the  day  of  millennial  enlighten- 


30 


I  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


made  manifest:  for  the  day  x  shall 
declare  it,  because  >  it  4  shall  be  re¬ 
vealed  by  fire ;  and  the  fire  shall 
try  every  man’s  work  of  what  sort 
it  is.  14  If  any  man’s  work  abide 
which  he  hath  built  thereupon,  2  he 
shall  receive  a  reward.  15  If  any 
man’s  work  shall  be  burned,  he 
sli all  sutler  loss :  but  he  himself 
shall  be  saved;  ayet  so  as  by  fire. 

10  bKnow  ye  not  that  ye  are  the 
temple  of  God,  and  that  the  Spirit 

x  1  Peter  1.  7 ;  4. 12, - y  Luke  2.  35. - 4  Greek, 

is  revealed. - s  Chapter  4.  5. - a  Jude  23. - 

b  Chapter  6.  19;  2  Corinthians  6.  16;  Ephesians 

ment;  nor  the  day  of  Jerusalem’s  de¬ 
struction,  with  which  the  Corinthians 
had  no  relation;  nor  the  process  of 
time :  but  the  day  of  Christ's  coming 
to  judgment.  See  notes  on  iv,  3-5. 
Declare  it — As  if  the  shades  of  un¬ 
certainty  were  dispersed  by  the  light 
of  the  judgment  blaze.  Revealed  by 
fire — Its  true,  indestructible  character 
be  disclosed  by  the  fiery  test.  Every 
man — No  teacher  or  founder’s  work 
will  evade  this  trial. 

14.  Abide  —  Unconsumed.  Built 
thereupon — Upon  Christ,  the  true 
foundation ;  for  those  who  build  not  on 
Christ  but  reject  him,  will  not  only  suf¬ 
fer  loss  but  be  lost.  A  reward — For 
hun  of  whom  Christ  is  the  foundation, 
good  works  are  an  investment  with 
God.  See  note  on  Romans  iii,  27. 

1 5.  Suffer  loss — Like  a  householder 
who  loses  his  home.  It  is  true,  the 
parable  starts  with  the  man  as  a  build¬ 
er;  but  the  image  becomes  more  ex¬ 
pressive  by  allowing  a  change ;  name¬ 
ly,  from  a  builder  to  an  occupant.  As 
by  fire — Like  a  refugee  from  his  own 
“  house-a-fire ;  ”  his  home  lost,  his 
life  scarce  saved.  This  text  plainly 
teaches  the  doctrine  neither  of  purga¬ 
tory  nor  of  restorationism.  It  de¬ 
scribes  not  the  purging  away  by  fire 
the  sin  or  guilt  within  a  man  either 
before  the  judgment  day,  as  in  purga¬ 
tory,  nor  after,  as  in  a  temporary  hell; 
but  the  destruction  of  all  false  systems 
by  the  light  of  Christ’s  final  judgment, 
and  the  loss  of  their  reward  by  the  in¬ 
ventors  of  those  systems. 


of  God  dwelleth  in  you?  17  If 
any  man  6  defile  the  temple  of  God, 
him  shall  God  destroy;  for  the 
temple  of  God  is  holy,  which  tem¬ 
ple  ye  are.  18  cLet  no  man  de¬ 
ceive  himself.  If  any  man  among 
you  seemeth  to  be  wise  in  this 
world,  let  him  become  a  fool,  that 
he  may  be  wise.  19  For  dthe  wis¬ 
dom  of  this  world  is  foolishness 
with  God:  for  it  is  written,  cHe 
taketh  the  wise  in  their  own  craf- 


2.  21,  22;  Hebrews  3.  6;  1  Peter  2.  5. - 5  Or, 

destroy. - c  Proverbs  3.  7;  Isaiah  5.  21. - 

d  Chapter  1.  20 ;  2.  6. - e  Job  5. 13. 

4.  The  true  position  of  the  peo¬ 
ple  under  such  ministry,  16-23. 

As  the  temple  of  God,  he  by  whom 
they  are  destroyed  shall  be  himself  de¬ 
stroyed,  16,  17.  Knowing  the  folly 
of  all  sophia,  (see  notes,  i,  12,  etc.,)  let 
them  glory  in  no  special  leading  men, 
but  claim  all  as  their  own,  as  they  are 
Christ’s  and  Christ  is  God’s. 

16.  Know  ye  not — Recognise  you 
not  this  solemn  fact?  Temple  of 
God — Not  only  are  ye  a  building, 
verses  9  and  10-15,  but  ye  are  a  tem¬ 
ple.  Dwelleth  in  you — As  the  She- 
kinah  or  divine  Presence,  dwelt  in  the 
holy  of  holies. 

17.  Any  man — Note  on  verse  12. 
Defile — Or  destroy ,  instead  of  building 
up,  like  a  wise  master  builder,  verse 
10. 

18-21.  In  this  passage  Paul  slightly 
reiterates  his  repudiation  of  human 
wisdom,  fully  expressed  in  i,  18-31, 
where  see  notes.  It  is  this  wisdom 
which,  arousing  sectarian  strifes,  is 
threatening  to  defile,  destroy,  the 
temple  of  God,  in  ver.  17,  and  which 
now  calls  for  this  reiteration.  Wise 
— Claims  to  be  a  leader  from  his  philo¬ 
sophic  ability.  A  fool — Abdicate  his 
pretended  philosophic  profundity,  and 
accept  the  revelation  of  the  Gospel. 
May  become  wise — May  attain  the 
divine  philosophy  of  ii,  7-16. 

19.  Wisdom. .  .foolishness  —  Par¬ 
allel  with  i,  25,  where  see  notes.  Own 
craftiness — So  that  this  world’s  wis¬ 
dom  is  the  destruction  of  its  possessor 
and  professor. 


A.  1).  57. 


CHAPTER  III. 


31 


tiness.  20  And  again,  f  The  Lord 
knoweth  the  thoughts  of  the  wise, 
that  they  are  vain.  21  Therefore 
%  let  no  man  glory  in  men :  for  h  all 
things  are  yours ;  22  Whether 

yPsa.  94.  11. - (7  Chap.  1.  12;  4.  6;  verses  4-6. 

h  2  Cor.  4.  5, 15. 

20.  Wise  —  Psa.  xciv,  11.  Instead 
of  the  thoughts  of  the  wise,  the 

Hebrew  has  it,  “  the  thoughts  of  men;  ” 
a  term  which  includes,  of  course,  men 
especially  who  pride  themselves  in 
original  and  philosophic  thoughts  and 
reasonings.  Vain — Liable  to  error  and 
defect. 

2 1.  Glory  in  men — As  the  Corin¬ 
thians  were  so  zealously  doing.  Chap, 
i,  11-16 ;  and  iii,  4,  5.  Let  no  man  be 
fascinated  by,  and  proud  of,  some  par¬ 
tisan  leader.  All  things — Why  greed¬ 
ily  snatch  for  particular  favouritisms 
and  special  leaders  when  you  may 
comprehensively  claim  all  as  your  own? 

22.  Paul — Claim  not  one  or  two 
apostles  sectarianly ;  but  liberally  make 
them  all  your  own  collective  wealth. 
Cephas — In  verses  4,  5,  where  he 
speaks  depreciatingly,  he  selects  him¬ 
self  and  his  dear  associate  Apollos ;  but 
now,  when  he  speaks  lionouringly,  he 
brings  in  Peter,  who  was  claimed  by 
the  party  opposed  to  himself.  World 
...  to  come — Compare  notes  on  Rom. 
viii,  38,  39.  Not  only  were  all  the  apos¬ 
tles  and  all  Christian  teachers  theirs, 
but  all  the  glorious  truths  and  wonders 
revealed  by  Christianity  through  those 
apostles  are  also  theirs.  They,  under 
Christ,  as  Christ  under  God,  are  pro¬ 
prietors  of  all  things.  For  as  God 
has  made  Christ  heir  of  all,  and  the 
Christian  is  heir  of  (or  with)  Christ,  so 
the  Christian  inherits  all.  Away,  then, 
with  human  philosophies  and  leader¬ 
ships.  The  world  is  viewed  as  cre¬ 
ated  for  unfallen  man.  Lost  by  Adam, 
it  is  regained  by  Christ.  Lost  for  all 
in  Adam,  it  is  regained  for  all  re¬ 
newed  by  Christ.  Hence,  though  the 
wicked  seem  to  possess  the  world, 
it  really  possesses,  masters,  and  ruins 
them.  This  world,  then,  is  the  the¬ 
atre  for  the  Christian’s  development 
for  the  world  to  come.  Life  is  the 
Christian’s  commencement  for  a  life 


Paul,  or  Apollos,  or  Cephas,  or  the 
world,  or  life,  or  death,  or  things 
present,  or  things  to  come ;  all  are 
yours;  23  And  ’ye  are  Christ’s; 
and  Christ  is  God’s. 

i  Romans  14.  8 ;  chapter  11.  3 ;  2  Corinthians 
10.  7 ;  Galatians  3.  29. 

eternal.  Death  is  the  gate  through 
which  he  passes  from  the  lower  life 
to  the  higher.  Things  present — All 
events  and  objects  that  till  this  world 
and  this  life.  Things  to  come — The 
glorious  events,  sceneries,  and  person¬ 
ages  of  a  blessed  eternity.  All  are 
yours — How,  then,  in  view  of  so  sub¬ 
lime  and  boundless  a  wealth,  can  you  be 
engrossed  in  quarrels  and  partisanships 
about  the  comparative  talents  of  your 
Christian  leaders?  And  so,  also,  Paul 
asks,  vi,  4,  since  Christians  are  judges 
of  angels,  how  can  they  be  judged  by 
pagan  courts? 

Wonderful  it  is  how  this  apostle, 
surrounded  by  the  pomp  and  power  of 
the  world,  should  be  thus  able  to  see 
by  the  eye  of  faith  and  truth  that  the 
world  belonged  to  his  humble  flock  of 
despised  disciples  of  Jesus.  It  was  be¬ 
cause  he  was  gifted  with  the  power 
divine  to  look  through  the  deceptions 
of  the  phenomenal  and  temporal,  and 
descry  the  real  and  eternal.  Ye  are 
Christ’s — As  all  below  you  belong  to 
you,  so  you  belong  to  Christ  above. 
Christ  is  God’s — The  God-man  is 
now  subordinate  to  the  Supreme  Deity, 
whose  only  begotten  Son  he  is.  And 
so  God  is  now  supreme,  as  he  finally 
will  become  all  in  all.  Chap,  xv,  28. 

Both  as  the  result  of  18-24,  and  as 
the  point  to  which  the  whole  epistle 
has  thus  far  tended,  St.  F«ul  has  shown 
how  apostles,  and  so  all  Christian  teach¬ 
ers,  must  not  be  viewed,  namely,  as 
partisan  dividers  of  the  Church :  he 
will  now  describe  how  they  should  be 
viewed.  Chap,  iv,  1-13. 

There  are  many  at  the  present  day 
who  declaim  vigorously  and  indiscrim¬ 
inately  against  creeds  and  dogmas. 
They  are  fond  of  saying  that  Christi¬ 
anity  is  not  a  doctrine  but  a  life.  It  is 
easy  to  carry  such  declamation  to  a 
dangerous  extent.  Christianity  is  both 
a  doctrine  and  a  life.  No  doubt  there 


32 


I.  CORINTHIAN S. 


A.  I).  57. 


CHAPTER  I Y. 

ET  a  man  so  account  of  us,  as 
of  athe  ministers  of  Christ, 
band  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of 
God.  2  Moreover  it  is  required 
in  stewards,  that  a  man  be  found 

aMatt.  24.  45;  chap.  3.  5;  9.  17;  2  Cor.  6.  4; 
Col.  1.  25. - b  Luke  12.  42;  Tit,  1.  7;  1  Pet.  4. 10. 

are  unessential  dogmas,  and  subtle  dis¬ 
tinctions,  which,  even  while  valuable 
in  themselves,  should  not  be  allowed 
to  produce  quarrel  and  division.  Yet 
there  are  truths  which  even  he  who 
builds  on  Christ  may  neglect  or  deny 
to  his  own  loss.  There  are  doctrines 
of  great  positive  value,  and  it  is  right 
that  they  should  be  expressed  in  con¬ 
cise  forms  and  adopted  as  articles  of 
Churchly  concord. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

5.  The  true  Dignity  of  the  Apos¬ 
tles,  iv,  1-13. 

1.  Stewards  of  divine  mysteries  to 
De  judged  by  their  own  master,  1-5. 

2.  Not  to  be  treated  with  partisan  ar¬ 
rogance,  6-8.  3.  The  effects  of  which 

arrogance  on  the  suffering  apostles  is 
vividly  depicted,  9-13. 

a.  Apostles  are  dispensers  of  God's 
mysteries ,  to  be  judged  solely  by  God)  1-5. 

1.  A  man — Any  or  every  person. 
Us — The  apostles,  and,  inferentially, 
all  true  ministers.  Ministers  —  The 
Greek  word  signifies  etymologically 
under-rowers ;  as  if  Christ  were  chief 
navigator  in  the  boat  and  his  apostles 
were  rowing  under  him.  Thence  it 
commonly  means  any  servant  or  sub¬ 
ordinate  aid.  Stewards — Any  dis¬ 
pensers  of  any  treasured  value,  as 
cashiers  or  distributers  of  property. 
Mysteries — The  entire  mass  of  divine 
truths,  hitherto  held  secret  by  God,  but 
now  for  the  first  time  revealed  in 
Christ;  hence  embracing  all  that  was 
truly  new  to  the  world,  Jews  or  Gen¬ 
tiles,  in  the  doctrines  and  institutes  of 
the  Christian  dispensation.  The  dis¬ 
closing  these  mysteries  was  the  high 
office  of  the  first  commissioned  evan¬ 
gelists  and  apostles.  To  them  primi¬ 
tively  Christ  had  said,  (Matt,  xiii,  1,) 
%l  To  you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mys¬ 
teries  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.”  In 


faithful.  3  But  with  me  it  is  a 
very  small  thing  that  I  should  be 
judged  of  you,  or  of  man’s *  1 2  judg¬ 
ment:  yea,  I  judge  not  mine  own 
self.  4  For  I  know  nothing  by 
myself  ;  cyet  am  I  not  hereby  jus- 

1  Gr.  day ,  chap.  3. 13. c  Job  9.  2;  Psa.  130. 3: 

143.  2;  Prov.  21.  2;  Rom.  3.  20;  4.  2. 

this,  Paul  means  to  say,  consists  the 
broad  difference  between  the  Christian 
apostle  and  the  sages  of  Greek  phi¬ 
losophy.  The  former  received  their 
system  by  revelation  from  Christ ;  the 
latter  invented  theirs  from  their  own 
brains.  Christ  is  alone  the  divine 
original. 

2.  Faithful — The  sophos ,  or  sage , 
was  expected  to  be  original,  fertile, 
creative  of  plausible  and,  if  possible, 
true  theories.  Of  the  steward  could 
only  be  required  that  he  be  faithful  in 
transmitting  and  communicating  what 
he  had  received. 

3-5.  In  these  verses,  though  Paul 
speaks  in  the  first  person  singular,  as  a 
chief  specimen  and  instance,  yet  the 
other  apostles,  and  all  true  ministers, 
are,  by  analogy,  included.  Judged  of 
you — The  steward  is  not  responsible 
to  the  receivers  of  the  bounty  he  dis¬ 
penses,  but  to  the  giver  from  whom  he 
receives.  Let  the  apostle  be  but  the 
true  and  faithful  reporter  of  what  he 
receives  from  Christ,  and  he  is  respon¬ 
sible  to  no  other  judge.  Judge  not 
mine  own  self — From  the  first  hour 
that  he  surrendered  himself,  on  the 
road  to  Damascus,  to  the  Lord  Christ, 
he  had  received  Christ  to  judge  in  all 
things  for  him. 

4.  Know  nothing  by  myself — I 

am  conscious  of  nothing  against  myself — 
Such  is  the  sense  of  the  Greek ;  and 
such  was  the  sense  of  the  English  at 
the  time  our  version  was  made.  Paul 
was  unconscious  of  any  wrong.  Not 
hereby  justified — For  our  judgment 
of  ourselves  is  often  very  partial,  and 
so  erroneous.  The  maxim  of  human 
law  is,  that  no  man  is  a  true  judge  in 
his  own  case.  Yet  though  conscience 
is  no  infallible  judge  of  right  in  our 
own  case,  it  is  the  best  natural  guide 
that  man  possesses,  and  when  followed 
with  profound  and  devout  honesty  the 


A.  D.  5  7. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


33 


tiiied :  but  he  that  judgeth  me  is  the 
Lord.  5  d Therefore  judge  noth¬ 
ing  before  the  time,  until  the  Lord 
come,  e  who  both  will  bring  to 
light  the  hidden  things  of  dark¬ 
ness,  and  will  make  manifest  the 
counsels  of  the  hearts :  and  f  then 
shall  every  man  have  praise  of 
God. 


6  And  these  things,  brethren, 
eI  have  in  a  figure  transferred  to 
myself  and  to  AjjoIIos  for  your 


<2  Matt.  7.  1;  Rom  2  1,  16;  14.  4,  10,  13;  Rev. 

- «  Chap.  3.  13. - J-  Rom.  2.  29;  2  Cor. 

5.10. - g  Chap.  1.  12 ;  3.  4. 


sakes ;  h  that  ye  might  learn  in  us 
not  to  think  of  men  above  that 
which  is  written,  that  no  one  of 
you *  1  be  puffed  up  for  one  against 
another.  7  For  who  2maketh  thee 
to  differ  from  another  ?  and  kwhat 
hast  thou  that  thou  didst  not  re¬ 
ceive?  now  if  thou  didst  receive 
it,  why  dost  thou  glory,  as  if  thou 
hadst  not  received  it?  8  Now  je 
are  full,  1  now  ye  are  rich,  ye  have 
reigned  as  kings  without  us :  and 


h  Rom.  12.  3.- 


-2  Gr. 


f  Chap.  3.  21 ;  5.  2,  6.- 

aistingutslieth,  thee.  Jc  John  3.  27;  James 

1.  17 ;  1  Pet.  4.  10. - 1  Rev.  3.  17. 


man  will,  by  divine  goodness,  be  guid¬ 
ed  to  salvation.  Judgeth. .  .Lord  — 
Our  final  Judge  is  the  only  infallible 
Judge.  And  our  only  sure  way  is  to 
repent  most  deeply  of  every  even  un¬ 
known  sin.  and  submit  ourselves  su¬ 
premely  to  him.  Judgeth  me — Hav- 
ing  placed  himself  entirely  under  the 
service  of  that  Judge,  Paul  claimed  to 
be  solely  judged  by  him.  Judge 
nothing — We  cannot,  indeed,  avoid 
forming  an  opinion  before  the  judgment 
day ;  but  what  Paul  claimed  was,  that 
he  was  by  apostolic  office,  as  by  them 
admitted,  superior  to  their  present  judg¬ 
ment.  Bring  to  light  — Shed  light 
upon.  Hidden  things  of  darkness — 
Things  hidden  or  covered  b}r  darkness. 
All  the  partisan  conclaves  and  plots 
at  Corinth.  Counsels  — The  mental 
plans  and  purposes  of  parties  and  lead¬ 
ers.  Praise — Prom  delicacy  speaking 
of  praise  only,  though  plenty  of  blame 
may  be  supposed  in  many  cases.  Of 
God— Hence,  iii,  21,  glory  in  men  is 
unnecessary. 

b.  Apostles  not  to  be  treated  with  ar¬ 
rogance,  6-8. 

6.  In  a  figure— By  way  of  illustra¬ 
tion.  Transferred— Applied.  Though 
the  same  things  or  utterances  might 
be  well  predicated  of  other  apostles  and 
apostolic  men,  nay,  even  of  all  true 
ministers  in  ah  times,  yet  he  had  spoken 
them  of  Apollos  and  himself  as  repre¬ 
sentative  cases.  Your  sakes — That 
you  might  understand  the  position 
in  which,  as  your  apostles,  we  stand. 
Might  learn  in  us  —  By  taking  the 
example  of  Paul  and  Apollos  they  might 

Vol.  IV. — 3 


learn  that  these  true  leaders  shared  not 
their  strifes,  and  so  return  to  unity 
and  peace.  Above . .  .  written  —  In 
the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament, 
the  only  Scripture  perhaps  then  known 
to  Corinth.  The  Scripture  standard  ac¬ 
cording  to  which  they  should  think  of 
men,  is  suggested  by  Paul  in  his  quo¬ 
tations  iii,  20.  21. 

7 .  TV  ith  their  haughty  spirit,  St.  Paul 
now  expostulates.  Christian  modesty 
should  inspire  us,  not  with  pride  in  our 
superiorities,  but  with  gratitude  to  Him 
who  gave  them.  Maketh .  . .  differ— 
This  question  refers  not  to  that  differ¬ 
ence  by  which  one  man  is  an  heir  of 
heaven  and  another  is  an  heir  of  hell ; 
for  that  stupendous  difference  is  made 
by  God  to  result  largely  from  ourselves. 
For  if  even  our  salvation  be  of  God, 
certainly  our  damnation  is  of  ourselves. 
It  refers  to  those  temporal  advantages 
by  which  one  set  was  proudly  swelling 
over  the  other.  Didst  not  receive— 
Piety  does  not  require  us  to  be  uncon¬ 
scious  of  wealth,  or  talent,  or  power. 
It  indeed  breathes  into  us  a  sweetlv 
humbled  gratitude  to  God,  who  gives, 
and  an  earnest  desire  to  use  them  with 

sweeter  zest  to  his  glorjr.  Glory _ 

Implying  a  self-inflation  as  repugnant 
to  manly  character  as  it  is  to  Christian 
piety. 

8.  Pull — St.  Paul  describes  them, 
with  a  gentle  irony,  as  they  felt  them¬ 
selves.  Full,  implying  a  general 
self-satisfaction,  as  if  they  had  all  they 
could  wish.  Rich— Referring  to  that 
secular  wealth  by  which,  in  a  rapidly 
growing  city,  many  of  the  members 


34 


1.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  hi. 


1  would  to  God  ye  did  reign,  that 
we  also  might  reign  with  you. 

9  For  I  think  that  God  hath  set 
forth  us  the  apostles  last,  mas  it 
were  appointed  to  death:  for  nwe 
are  made  a * *  3  spectacle  unto  the 
world,  and  to  angels,  and  to  men. 
10  0  Wear^  p  fools  for  Christ’s  sake, 
but  ye  are  wise  in  Christ;  iwe  are 
weak,  but  ye  are  strong;  ye  are 
honourable,  but  we  are  despised. 

mPsa.  44.  22;  Rom.  8.  36;  chap.  15 .  30,  31; 

2  Cor.  4.  11 ;  6.  9. - >i  Heb.  10.  33.  -3  Gr.  the¬ 
atre. - o  Chap.  2.  3. - P  Acts  17.  18;  2b.  24; 

chap.  1.  18,  &c. ;  2.  14;  3.  18;  see  2  Kings  9.  11. 
- q  2  Cor.  13.9. r  2  Cor.  4.  8;  11.23-2/;  Phil. 


11  rEven  unto  this  present  hour 
we  both  hunger,  and  thirst,  and 
5 are  naked,  and  ‘are  buffeted,  aud 
have  no  certain  dwellingplace ; 

12  uAnd  labour,  working  with 
our  own  hands:  v being  reviled, 
we  bless ;  being  persecuted,  we 
suffer  it:  13  Being  defamed,  we 
entreat :  w  we  are  made  as  the  filth 
of  the  world,  and  are  the  offscour- 
ing  of  all  things  unto  this  day. 

4  12. - 8  Job  22.  6;  Rom.  8.  35. - 1  Acts  23.  2. 

- u  Acts  18.  3;  20.  34;  1  Thess.  2.  9;  2  Thess. 

3.  8;  1  Tim.  4.  10. - v  Matt.  5.  44;  Luke  6.  28; 

23.  34;  Acts  7.  60;  Rom.  12.  14,  20;  1  Pet.  2  23; 

3.  9. - w  Lam.  3.  45. 


may  have  grown  suddenly  rich.  Have 
reigned . .  .  kings  —  Kings  in  royal 
fancy.  Without  us— All  this  was  in 
Paul’s  absence;  and  although  their 
power  and  true  glory  as  a  Church  was 
due  to  him,  their  inflation  had  forgotten 
him  and  had  only  puffed  up  them¬ 
selves.  I  would... ye  did  reign — 
As  the  righteous  will  reign  in  glory. 
With  you — For  in  the  blessed  reign 
of  the  glorified  kingdom  all  the  saints 
of  God  will  reign  together. 

c.  The  effects  of  such  arrogance  on  the 
apostles  depicted ,  9-13. 

The  vivid  picture  of  their  exaltation 
is  now  darkly  contrasted  with  the  dan¬ 
gers,  (vv.  8,  9,)  depreciation,  (10,)  priva¬ 
tions,  (11,  12,)  and  insults,  (12,  13,)  real¬ 
ly  endured  by  the  apostles. 

9.  For — I  could  desire  to  reign 
with  you,  for  we  are  sad  sufferers  in 
our  present  state.  With  a  deep  pathos 
the  apostle  describes  his  own  personal 
sufferings,  yet  in  words  includes  the 
other  apostles  in  the  picture.  The  pas¬ 
sage  seems  to  justify  the  belief  that  the 
other  apostles  had  a  history  of  suffer¬ 
ing,  but  lacked  an  historian.  God — 
Fie  recognises  the  appointment  of  God 
in  this  divine  mission  of  suffering.  The 
suffering  had  to  be  endured  by  some¬ 
body,  and  God  wisely  selects  his  in¬ 
struments.  Set  forth — St.  Paul  here 
delicately  pictures  an  ideal  amphi¬ 
theatre,  familiar  to  the  Corinthian  mem¬ 
ory.  The  world,  with  angels  and  men 
for  spectators,  and  the  apostles  as  vic¬ 
tims  to  the  beast.  Such  ideal  mar¬ 
tyrdom  was  realized  in  later  history,  of 


which  this  passage  is  a  shadowy  proph¬ 
ecy.  The  theatre  was  a  semicircle,  the 
amphitheatre  a  double  theatre  in  full 
circle.  Apostles  last — Equivalent  to 
lowest.  A  spectacle — The  original  is 
a  theatre ;  for  exhibition  in  the  am¬ 
phitheatre.  Unto  men  —  Literally, 
to  the  world — both  to  angels  and  to  men. 

10.  Wise . . .  strong . . .  honourable— 
These  wrere  the  epithets  with  which 
the  proud  element  of  the  Church  puffed 
themselves  and  each  other  up.  Fools 
. .  .weak. .  .depised — Such  were  the 
epithets  the  apostles  were  obliged  to 
encounter  in  their  missions  through  the 
world. 

11.  Even  unto  this  present  hour 

— While  I  write  to  you  from  Ephesus  I 
am  the  subject  of  such  a  life.  Buffeted 
— Struck  with  the  clenched  fist.  No 
certain  dwellingplace — Without  po¬ 
sition,  or  fixed  residence. 

12.  Working. .  .hands — Not  only 
at  Corinth  at  first,  (Acts  xviii,  3,)  but 
in  Ephesus  now.  Acts  xx,  34.  Re¬ 
viled. .  .bless— The  words,  perhaps, 
indicate  that  St.  Paul  had  read  the  Gos¬ 
pel  of  Matthew.  See  Matt,  v,  39,  44. 

13.  Filth.  .  .offscouring  —  Wash¬ 
ings,  scrapings.  The  former  word  ref ers 
to  matter  or  things  washed  off  by  water 
in  cleansing  the  object;  the  latter  sig¬ 
nifies  matter  rubbed  off  by  scraping 
or  friction.  Hence  both  terms  are  fig¬ 
uratively  used  to  designate  worthless 
persons.  But  as  it  was  customary 
among  the  pagans  in  time  of  any  great 
calamity  (as  plague  or  defeat)  to  put  to 
death  some  worthless  person  as  a  sac- 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


35 


14  I  write  not  these  things  to 
shame  you,  but  x  as  my  beloved 
eons  I  warn  you.  15  For  though 
ye  have  ten  thousand  instructors 
in  Christ,  yet  have  ye  not  many 
fathers :  for  y  in  Christ  Jesus  I  have 
begotten  you  through  the  gos¬ 
pel.  10  Wherefore  I  beseech  you, 
2  be  ye  followers  of  me.  17  For 


this  cause  have  I  sent  unto  you 
Timotheus,  f,who  is  my  beloved 
son,  and  faithful  in  the  Ford,  who 
shall  bring  you  cinto  remembrance 
of  my  ways  which  be  in  Christ, 
as  I  d  teach  every  where  c  in  every 
church.  18  f  Now  some  are  puffed 
up,  as  though  I  would  not  come 
to  you.  19  eBut  I  will  come  to 


,®1  Thess .2.  11. - y  Acts  18.  11;  Rom.  15.  20- 

chap.  ,3.  6;  Gal.  4.  19;  Philem.  10;  James  1.  18* 
— s  Chap  It.  1 ;  Phil.  3  17 ;  1  Thess.  1.  6 ;  2  Thess! 
3.9. - a  Acts  19.  22;  chap.  16.  10;  Phil.  2  19; 


if^eiSSol0nian^v3-  2‘ - 61  Timothy  1.  2;  2  Tim- 

tby-1pi2-~TCi(?b^Pter  1L  2- - d  Chapter  7.  17. 

iq  Chapter  14.  33. - f  Chapter  5.  2. —  g  Acts 

19.  21 ;  chapter  16.  5;  2  Corinthians  1.  15,  23. 


rifice  to  the  gods  to  avert  the  evil,  so 
both  these  words  came  to  be  used  to 
signify  a  sacrificial  victim. 

6.  The  personal  apostolic  author¬ 
ity  of  Paul  asserted,  14-21. 

Unequivocally  St.  Paul  at  last  con¬ 
centrates  upon  the  single  point  to  which 
he  has  been  converging  from  the  very 
first  start  of  the  epistle  at  i,  10.  In 
rebuking  the  Corinthian  feuds,  and  re¬ 
nouncing  all  leadership  of  that  sort,  he 
was  preparing,  step  by  step,  to  lead 
them  to  the  true  ground  on  which,  as 
their  founder,  father,  and  apostle,  his 
authority  was  sole  and  divine. 

IF  I — Whether  he  has  spoken  in 
the  singular  or  plural  heretofore,  he 
has  generally  meant  himself  only  as  a 
representative,  including  a  constitu¬ 
ency.  Here  he  means  his  own  per¬ 
sonal  self.  These  things— The  iron¬ 
ies  upon  their  pride,  (verses  7,  10,)  and 
the  pictures  of  apostolic  sufferings, 
11—13.  Warn  you,  that  these  feuds 
and  prides  will  bring  penalty  upon  you. 

15.  For — As  the  ground  of  my  as¬ 
suming  this  authority.  Instructors — 
Tutors,  or  children-governors.  Fa¬ 
thers.  .  .1 — At  this  decisive  point^Paul 
asserts  his  authority  as  one  and  sole. 

16.  Followers — Imitators,  as  of  a 
model.  Christianity  is  new ;  and  what 
fashion  of  character  it  requires  us  to 
shape  ourselves  to  needs  not  only  an 
inspired  instruction  but  a  living  pat¬ 
tern.  It  was  a  greatness  in  St.  Paul, 
that,  disclaiming  all  originality,  and 
claiming  to  be  like  Christ,  he  could  call 
the  world  to  imitate  himself.  Notes  on 
Acts  xx,  17-38. 

IF  For  this  cause — To  keep  my 
fiiudel  of  Christianity  fresh  before  you. 


4  or  as  I  imitate  Christ  so  Timothy  im¬ 
itates  me,  and  so  do  you  imitate  Timo¬ 
thy.  Thereby,  through  me  and  Timo¬ 
thy*  you  shall  be  shaped  to  the  true 
Dhrist-model.  Bring . . .  into  remem¬ 
brance —  You  learned  it  once,  when 
I  was  with  you ;  but,  alas  I  through 
my  absence  and  your  sinfulness  you 
have  too  much  forgotten  it.  My  ways 
My  style  of  Christian  character  as  an 
example ;  and  my  methods  of  promot¬ 
ing  the  conversion  and  sanctification  of 
souls.  As  I  teach — In  doctrine  and 
morals,  of  which  the  future  chapters  of 
this  epistle  are  an  example  for  later 
ages. 

18.  Some— They  must  have  been  a 
small  and  bitter  minority.  The  large 
majority  was  Pauline ;  the  admirers  of 
Apollo s  were  in  affinity  with  the  Paul¬ 
ine;  and  even  the  Christine  party 
would  prefer  the  apostle  of  the  Gen¬ 
tiles  to  the  Judaizers,  who  abused  the 
name  of  Peter  by  writing  it  upon  their 
banners.  It  is  among  these  last  that 
we  must  specially  look  for  this  bitter 
some.  Puffed  up— Swelling  with 
boastful  hostility.  Wrould  not  come 
— This  spurious  apostle,  say  they,  who 
never  saw  Christ  except  in  a  fancied 
daydream,  and  who  abolishes  circum¬ 
cision,  will  scarce  dare  to  return  to 
Corinth  and  face  us,  the  true  circum¬ 
cised  disciples  of  Peter,  the  chiefest  of 
Jesus’  own  apostles. 

1 9.  I  will  come — Emphatic  will,  if 
not  defiant.  Lord  will — A  reverent 
proviso  qualifying  the  defiance.  See 
James  iv,  15.  Will  know — By  direct 
issue  and  full  experiment.  Not  the 
speech  of  them — Which  is  all  we 
have  thus  far  had.  Power  —  Their 


36 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57 


you  shortly,  hif  the  Lord  will,  and 
will  know,  not  the  speech  of  them 
which  are  puffed  up,  but  the  power. 
20  For  *  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not 
in  word,  but  in  power.  21  What 
will  ye  ?  k  shall  I  come  unto  you 

h  Acts  18.  21 :  Rom.  15.  32;  Heb.  6.  3;  James  4. 15. 

efficiency  in  refuting  my  gospel  and 
impeaching  my  apostolic  authority  to 
preach  it. 

20.  Kingdom  of  God— God’s  sov¬ 
ereignty  in  establishing  the  gospel  and 
Church  of  his  Son  on  earth.  Not  ex¬ 
erted  in  word  only,  but  in  power, 
both  of  a  divinely  energized  preaching 
and  miraculous  deeds. 

21.  What — Now  St.  Paul  brings  the 
assertion  of  his  apostolic  absoluteness 
to  its  final  and  sharpest  point.  A  rod 
— An  emblem  denoting  right  to  punish, 
whether  by  parent,  by  tutor,  or  by 
magistrate,  and  St.  Paul  was  now  all 
three.  Love — As  the  antithesis  of 
severity,  which,  however,  is  often  only 
a  form  of  love.  Spirit— The  temper. 
Meekness — Gentleness  in  action. 

On  this  chapter  we  note : — 

1.  St  Paul  claims  to  speak  with  a 
binding  authority ;  not  because  he  was 
personally  infallible  in  all  he  said  and 
did,  but  because  he  was  writing  to  the 
Church  in  his  apostolic  office,  whereto 
he  was  called  by  Christ,  and  wherein 
he  spoke  with  the  inspiration  and  au¬ 
thority  of  Christ.  Reciprocally  the 
spiritual  in  the  Church  was  endowed 
with  more  or  less  power  to  discern  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  as  speaking  in  him  with 
a  divine  authority.  So  St.  Paul  in 
x,  15  appeals  to  the  wisest  Corinthians 
to  judge  what  he  says ;  in  xiv,  33  he 
quotes  the  “Churches  of  the  saints;  ” 
and  in  xiv,  37  he  appeals  specially  to 
the  judgment  of  the  “  spiritual.”  Hence 
it  is  by  the  double  witness  of  inspired 
apostle  and  inspired  Church  that  our 
holy  canon  of  Scripture  is  authenti- 

2.  The  Church  is,  indeed,  earlier  and 
older  than  Scripture.  The  Church  of  the 
New  Testament  was  for  a  time  without 
a  New  Testament.  And  we  may  concede 
to  the  Romanist  that  it  is  the  Church 
that  gives  the  Scriptures  to  the  world. 
Nevertheless  the  same  Spirit  that 


with  a  rod,  or  in  love,  and  in  the 

spirit  of  meekness  ? 

CHAPTER  Y. 

IT  is  reported  commonly  that 
there  is  fornication  among  you, 

i  Chap.  2.4;  IThess.  1.5. - h  2  Cor.  10.  2;  13. 10. 

gave  the  Church  gave  also  the  Scrip¬ 
ture,  as  rule  and  law  to  the  Church. 
Just  because  tradition  is,  by  lapse  of 
time,  liable  to  mutation  and  misunder¬ 
standing,  the  Spirit  moved  holy  men 
to  write.  The  Church  of  Corinth,  being 
endowed  by  the  Spirit  to  realize  the 
divine  authority  of  the  apostle,  was 
bound  by  that  authority.  So  even  the 
Church  that  gives  the  Scripture  is  not 
superior,  but  subordinate,  to  the  Scrip¬ 
ture  she  gives,  and  must  be  judged  by  it. 

3.  Doubtless  the  apostles  wrote 
many  a  letter  which  has  not  been  pre¬ 
served,  as  they  spoke  many  a  word 
that  was  never  recorded.  It  does  not 
follow  that  those  lost  letters  were  in¬ 
spired,  or  that  the  loss  was  a  loss  to 
the  sacred  canon.  Very  probably  the 
Church,  as  a  whole,  was  moved  and 
overruled  to  deposit  in  her  archives,  to 
read  in  her  Sunday  service,  and  to 
hand  down  to  posterity,  only  those 
writings  that  were  truly  canonical. 

- - 

PART  SECOND. 

ST.  PAUL’S  TEN  APOSTOLIC 
RESPONSES,  v,  1-xvi,  4. 

CHAPTER  Y. 

Paul’s  First  Response:— To  the 
Rumours  touching  the  Report  op 
Incest,  v,  1-13. 

a.  Jud/jment  upon  the  incestuous  man, 

1-5. 

1.  Reported — This  report,  like  those 
touching  the  Church  strifes  in  the  first 
chapter,  must  have  come  from  the 
«  household  of  Chloe,”  or  from  the  three 
special  messengers ;  probably  the  latter. 
Commonly — Literal  Greek,  wholly. 
This  cannot  mean,  as  it  is  rendered  by 
some,  “ every-where,”  or  “generally , 
for  in  Ephesus  it  could  have,  not  beer, 
generally  spread,  and  at  Corinth  Paul 


CHAPTER  Y. 


37 


.A.  D.  5 7. 


you,  and  sucli  fornication  as  is  not 
so  much  as  a named  among  the 
Gentiles,  bthat  one  should  have 
his  c  father’s  wife.  2  dAnd  ye  are 
puffed  up,  and  have  not  rather 
e mourned,  that  he  that  hath  done 
this  deed  might  be  taken  away 

a  Eph.  5.  3. - b  Lev.  18.  8;  Deut.  22. 30;  27.  20. 

c  2  Cor.  7.  12. 

could  know  nothing  of  the  extent  of  its 
spread.  The  Greek  word,  with  a  nega¬ 
tive  in  a  sentence,  would  signify  “  not 
at  all;”  as  here,  with  an  affirmative, 
it  must  signify,  reversely,  absolutely,  or 
as  Alford,  actually.  The  word,  then, 
does  not  indicate  the  extent  of  the  re¬ 
port,  but  aggravates  the  heinousness 
of  the  sin  reported.  Fornication — A 
term  here  comprehending  any  sexual 
criminality,  and  designating  a  case  of 
incest.  So  much  as  named — Accord¬ 
ing  to  the  best  manuscripts  this  clause 
should  be  omitted.  Have — The  word 
would  indicate  either  by  marriage  or  by 
concubinage.  How  dissolute  a  city  Cor¬ 
inth  was,  how  prostitution  was"  even 
there  made  a  religious  rite,  and  cour¬ 
tezans  were  regular  priestesses  to  the 
goddess  of  lust,  we  have  stated  in  the 
introduction  to  this  epistle.  The  pres¬ 
ent  transgressor  was  a  member  of  the 
Church,  and  so  probably  was  his  father, 
against  whom  the  sin  was  committed. 

2  Cor.  vii,  12.  We  may  suppose  the 
transgressor  to  have  been  a  Gentile, 
who  construed  the  morality  of  the  new 
religion  to  be  “liberal”  on  the  laws 
of  sex.  Paul,  therefore,  in  the  next 
clause  admonishes  them  that  such  a 
looseness  would  place  Christianity  be¬ 
low  the  average  morals  of  paganism. 
Among . . .  Gentiles — Though  from  the 
necessity  of  the  case  marriage  among 
near  relations  at  the  commencement  of 
the  race  was  tolerated,  yet  in  time  it 
would  be  disclosed  by  experience  that 
such  “marrying  in”  would  depreciate 
and  destroy  the  race.  Then  the  power¬ 
ful  intuitions  of  our  nature  have  placed 
abhorrence  of  incest  among  the  funda¬ 
mentals  of  moral  law.  Instances  of  in¬ 
cest  as  narratives  of  abomination  and 
horror  are  given  in  many  of  the  classic 
authors.  Edipus,  by  sad  mistake  mar¬ 
rying  his  own  mother,  is  the  subject 


from  among  you.  3  fFor  I  verily, 
as  absent  in  body,  but  present  in 
spirit,  have  1 2 3 4  judged  already,  as 
though  I  were  present,  concerning 
him  that  hath  so  done  this  deed, 
4  In  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  when  ye  are  gathered  to- 

d  Chap.  4.  18. - e2  Cor.  7.  7, 10. — f  Col.  2.  5. ' 

_ 1  Or,  determined. 

of  one  of  the  most  thrilling  dramas  of 
Sophocles. 

2.  Puffed  up — Note  on  iv,  6.  Nei¬ 
ther  shame  nor  grief  over  this  foul  sin 
reduced  their  inflation.  Sensuality  was 
a  fashionable  indulgence  in  Corinth. 
The  precise  shape  and  rigidity  of  Christ¬ 
ian  ethics  were  not  in  their  minds 
fixed ;  the  Church  took  the  matter  ea¬ 
sily  ;  neither  its  exultation  over  its 
worldly  prosperity,  nor  its  pride  in 
possession  of  spiritual  gifts,  was  toned 
down.  Rather  mourned — Instead  of 
indifference  and  persistent  pride  the 
whole  Church  should  have  melted  in 
grief  for  the  downfall  of  this  one  man. 
The  Christian  body  should  have  sym¬ 
pathetic  nerves  for  the  sin  or  sorrow 
of  each  and  every  member.  That — To 
the  end  that.  Their  grief  should  have 
prompted  them  to  the  instant  removal 
of  the  sin,  even  at  the  expense  of  the 
excommunication  of  the  sinner.  Tak¬ 
en  away— By  the  law  of  Christ,  the 
great  head  of  the  Church.  That  not  by 
death  but  by  excommunication  is  meant, 
is  clear  from  Paul’s  directions  vv.  4,  5. 

3.  Present  in  spirit — Though  I  am 
here  in  Ephesus,  yet  do  you  conceive 
me  as  sitting  in  apostolic  power  and 
spirit  in  your  midst  at  Corinth,  order¬ 
ing  the  execution  of  the  sentence  I  now 
write.  Have  judged  already — In 
instant  contrast  with  your  tardiness 
and  tolerance. 

4.  In  name . . .  Christ — This  sever¬ 
ance  of  the  guilty  from  the  Church  is 
performed,  1.)  By  the  divine  authority 
of  Christ;  2.)  By  the  declaratory  au¬ 
thority  of  the  apostle ;  and  3.)  By  the 
executive  authority  of  the  collective 
Church,  in  whom  the  normal  authority 
permanently  resides  after  the  miracu¬ 
lous  apostolic  authority  is  withdrawn. 
When — When  ye  and  my  spirit  are 
gathered  together. 


88 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


gether,  and  my  spirit,  s  with  the 
power  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
5  hTo  deliver  such  a  one  unto 

O  Matt.  16.  19 ;  John  20.  23  ;  2  Cor.  2.  10 ;  13.  3, 10. 

This  power  of  excommunication  was 
first  exercised  by  the  Jewish  Church. 
There  was  a  “  cutting  off  from  the  peo¬ 
ple,”  as  in  Exod.  xxx,  33,  38;  xxxi,  14; 
Lev.  xvii,  4;  and  there  was  an  exclu¬ 
sion  of  the  leprous  from  the  camp,  Lev. 
xiii,  46;  Num.  xii,  14.  So  Christ  com¬ 
mands  that  he  who  will  not  hear  the 
Church  should  be  as  a  “  heathen  man 
and  a  publican ;  ”  that  is,  his  Christian 
character  and  brotherhood  are  no  lon¬ 
ger  to  be  recognized,  and  lie  is  no  longer 
of  the  Church  but  of  the  world. 

In  the  primitive  and  persecuted 
Chureh,  when  men,  “lapsed”  through 
fear  from  Christianity  became  pagans, 
anathematized  Christ,  and  sacrificed  to 
idols,  their  apostasy  had  an  awful  as¬ 
pect  to  the  eyes  of  the  faithful.  The 
communion  of  the  Church  became  un¬ 
speakably  valuable,  and  excommunica¬ 
tion  from  it  a  terror  to  the  soul.  And 
then,  when  Christianity  became  the  re¬ 
ligion  of  the  State,  this  prerogative  of 
excommunication  became  a  weighty 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  hierarchy. 
The  ecclesiastical  ban  pronounced  upon 
the  victim  isolated  him  from  society  like 
a  leper.  It  deprived  him  of  all  rights 
in  court  or  in  Church ;  made  it  criminal 
to  pray  with  him,  feed  him,  give  him 
drink,  or  even  speak  to  him.  When 
the  pope  assumed  this  power,  he  could 
ban  kings  and  absolve  their  subjects 
from  all  obedience  to  them  as  sover¬ 
eigns,  and  all  duty  or  kindness  to  them 
as  persons.  The  most  appalling  form 
of  excommunication  was  that  of  “  bell, 
book,  and  candle.”  By  the  solemn  sound 
of  the  tolling  bell  the  bishop  and  twelve 
priests,  each  with  a  lighted  candle, 
marched  in  solemn  procession,  while 
the  people  assembled,  to  the  cathedral. 
The  bishop,  attended  by  the  twelve, 
sitting  before  the  grand  altar,  read  in 
solemn  voice  from  the  book  to  the  con¬ 
gregation  the  most  direful  curses  that 
language  could  frame ;  and  when  he 
had  finished,  the  candles  were  at  once 
dashed  down,  the  bell  recommenced  to 
toll,  and  the  people  departed,  filled  with 


*  Satan  for  the  destruction  of  the 

flesh,  that  the  spirit  may  be  saved 

in  the  day  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 
- . - 1 

h  Job  2.  6 ;  Psa.  109.  6 :  1  Tim.  1. 20. - i  Acts  26.18 

supernatural  terror  and  an  awful  abhor¬ 
rence  of  the  victim  accursed.  Accord¬ 
ing  to  Protestantism,  excommunication 
being  the  means  of  securing  the  purity 
of  the  Church,  is  simply  the  severance 
of  the  guilty  from  the  sacraments  and 
from  all  membership  of  the  Church. 

5.  Unto  Satan — From  the  Church, 
under  Christ,  they  are  to  surrender  him 
unto  the  world  under  Satan.  De¬ 
struction  of  the  flesh — As  was  inflict¬ 
ed,  with  instant  death,  upon  Ananias 
and  Sapphira.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed, 
as  some  commentators  would  have  it, 
that  this  destruction  is  inflicted  by 
Satan,  but  by  the  judgment  of  God  upon 
one  who  is  handed  over  from  Christ  to 
Satan.  By  destruction  of  the  flesh 
some  commentators,  excluding  all  su¬ 
pernaturalism,  understand  the  destruc¬ 
tion  or  correction  of  the  carnal  disposi¬ 
tion,  as  the  natural  result  of  the  admo¬ 
nition  and  discipline  of  the  Church. 
Such  would  be  a  feeble  meaning.  A 
supernatural  bodily  emaciation  would, 
indeed,  tend  to  destroy  the  lust  of  the 
flesh,  and  so  would  be  a  very  suitable 
discipline;  just  as  blindness  inflicted 
upon  Elymas  was  a  suitable  penalty 
for  his  blindness  of  soul,  and  tended  to 
open  his  spiritual  perceptions.  Spirit 
may  be  saved — The  excommunication, 
though  an  act  of  severity,  is  an  act  of 
love.  It  is  the  Church’s  last  admoni¬ 
tion  of  the  guilty  to  win  him  unto  re¬ 
pentance.  And  the  destruction  of 
the  flesh,  by  illness  or  consumption 
short  of  death  from  supernatural  inflic¬ 
tion,  as  a  divine  penalty,  would  show  the 
truth  of  Christianity,  the  value  of  the 
Church,  and  the  guilt  of  sin ;  and  might 
perhaps  bring  the  apostate  to  reflec¬ 
tion,  conviction,  and  salvation.  So  St. 
Paul  delivered  Hymeneus  and  Alex¬ 
ander  unto  Satan,  in  order  that,  ad¬ 
monished  by  the  consequent  destruc¬ 
tion  of  the  flesh,  they  might  learn 
not  to  blaspheme. 

Upon  this  case  St.  Paul  now  (vv.  6-8) 
states  the  object  of  Church  discipline, 
namely,  the  purity  of  the  Church,  and 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  Y. 


39 


6  k  Your  glorying  is  not  good. 
Know  ye  not  that  1  a  little  leav¬ 
en  leaveneth  the  whole  lump  ? 
7  Purge  out  therefore  the  old 
leaven,  that  ye  may  be  a  new 
lump,  as  ye  are  unleavened.  For 
even  m  Christ  our  n  passover  2  is 

k  Verse  2;  chap.  3.  21 ;  4.  19;  James  4.  16. - 

l  Chap.  15.  33;  Gral.  5.  9;  2  Tim.  2.  17. - m  Isa. 

53.  7 ;  John  1.  29;  chap.  15.  3;  1  Pet.  1.  19;  Rev. 

(9-13)  the  degree  of  separation  from 
the  wicked  required,  and  the  limitation 
of  the  Church’s  discipline  to  its  own 
membership. 

b.  Sin,  like  a  pervading  leaven ,  must 
be  purged  from  the  Church ,  6-8. 

6.  Your  glorying — Rather,  your 
ground  of  boasting ;  namely,  an  entire 
forgetfulness  of  your  disgrace  from 
this  sensuality.  Not  good — Not  hon¬ 
ourable  or  noble.  It  was  a  base  insensi¬ 
bility  to  moral  reproach.  Know  ye 
not  —  A  solemn  phrase  indicating  a 
truth  it  behooved  them  well  to  know : 
used  by  St.  Paul  in  this  epistle  ten 
times.  Leaven — Is  a  portion  of  old 
dough  in  a  high  state  of  fermentation, 
which,  added  to  a  new  mass  of  dough, 
spreads  the  fermentation  through  the 
whole  lump,  and  so  renders  the 
bread,  upon  baking,  porous  and  light. 
As  this  fermentation  is  a  sort  of  dis¬ 
integration,  and  proves  so  pervasive, 
the  ancients  saw  in  it  an  image  of 
moral  corruption.  So  Plutarch  (quoted 
by  Wetstein)  says:  “Wherefore  is  it 
unlawful  for  the  priest  of  Jove,  called 
Flamen  Dialis,  to  touch  leaven?  Be¬ 
cause  leaven  itself  comes  of  putrefac¬ 
tion,  and  being  commingled  corrupts 
the  mass;  and  leaven  itself  seems, 
indeed,  a  putrifying ;  for  by  abounding, 
it  altogether  acidities  and  corrupts  the 
dour.”  Wetstein  also  thus  quotes  a  Jew¬ 
ish  author:  “Our  rabbins  call  lust  a  leav¬ 
en  in  the  lump;  for  as  a  little  of  the  yeast 
impregnates  the  whole  mass  and  cor¬ 
rupts  it,  so  lust  corrupts  the  whole  man.” 

7.  Purge  out— By  expelling  the  sin¬ 
ner  if  impenitent.  Old  leaven — This 
refers  not  to  any  process  by  ‘which 
leaven  can  be  expelled  from  the  im¬ 
pregnated  lump ;  but  more  probably  to 
the  practice  at  passover  of  expelling  all 
old  leaven  from  their  houses.  Note  on 


sacrificed  for  us :  §  Therefore  0  let 
us  keep  3 * * * * 8 9  the  feast,  ^not  with  old 
leaven,  neither  iwith  the  leaven 
of  malice  and  wickedness ;  but 
with  the  unleavened  bread  of  sin¬ 
cerity  and  truth. 

9  I  wrote  unto  you  in  an  epis- 

5.  6,  12.—  —n  John  19.  14. - 2  Or,  is  slain. - 

o  Exod.12.15;  13.6. - 3  Or,  holiday. - v  I)eut. 

16.  3. - gMatt.  16.  6,  12;  Mark  8. 15;  Luke  12. 1. 

Matt,  xx vi,  2.  The  original  reason  of 

this  use  of  unleavened  bread  was  to 

typify  the  haste  of  Israel’s  departure 

from  Egypt,  as  admitting  no  time  for 

leavened  bread  to  “rise.”  But  to  this 

was  subsequently  added  the  condemna¬ 
tion  of  leaven,  as  a  type  of  corruption 
and  a  relic  of  old  Egypt ;  and  so  a  ritual 
display  of  expulsion  was  performed. 

On  the  fourteenth  day  of  Nisan,  the 
whole  household  at  night,  in  formal  pro¬ 
cession,  searched  with  lighted  candles 
through  every  nook  and  corner  of  their 
residence  for  any  fancied  possible  par¬ 
ticle  of  old  leaven  to  be  expelled. 
ITence  arises  before  St.  Paul’s  mind  a 
full  allegory  of  the  purification  of  the 
Church  by  the  expulsion  of  sin.  Our 
passover — Point  after  point  St.  Paul 
takes  in  the  whole  symbolism  of  the 
passover.  How  truly  the  slaying  of 
the  victim  was  a  sacrifice,  and  how 
truly  Christ  was  the  reality  of  which 
the  victim  was  a  symbol,  we  have 
shown  in  note  on  Matt,  xxvi,  2. 

8.  Keep  the  feast — As  Christ  is 
our  sacrifice  once  offered,  with  perpet¬ 
ual  efficacy,  for  us,  so  our  redeemed 
life  is  a  perpetual  paschal  feast.  Old 
leaven — The  unregeneracy  of  our  old 
man.  Leaven,  consisting  of  malice 
— Greek,  Kama,  internal  evil  disposi¬ 
tion.  Wickedness  —  In  permanent, 
external  practice.  Sincerity  —  The 
Greek  word  implies  such  a  pure  trans¬ 
parency  of  substance  that  the  sun 
shines  through  it  without  detecting  a 
speck.  Hence  purity.  Truth — The 
opposite  of  error  or  deceit. 

c.  Separateness  must  be  from  evil¬ 
doers  in  the  Church — where  it  must  be 
rigid — rather  than  from  those  without, 
over  whom  Church  discipline  has  no  au¬ 
thority ,  9-13. 

9.  I  wrote — In  a  former  epistle  not 


40 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


tie  rnot  to  company  with  fornica¬ 
tors  :  1 0  8  Yet  not  altogether  with 
the  fornicators  1  of  this  world,  or 
with  the  covetous,  or  extortion¬ 
ers,  or  with  idolaters ;  for  then 
must  ye  needs  go  uout  of  the 
world.  II  But  now  I  have  writ¬ 
ten  unto  you  not  to  keep  compa¬ 
ny,  Tif  any  man  that  is  called  a 
brother  be  a  fornicator,  or  cove- 

r  See  verses  2,  7;  2  Cor.  6.  14;  Eph.  5.  11; 

2  Thess.  3.  14. sCliap.  10.  27. 1  Chap.  1.  20. 

- u  John  17.  15;  1  John  5.  19. - v  Matt.  18.  17  ; 

Rom.  16.  17 ;  2  Thess.  3.  6, 14 ;  2  John  10. 

now  extant.  Note  on  Acts  xix,  12.  A 
respectable  minority  of  commentators 
doubt  the  reality  of  this  former  epis¬ 
tle.  They  argue,  1.  The  words  an  epis¬ 
tle  (literally,  in  the  Greek,  the  epistle) 
might  be  rendered  this  epistle ;  and  that 
the  reference  might  be  to  verses  1-5. 
But  this  reference  we  think  to  be  scarce¬ 
ly  admissible.  2.  It  is  not  to  be  sup¬ 
posed  that  an  apostolic  epistle,  a  part 
of  the  sacred  canon,  would  be  lost.  But 
we  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
Paid  and  the  other  apostles  wrote  no 
more  letters  than  we  now  have  in  the 
New  Testament.  See  note  at  close  of 
preceding  chapter. 

10.  Of  this  world — In  Faul’s  last 
epistle  the  prohibition  of  associating 
with  the  sensualists  had  been  appa¬ 
rently  over  interpreted,  so  as  to  make 
any  association  in  the  dissolute  world 
of  Corinth  impracticable.  This  at  once 
produced  a  stern  asceticism,  and  over¬ 
looked  the  true  field  of  discipline,  which 
was  to  preserve  both  the  purity  and 
the  reputation  for  purity  of  the  holy 
Church.  Or  with — He  now  extends 
the  rule  to  other  vices  than  inconti¬ 
nence.  Covetous — Overreachers  in 
business.  Extortioners — Rapacious 
men  of  all  classes,  embezzlers,  pilla¬ 
gers,  robbers.  Idolaters — Image  wor¬ 
shippers.  Said  by  Grotius  to  be  the 
first  time  the  word  occurs  in  any  docu¬ 
ment  extant.  Go  out . .  .  world — And 
St.  Paul  here  clearly  assumes  that  it  is 
the  Christian’s  duty  to  stay  in  the 
world.  Christianity  allows  no  right 
to  shut  one’s  self  up  in  a  monastery, 
convent,  or  cave;  no  right  to  become 
a  monk  or  a  nun. 


tous,  or  an  idolater,  or  a  railer,  or 
a  drunkard,  or  an  extortioner; 
with  such  a  one  w  no  not  to  eat. 
12  For  what  have  I  to  do  to  judge 
xthem  also  that  are  without?  do 
not  ye  judge  ^tliem  that  are  with¬ 
in?  B  3  But  them  that  are  with¬ 
out  Gocljudgeth.  Therefore  2 put 
away  from  among  yourselves  that 
wicked  person. 

w  Galatians  2.  12. - x  Mark  4.  11 ;  Colossians 

4.  5  ;  1  Tkess;ilonians  4.  12;  1  Timothy  3.  7. - 

V  Chapter  6.  1-4. - z  Deuteronomy  13.  5;  17.  7 ; 

21.  21 ;  22.  21,  22,  24. 

11.  But  now — In  this  letter  written 
here  to  define  more  clearly  my  former 
words.  Called  a  brother — Whom 
}Tour  associating  with  would,  construc¬ 
tively,  sanction  his  claim  to  brother¬ 
hood  in  the  Church.  Not  to  eat — In 
such  a  way  as  would  seem  to  admit 
to  the  pagans  of  Corinth  a  Church  as¬ 
sociation  with  him.  This  does  not  mean 
merely  to  refuse  sacramental  commun¬ 
ion  with  him,  but  the  interchange  of 
table  hospitalities ;  a  separateness  nec¬ 
essarily  more  severe  in  a  heathen  than 
a  Christian  community.  The  inten¬ 
tion  is  not  to  punish  him,  or  to  make 
an  enemy  of  him,  or  to  render  him 
miserable ;  but  to  secure  the  Church 
equally  from  the  infection  and  the  dis¬ 
grace  of  his  fellowship.  Seneca  (quoted 
by  Wetstein)  says:  “It  matters  not  so 
much  what ,  as  with  whom ,  you  eat  and 
drink.” 

12.  For — I  limit  the  application  of 
this  rule  to  a  brother,  for  the  following 
reason.  What. .  .to  do — What  right 
do  I  possess  ?  J udge . . .  without  — 

Church  discipline  assumes  but  to  gov¬ 
ern  the  Church,  whose  members  have 
voluntarily  placed  themselves  under 
its  authority.  The  Church  is  a  holy 
republic,  governed  by  its  own  laws. 
Do  not  ye — Do  not  you,  as  a  Church, 
limit  your  discipline  to  your  own  num¬ 
ber,  and  thereby  show  that  such  was 
the  meaning  of  my  letter  ? 

13.  God  judgeth  —  Many  pagan 
Corinthians  may  have  been  far  more 
corrupt  than  this  incestuous  Church 
member.  But  they  could  not  be  ex¬ 
pelled  the  Church,  for  they  were  al¬ 
ready  without  its  pale.  Nor  had  the 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


41 


CHAPTER  VI. 

DARE  any  of  you,  having  a 
matter  against  another,  go 
to  law  before  the  unjust,  and  not 


a  Psa.  49.  14;  Dan.  7.  22;  Matt.  19.  28; 

apostle  any  miraculous  power  to  ema¬ 
ciate  their  bodies  or  blind  tlieir  eyes. 
If  he  had  possessed  such  power  he 
would  have  also  had  a  stupendous 
amount  of  penal  work  on  his  hands. 
Judgment  enough  was  impending  over 
them,  from  inflicting  which  the  apos¬ 
tle  was  exempt  by  God’s  own  power. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Paul’s  Second  Response: — To  the 
Rumour  of  Brother  going  to  Law 
with  Brother,  vi,  1-20. 

a.  The  presumption  of  humbling  Chris - 
tianity  before  heathendom ,  1-8. 

The  assertion  of  the  last  chapter  is, 
positively,  that  the  Churcli  is  judge 
within  itself  of  its  own.  The  assertion 
now  is,  negatively,  that  it  is  an  un¬ 
warrantable  thing  to  arraign  a  Christian 
before  a  pagan  judge. 

1.  Dare — The  word  strikes  a  high 
keynote.  However  humble  its  exter¬ 
nals,  the  Christian  republic  is,  in  Christ, 
far  above  all  principalities  and  powers. 
It  is,  therefore,  a  flagrant  and  treason¬ 
able  daring  to  bring  it  to  the  bar  of 
heathendom.  Litigation  between  Christ¬ 
ian  men  is  ever  a  scandal,  because  it 
is  rightly  expected  that  they  will  be  just 
and  peaceable.  But  in  our  Christian 
land,  such  often  is  the  character  of  our 
courts,  that  a  civil  trial  is,  from  their 
power  of  compelling  the  evidence,  often 
surer  of  a  just  result  than  an  ecclesi¬ 
astical  court  can  be.  Unjust — lie  says 
unjust,  rather  .than  unbelieving ,  inas¬ 
much  as  it  is  matter  of  judging  and 
justice  that  is  in  discussion.  Saints — 
Sancti,  sanctified  or  holy  ones.  Note 
on  i,  2. 

2.  Not  know — As  they  ought-  to 
know  from  Dan.  vii,  22,  and  other 
scriptures.  Saints  —  The  very  saints 
to  whom  Daniel  affirms  that  the  king¬ 
dom  shall  be  given.  J udge — Or,  rule. 
For  in  ancient  times,  as  judges  ruled 
much  by  discretion,  and  kings  often 


before  the  saints?  2  Do  ye  not 
know  that  athe  saints  shall  judge 
the  world?  and  if  the  world  shall 
be  judged  by  you,  are  ye  unwor* 

Luke  22.  30 ;  Rev.  2.  26 ;  3.  21 ;  20.  4. 

held  the  judicial  to  be  part  of  the  rojml 
office,  to  judge  and  to  rule  are  very 
much  the  same  thing.  The  Judges 
of  the  j Book  of  Judges  were  executive 
as  well  as  judicial  rulers.  Our  final 
Judge,  even  in  the  act  of  sentencing,  is 
also  King.  Matt,  xxiv,  34,  40.  Nor 
does  St.  Paul’s  argument  require  a  lit¬ 
eral  judicial  action  by  the  saints  over 
the  world  in  order  to  show  their  su¬ 
periority  over  pagan  tribunals.  In  the 
two  clearest  pictorial  presentations  of 
the  final  judgment  in  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment,  namely,  Matt,  xxv  and  xxvi,  and 
Rev.  xx,  1 1—15,  the  saints  are  depicted 
only  as  judged,  and  not  as  judges.  Al¬ 
ford  maintains  that  the  saints  will,  at 
the  advent,  judge  as  assessors ,  or  side 
judges ,  with  Christ;  but  when  he  comes 
to  the  angels  of  verse  3  he  confesses  a 
break  down.  How  or  when,  even  as 
assessors  with  Christ,  will  saints  judge 
angels  ?  It  is  not,  we  think,  as  asses¬ 
sors  with  Christ  merely  that  the  saint: > 
will  judge  and  reign,  but  as  in  Christ, 
as  mystically  one  with  him  (verse  15; 
and  represented  by  him.  Note,  iii,  22. 
Personally,  though  they  have  no  sub¬ 
jects,  yet  are  they  Icings  in  his  royalty , 
though  they  perform  no  sacrifice,  yet 
they  are  priests  in  his  priesthood ; 
though  they  arraign  no  criminal,  yet 
they  are  judges  in  his  judgment.  They 
are  one  with  him ;  their  cause  is  his 
cause ;  and  they  suffer  in  all  its  defeats, 
triumph  in  all  its  triumphs,  and  rule  in 
all  its  dominations,  whether  over  men  in 
time  or  over  men  and  angels  in  eterni¬ 
ty.  If.  . .  world ...  be  judged  by  you 
— In  the  sphere  of  the  Spirit  the  apostle 
tells  us  that  even  now  (ii,  15)  “he  that 
is  spiritual  judgeth  all  things,  yet  he 
himself  is  judged  of  no  man.”  In  the 
triumphs  of  the  apostolic  age  the  twelve 
sat  upon  twelve  thrones  judging  (that  is, 
ruling)  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel.  Jf, 
then,  the  realm  of  the  true  Church  is 
truly  far  above  that  of  the  world,  cer¬ 
tainly  it  ought  not  to  be  judged  by  the 


42 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


1 1 1 v  to  judge  the  smallest  mat¬ 
ters  ?  3  Know  ye  not  that  we 

shall  b judge  angels  ?  how  much 
more  things  that  pertain  to  this 
life  ?  4  cIf  then  ye  have  judg¬ 

ments  of  things  pertaining  to  this 
life,  set  them  to  judge  who  are 
least  esteemed  in  the  church.  5  I 
speak  to  your  shame.  Is  it  so, 
that  there  is  not  a  wise  man  among 

1 2  Pet.  2.  4;  Jude  6. - c  Chap.  5. 12. - d  Matt. 

pagan  world.  Unworthy .  . .  smallest 
matters — As,  comparatively,  all  world¬ 
ly  matters  are. 

3.  Shall  judge  angels — Our  inter¬ 
pretation  dismisses  the  question  so 
puzzling  to  some  commentators,  wheth¬ 
er  good  or  bad  angels,  or  both,  are 
meant.  For  Christ,  truly,  is  Lord  and 
Judge  of  both  heaven  and  hell;  of 
men  and  angels  good  and  bad ;  and 
those  who  suffer  and  rejoice  in  union 
with  his  mystical  body  here  will  reign 
in  him  and  with  him  through  eternity. 
Hence  Olshausen  well  says,  “Angels 
themselves  stand  lower  in  the  order  of 
beings  than  those  in  whose  hearts 
Christ  is  formed.” 

This  s)rmbolism,  of  which  Paul  gives 
us  an  occasional  glimpse,  is  unfolded 
in  full  volume  by  John  in  the  Apoca¬ 
lypse.  The  suppression  of  the  cause 
of  Christ  on  earth  is  beautifully  repre¬ 
sented  by  the  symbolical  souls  of  the 
martyrs  under  the  altar,  (Rev.  xiv,  4;) 
and  its  triumphs  by  the  symbol  of 
these  same  souls  having  attained  to  a 
first  resurrection,  and  reigning  in  the 
spirit-world  with  Christ,  over  the  evan¬ 
gelized  earth.  Rev.  xx,  4. 

4.  Least  esteemed — Alford  truly 
calls  this  “  a  lofty  irony.”  And  yet  it 
implies  a  divine  truth.  Earthly  mat¬ 
ters  are  comparatively  trifles  in  the 
light  of  eternity ;  and  he  who  is  a  priest 
and  king ,  through  Christ,  unto  God, 
might  easily  trust  a  trifle  of  time  to  be 
decided  by  the  humblest  brother  king. 
Yet  the  next  verse  shows  that  St.  Paul 
is  not  seriously  advising  them  to  trust 
their  disputes  to  the  arbitration  of  in¬ 
competent  hands. 

5.  Your  shame  —  He  has  shown 
them  the  high  ideal  of  their  state  in 


vou  ?  no,  not  one  that  shall  be  able 

t/  ' 

to  judge  between  his  brethren  ? 
6  But  brother  goeth  to  law  with 
brother,  and  that  before  the  unbe¬ 
lievers.  7  Now  therefore  there 
is  utterly  a  fault  among  you,  be¬ 
cause  ye  go  to  law  one  with  -an¬ 
other.  d  Why  do  ye  not  rather  take 
wrong  ?  Why  do  ye  not  rather 
suffer  yourselves  to  be  defrauded  ? 

5.  39;  Luke  6.  29;  Rom.  12.  17,  19;  1  Thess.  5.  15. 

Christ  to  humiliate  them  for  debasing 
that  ideal  before  heathen  magistrates 
Able  to  judge — On  the  level  of  plain, 
literal  thought,  St.  Paul  here  advises 
them  to  place  their  disputes  before 
some  competent  Christian  arbiter. 

6.  Brother  goeth  to  law — By  favour 
of  the  Roman  government  (see  note  on 
Acts  ix,  2)  the  Jews  were  permitted  to 
establish  courts  of  their  own  for  the 
trial  of  cases  between  Jew  and  Jew. 
And  by  a  law  of  the  Jews  it  was  un¬ 
lawful  for  a  Jew  to  arraign  a  Jew  be¬ 
fore  a  Gentile  court.  Christian  courts 
were  early  established  by  the  Church 
for  settling  disputes  between  Christ¬ 
ians.  Stanley  quotes  from  the  Apos¬ 
tolic  Constitution,  a  document  of  the 
middle  of  the  second  century,  a  striking 
passage  to  this  effect.  The  Christian 
rule,  however,  did  not  forbid  the  pros¬ 
ecuting  of  a  heathen  by  a  Christian  be¬ 
fore  a  heathen  tribunal.  A  narrative  is 
related  of  St.  Julitta,  who,  having  pros¬ 
ecuted  a  pagan  for  theft,  withdrew  her 
suit  when  required  by  the  court,  as 
a  condition  of  a  verdict,  to  renounce 
her  Christian  faith.  When,  at  length, 
Christianity  became  the  established  re¬ 
ligion  of  the  Roman  empire,  these 
courts  gradually  grew  into  powerful 
ecclesiastical  courts,  and  became  a 
stronghold  of  the  popish  hierarchy. 

7.  A  fault — A  shortcoming ;  a  fail¬ 
ure  to  attain  the  true  high  Christian 
level,  requiring  them  to  suffer  wrong 
rather  than  to  do  wrong  by  abasing  the 
Church  before  heathendom.  Defraud¬ 
ed — To  be  deprived,  that  is,  of  rights 
or  property.  The  spirit  prescribed  by 
the  apostle  would  strike  at  the  roots  of 
all  Church  divisions.  It  is  a  favoured 
country  where  law'  is  both  just  and 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


43 


§  Nay,  ye  do  wrong,  and  defraud, 
eand  that  your  brethren. 

9  Know  ye  not  that  the  un¬ 
righteous  shall  not  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God?  Be  not  de¬ 
ceived:  f  neither  fornicators,  nor 
idolaters,  nor  adulterers,  nor  ef¬ 
feminate,  nor  abusers  of  them¬ 
selves  with  mankind,  10  Nor 

el  Thess.  4.  6. - -f  Chap.  15.  50;  Gal.  5.  21; 

Eph.  a.  5;  1  Tim.  1.  9;  Heb.  12.  14;  13.  4;  llev. 

supreme.  But  a  diminution  of  litigation 
is  a  good  proof  of  advancing  civiliza¬ 
tion.  It  arises  from  a  disposition  to 
suffer  rather  than  contend. 

8.  Nay — You  follow  the  reverse  of 
the  Christian  course,  and  are,  there¬ 
fore,  in  need  of  the  following  warning 
of  failing  at  last  of  the  kingdom  of 
God. 

b.  Sensualities  and  other  vices  exclude 
from  the  kingdom  of  God ,  9-11. 

St.  Paul  has  just  been  holding  up  the 
highest  ideal  of  the  kingdom  of  God — 
the  glorious  judgeship  [rulership]  of  the 
saints — as  reason  why  his  Corinthians 
should  not  humble  each  other  before 
pagan  courts.  Their  tendency  to  do 
so  directs  his  thoughts  to  that  cluster 
of  vices,  especially  sensuality ,  by  which, 
amid  the  dissoluteness  of  Corinth,  they 
were  in  imminent  danger  of  forfeiting 
their  title  to  God’s  glorious  kingdom. 
Hence  these  words  of  earnest  warning 
are  pervaded  throughout  with  a  secret 
reference  to  their  easy  remissness  in 
regard  to  the  fornicator. 

9.  Kingdom  of  God — In  which  the 
holy  do,  through  Christ,  overrule  the 
unholy.  Be  not  deceived — Middle 
voice,  Deceive  not  yourselves.  Neither 
your  past  rich  experience  nor  your 
membership  in  Christ’s  Church  can 
save  you  in  your  sensuality  and  other 
vices.  Idolaters — A  large  share  of 
whose  ritual  is  sensual  indulgence. 
Effeminate  —  Pathics.  Abusers  — 
Sodomites.  Bom.  i,  26,  27. 

11.  Washed — Greek  middle  voice, 
Ye  have  washed  yourselves ;  that  is, 
bv  regeneration  internally,  symbolized 
by  baptism,  externally.  Sanctified — 
And,  therefore,  these  sensualities  are 
the  opposite  of  your  character.  Justi¬ 
fied —And  so  such  practices  must  for- 


thieves,  nor  covetous,  nor  drunk¬ 
ards,  nor  revilers,  nor  extortion¬ 
ers,  shall  inherit  the  kingdom  of 
God.  11  And  such  were  ^some 
of  you :  h  but  ye  are  washed,  but 
ye  are  sanctified,  but  ye  are 
justified  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  and  by  the  Spirit  of  our 
God. 

22.  15. - g  Chap.  12.  2;  Eph.  2.  2;  4.  22;  5.  8; 

Col.  3.  7 ;  Titus  3.  3. - h  Chap.  1.  30 ;  Heb.  10.  22. 

feit  your  justification,  and  exclude  you 
from  the  kingdom  of  God. 

This  paragraph  condemns,  1.  All 
idea  that  the  being  once  justified  in¬ 
sures,  in  spite  of  relapse  into  vice,  a 
secured  inheritance  of  God’s  glorified 
kingdom;  and,  2.  All  Antinomianism ; 
that  is,  the  doctrine  that  a  Christian’s 
professional  holiness  renders  his  sin 
and  vice  righteous  and  safe,  so  that  he 
may  transgress  with  impunity. 

c.  Nor  can  sensualities  be  excused  by 
the  lawfulness  of  all  natural  gratification , 
12-20.' 

A  doctrine  by  which  the  Corinthian 
Antinomians,  whose  views  of  Christ¬ 
ian  ethics  were  yet  unshaped,  were 
deceiving  themselves ,  (verse  9,)  is  now 
stated  and  explained.  God  has  given 
internal  appetites  and  external  objects 
to  gratify  them.  This  is  the  divine 
constitution.  He  has  given,  for  in¬ 
stance,  the  stomach  and  the  food,  (verse 
13 ;)  so  he  has  given  the  sexual  in¬ 
stincts  and  the  sex;  the  desire  for 
wealth  and  external  property,  etc.  St. 
Paul  replies,  that  all  those  external 
objects  are  truly  lawful  sources  of 
gratification ;  yet  the  unrestrained  grat¬ 
ification  is  limited  by  the  law  of  the 
expedient,  and  that  limits  the  right. 
The  injurious  is  wrong,  the  truly  ben¬ 
eficial  alone  is  right.  And  so  we  are 
truly  restricted  not  only  to  the  right 
object,  but  also  to  that  object  in  the 
right  degree. 

The  interpretation  given  by  the  great 
body  of  commentators — “  all  indifferent 
things  are  lawful  ” — seems  not  only 
itself  an  empty  truism,  but  involves  per¬ 
plexity  in  carrying  a  consistent  mean¬ 
ing  through  the  paragraph.  Our  inter¬ 
pretation  perhaps  justifies  itself  by  its 
clear  results. 


44 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  I).  57. 


12  ‘All  things  are  lawful  unto 
me,  but  all  things  are  not  Expe¬ 
dient:  all  things  are  lawful  forme, 
but  I  will  not  be  brought  under 
the  power  of  any.  13  k  Meats  for 
the  belly,  and  the  belly  for  meats : 
but  God  shall  destroy  both  it  and 
them.  Now  the  body  is  not  for  for¬ 
nication,  but  ‘for  the  Lord;  mand 
the  Lord  for  the  body.  14  And 

t  Cnap.  10.  23. - 1  Or,  profitable. - k  Matt. 

15. 17;  Rom.  14.  17;  Col.  2.  22,  23. - 1  Verses  15, 

19,  20 ;  1  Thess.  4. 3, 7. - m  Eph.  5.  23. - n  Rom. 

12.  All  things — All  gratifying  ob¬ 
jects.  We  are  endowed  with  natural 
appetites,  desires,  and  preferences  by 
our  very  constitution.  Innumerable 
objects  are,  correspondently,  endowed 
with  the  quality  to  gratify  and  satiate 
all  those  our  internal  appetences.  The 
world  is  thus  to  us  a  storehouse  of  en¬ 
joyments.  And  this,  being  God’s  own 
constitution,  is  lawful.  Unto  me — 
St.  Paul,  as  afellow-Christian  with  those 
using  this  reasoning,  uses  it  as  appli¬ 
cable  to  himself.  Not  expedient — 
However  gratifying  to  our  appetences 
many  of  these  objects,  yet  most  of 
them,  unless  rightly  used,  become  inju¬ 
rious  to  body  or  mind.  So  that  the  uni¬ 
versality  becomes  immensely  reduced. 
Under  the  power — As  we  may  sin, 
and  ruin  ourselves  by  selecting  the 
wrong  object,  so  we  may  do  the  same 
by  accepting  and  using  the  right  object 
in  excess.  And  that  excess  often  en¬ 
slaves  us  to  the  power  of  the  object. 
Food  is  lawful  for  the  stomach,  but 
gluttony  is  unlawful. 

13.  Meat... belly — An  instance  of 
the  above  mentioned  correspondence  or 
correlation  between  the  internal  appe¬ 
tite  and  the  external  object.  Food  and 
the  stomach  were  made  for  each  other. 
God  shall  destroy — This  correlation 
between  appetite  and  supply,  the  stom¬ 
ach  and  the  food,  though  divinely  estab¬ 
lished,  is  transient.  Death  will  demol¬ 
ish  it ;  and  in  the  reorganization  at  the 
resurrection  it  will  be  omitted  from  the 
glorified  body.  Body ..  .fornication 
— If  there  are  correlations  there  are  al¬ 
so  repugnances.  The  stomach  and  the 
due  food  are  rightly  correlated;  the 
body  and  the  harlot  are  fearfully  oppo- 


n  God  hath  both  raised  up  the  Lord, 
and  will  also  raise  up  us  °by  his 
own  power.  15  Know  ye  not  that 
pyour  bodies  are  the  members  of 
Christ  ?  shall  I  then  take  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  Christ,  and  make  them  the 
members  of  a  harlot?  God  for 
bid.  16  What!  know  ye  not  that 
he  which  is  joined  to  a  harlot  is 
one  body?  for  Hwo,  saith  he,  shall 

6.  5,  8;  8.  11;  2  Cor.  4.  14. o  Eph.  1.  19,  20. - 

p  Rom.  12.  5;  chap.  12.  27;  Eph.  4.  12,  15,  16; 
5.  30. - q  Gen.  2.  24;  Matt.  19.  5;  Eph.  5.  31. 

site  and  repugnant.  For  the  Lord 
— The  true  transcendent,  spiritual, 
eternal  correlation  is  between  the  sanc¬ 
tified  body  and  the  Lord.  Lord  for 
the  body — The  correlation  between 
the  appetite  and  the  food  is  earthly  and 
transient the  correlation  between  our 
body  and  the  Lord  is  heavenly  and 
eternal,  being,  as  shown  in  verse  14, 
carried  up  into  the  resurrection.  It 
springs  from  the  fact  that  our  glorious 
Lord  will  glorify  our  bodies.  Here, 
as  in  chapter  xv,  Paul  bases  our  hope 
of  a  future  life,  not  distinctly  on  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  but  upon  the 
resurrection  through  Christ. 

14.  And — In  accordance  with  this 
correlation  between  our  bodies  and  the 
Lord.  Raise  up  us — So  that  while 
the  correlation  between  the  stomach 
and  the  food  God  will  destroy  at 
death,  the  correlation  between  our 
body  and  the  Lord,  God  will  renew 
in  the  resurrection. 

15.  The  nature  of  this  last  blessed 
correlation  he  will  now  declare.  Know 
ye  not — As  you  seem,  by  your  easy 
dealing  with  the  fornicator,  not  to 
know.  Members  of  the  mystical 
body  of  Christ — A  oneness  foreshad¬ 
owed  in  the  Church  below,  but  to  be 
gloriously  disclosed  in  the  Church  of 
the  resurrection.  Members  of  a  har¬ 
lot — Under  this  awful  conception  (ex¬ 
plained  in  next  verse)  St.  Paul  opens 
to  his  Corinthians  the  intense  opposi¬ 
tion  of  Christianity  to  the  characteristic 
vice  of  their  city. 

16.  One  body — He  holds  the  tran¬ 
sient  union  to  be,  as  it  were,  a  brief  Sa¬ 
tanic  marriage,  in  which  the  whole  be¬ 
ing  of  the  guilty  pair  is  lawlessly  iden- 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


45 


be  one  flesh.  17  rBut  he  that  is 
joined  unto  the  Lord  is  one  spirit. 
1§  sFlee  fornication.  Every  sin 
that  a  man  doeth  is  without  the 
body ;  but  he  that  committeth  for¬ 
nication  sinneth  1  against  his  own 
body.  19  What!  uknow  ye  not 

r  John  17.  21-23;  Eph.  4.  4;  5.  30. s  Rom.  6. 

12,  13;  Heb.  13.  4. - £Rom.  1.  24;  1  Thess.  4.  4. 

- u  Chap.  3.  16;  2  Cor.  6.  16. 

tified,  and  the  members  of  each  are 
members  of  both.  Saith  he — Saith 
God.  St.  Paul  quotes  words  originally 
applied  to  holy  marriage. 

17.  One  spirit — With  the  Lord. 

18.  The  apostle  now  breaks  out  in 
direct  address.  Flee,  0  ye  Corinthi¬ 
ans,  your  destroying  vice,  fornication. 
Flee — As  Joseph  fled  from  the  wife 
of  his  master;  for,  as  St.  Anselm  says, 
“other  vices  are  best  conquered  by  fight¬ 
ing,  this  by  running  away.”  Without 
the  body — Extra  of  the  body.  That  is, 
every  sin  is  really  committed  by  the 
soul,  through  the  will,  and  the  body 
is  only  the  instrument.  Against — 
Rather,  into.  Fornication  differs  not 
from  other  sins  touching  its  being  com¬ 
mitted  by  the  soul ;  but  pre-eminently 
of  all  it  pours  the  sin  into  and  through¬ 
out  the  body.  And  this  striking  of 
this  sin  through  the  whole  body  consists 
not  merely  in  its  withering,  and  wast¬ 
ing,  and  destroying  power  upon  the 
body,  but  in  something  deeper,  more 
awful,  and  more  truly  eternal.  As  the 
whole  being  is  satanicallv  unified  with 
the  harlot,  so  the  whole  body  becomes, 
in  its  uncleanness,  the  perfect  opposite 
of  the  pure  person  of  Jesus  the  pure. 
How  awfully  incapable,  then,  of  coming 
into  mystic  oneness  with  him.  And 
from  these  views  it  would  seem  to  fol¬ 
low  that  lawless  love  is  really  more 
truly  opposite  to  Christ  than  even  law¬ 
less  hate.  Our  Corinthians  may  now 
infer  how  detestable  is  that  religion 
with  which  their  city  so  abounded,  and 
of  which  debauchery  was  one  of  the 
consecrated  rites. 

19.  What!  —  A  term  of  indignant 
surprise  at  his  Corinthians  not  having 
realized  this  in  their  easiness  with  the 
fornicator.  Body — Your  soul  is  the 
resident  of  the  body  as  its  home; 


that  your  body  is  the  temple  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  in  you, 
which  ye  have  of  God,  vand  ye 
are  not  your  own  ?  20  For  w  ye 

are  bought  with  a  price :  therefore 
glorify  God  in  your  body,  and  in 
your  spirit,  which  are  God’s. 

v  Rom.  14.  7,8. - w  Acts  20.  28;  chap.  7.  23; 

Oral.  3.  13;  Heb.  9.  12;  1  Peter  1.  18,  19;  2  Peter 
2.  1 ;  Rev.  5.  9. 

while  the  Holy  Ghost  consecrates  it  as 
his  temple.  Materialistic  philosophers 
of  the  present  day  have  reproached 
Christianity  with  endeavouring,  in  its 
effort  for  exalting  the  soul,  to  depreci¬ 
ate  the  real  worth  and  dignity  of  the 
body.  Popish  monasticism  has,  indeed, 
done  so.  The  macerations,  and  flagel¬ 
lations,  and  other  cruelties  inflicted  by 
Romish  monkery  on  the  body  of  its 
devotees  are  not  drawn  from  the  New 
Testament,  but  borrowed  from  the 
Buddhisms  and  Brahmanisms  of  the 
East.  On  the  contrary,  true  Christian¬ 
ity,  by  its  doctrines  of  the  incarnation 
and  resurrection,  puts  an  honour  upon 
the  body  of  which  materialistic  phi¬ 
losophy  knows  nothing.  Not  your 
own — Ye  walk  on  earth  as  beings  be¬ 
longing  to  the  holy  God,  pervaded  by 
his  indwelling  Spirit. 

20.  With  a  price — Directing  their 
thoughts  to  the  blood  of  the  atonement. 
Therefore  glorify  God — Honour,  and 
spread  the  honour,  of  the  holy  God  by 
the  spirit  of  purity  in  your  body.  So 
that  holiness  is  not  confined  to  the  soul. 
It  must  reign  in  the  body  and  act  forth 
in  its  actions. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Paul’s  Third  Response  : — To  the 
Questions  Concerning  Marriage, 
vii,  1-40. 

Meyer  here  enters  into  a  prolix  dis¬ 
cussion  as  to  which  party  among  the 
Corinthians  raised  this  question.  He 
decided  that,  as  Peter  was  married, 
it  could  not  be  the  Petrines;  and  as 
the  Christines  appear  not  to  have 
cherished  any  idealisms,  it  was  not 
they ;  but  as  Paul  was  not  then  in  the 
married  state,  and  the  chapter  favours 
celibacy,  (verse  7,)  it  was  probably  the 
Paulines.  We  suppose  that  the  episto 


46 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

NOW  concerning  the  things 
whereof  ye  wrote  unto  me : 

a  Verses 

larv  inquiry  was  the  result  of  a  conflict 
of  opinions. 

There  were  probably  three  tendencies 
of  thought  among  the  Corinthians  on 
the  subject  of  marriage.  1.  The  Jew¬ 
ish  yiew  regarded  marriage  as  a  duty, 
so  that  the  celibacy  of  a  man  beyond 
twenty  was  a  sin.  2.  The  Roman 
opinion,  in  whose  schools  of  philoso¬ 
phy  it  was  a  standing  topic  of  debate 
whether  a  wise  man  should  marry. 
Those  who  decided  from  self-interest, 
arguing  from  the  temper  of  women,  the 
cares  of  living,  and  the  responsibility 
for  children,  took  the  negative.  Those 
who  argued  from  the  public  good,  the 
order  of  society,  the  restraint  from  li¬ 
centiousness,  and  the  need  of  posterity, 
maintained  the  affirmative.  3.  As¬ 
cetics,  who  held  all  sin  to  lie  in  matter, 
who  condemned  all  bodily  indulgences, 
forbade  meats,  denied  our  bodily  resur¬ 
rection,  and  some  of  whom  even  ques¬ 
tioned  the  corporeity  of  Christ.  See 
our  note  on  Acts  viii,  9.  No  wonder, 
then,  that  Paul’s  converts  resorted  to 
him  by  letter  for  decision  between  the 
three. 

1.  Advisory  counsel  as  to  mar¬ 
riage  and  celibacy,  1-9. 

1.  Concerning  — This  concerning 

is  repeated  at  verse  25,  viii,  1,  and 
xii,  1,  as  commencing  responses  to  the 
several  written  queries.  Good — Ka/lov, 
proper  to  a  Christian  man ;  the  reverse 
of  aiGxphv,  shameful,  improper. 

Paul  here  compares  celibacy  and 
matrimony,  not  in  respect  to  their  in¬ 
ti  insic  holiness ,  but  in  respect  to  the 
comparative  probability  that  a  given  per¬ 
son  will  be  holy  in  one  or  the  other.  If 
persons  have  not  the  gift  of  continence 
they  are  not  likely  to  be  holy  in  celi¬ 
bacy  ;  and  they  had  better  prefer  the 
chance  of  being  holy  in  marriage.  If 
they  hav£5  the  gift  of  continence  they 
had  better  remain  celibate,  as  they 
would  thereby  be  free  from  the  moral 
dangers  of  marriage.  That  is,  some 
persons  can  be  most  holy  in  celibacy, 
others  most  holy  in  marriage.  And 


*  It  is  good  for  a  man  not  to  touch 
a  woman.  2  Nevertheless,  to  avoid 
fornication,  let  every  man  have  his 

8,  26. _ _ _ 

here  comes  in  the  suggestion  of  Stanley, 
that  marriage  and*  the  family  constitu¬ 
tion  stand  on  a  much  higher  moral 
plane  in  these  later  European  Christian 
ages  than  in  the  old  Orient.  Paul’s  rea¬ 
soning  would  land  him  in  far  stronger 
matrimonial  conclusions  in  our  day 
than  his  own.  Protestantism  prefers, 
for  many  good  reasons,  that  even  her 
foreign  missionaries  should  be  married. 

That  the  apostle  sees  no  superior  ho¬ 
liness  in  celibacy  is  plain.  1.  He  utters 
no  rapturous  eulogy  upon  it,  like  later 
monastic  writers ;  advocates  no  vows 
of  virginity;  proposes  no  convents  nor 
monasteries.  Celibacy  is  holy  only  if 
one  is  holy  in  it.  2.  Marriage,  with 
Paul,  lias  a  holy  ideal,  being  typical  of 
the  unity  in  the  Trinity,  (1  Cor.  xi,  13,) 
and  of  the  union  between  Christ  and 
his  Church.  Eph.  v,  25,  32.  Similarly 
St.  John  (Rev.  xiv,  4)  honours  the  vir¬ 
gins,  but  yet  makes  the  glorified  Church 
to  be  “the  bride,  the  Lamb’s  wife.” 
Rev.xxi,  2.  Says  Jeremy  Taylor:  “Sin¬ 
gle  life  makes  men  in  one  respect  like 
angels ;  but  marriage,  in  many  things, 
makes  the  chaste  pair  be  like  Christ.’' 

Touch — A  term  of  modesty  (equiva¬ 
lent  to  the  Latin  tangere )  to  express 
any  contact  with  sexual  purpose  or 
feeling.  Same  word  in  Gen.  xx,  4. 

St.  Jerome,  “in  his  heat  against  Jo- 
vinian,”  as  Fulke  ( Confut .  of  Rhemish 
Test)  says,  argued,  “  If  good  not  to 
touch  a  woman,  it  is  evil  to  touch ;  for 
nothing  is  contrary  to  good  but  evil.” 
And  again  the  same  ascetic  saint  ar¬ 
gued,  in  a  similar  “  heat,”  “  If,  as  Paul 
commands,  we  must  always  pray,  we 
must  never  serve  marriage ;  for  so  often 
as  I  render  due  to  marriage  I  cannot 
pray.”  This  last  logic  would  equally 
forbid  sleeping.  And  as  for  the  in¬ 
ference  from  the  contrariety  of  “evil” 
to  good,  St.  Paul  holds  that  celibacy 
and  marriage  are  not  the  one  good  and 
the  other  oppositely  evil ;  but  each  to 
be  good  or  evil  according  to  the  case. 

2.  To  avoid  fornication  —  The 
translators  have  inserted  to  avoid ,  as 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  YIT. 


47 


own  wife,  and  let  every  woman 
have  her  own  husband.  3  bLet 
the  husband  render  unto  the  wife 
due  benevolence:  and  likewise  also 
the  wife  unto  the  husband.  4  The 
wife  hath  not  power  of  her  own 
body,  but  the  husband :  and  like¬ 
wise  also  the  husband  hath  not 
power  of  his  own  body,  but  the 
wife.  5  c  Defraud  ye  not  one 
the  other,  except  it  be  with  con- 

b  Exod.  21 .  10 ;  1  Pet.  3.  7. - c  Joel  2. 16 ;  Zech. 

7.  3;  Exod.  19.  15;  1  Sam.  21.  4,  5. - d  1  Thess. 

the  italics  show ;  but  incorrectly.  The 
Greek  means.  Nevertheless ,  on  account  of 
the  fornications;  that  is,  the  prevalent 
licentiousnesses,  as  in  Corinth.  Own 
wife — A  clear  implication  against  po- 
lvgamy.  Indeed,  through  the  whole 
chapter  the  Christian  law  of  one  with 
one  is  assumed.  The  present  words  of 
the  apostle  at  once  abolish  the  ascetic 
view,  which  holds  all  sexual  union  as 
based  in  unholy  corporeal  matter  to  be 
unholy.  Romish  monasticism,  which 
was  really  based  in  that  view,  is  hereby 
•invalidated  from  its  very  foundations. 
Stanley  notes  the  different  phrases  of 
the  apostle’s  Greek  for  his  own,  ttjv 
kavrdv ,  and  her  own,  tov  Idiov.  The 
former  Greek  phrase  is  not,  in  the  New 
Testament,  interchangeable  with  the 
latter;  intimating,  apparently,  a  deep 
difference  between  the  proprietorship 
of  the  husband  from  that  of  the  wife. 

3.  Due  benevolence — The  best 
reading  omits  benevolence.  Let  each 
party,  instead  of  an  ascetic  abstinence, 
render  to  the  other  the  conjugal  due. 

4.  Hath  not  power — Or  rightful 
authority.  The  original  vow,  as  well 
as  the  nature  of  the  institution,  presup¬ 
poses  this  concession. 

5.  Defraud — Deprive.  Consent — 
Not  by  the  sole  will  of  one  alone. 
For  a  time — Says  Olshausen,  “  Prob¬ 
ably  it  was  an  early  custom,  previous 
to  the  festivals,  especially  before  East¬ 
er,  for  people  to  devote  a  lengthened 
time  to  solitary  prayer,  in  which  beau¬ 
tiful  custom  originated  Lent.”  Fast¬ 
ing —  Omitted,  according  to  the  best 
authorities.  Indeed,  it  is  remarked  by 
•Stanley  that  this  chapter  has  an  unu- 


sent  for  a  time,  that  ye  may  give 
yourselves  to  fasting  and  prayer; 
and  come  together  again,  that 
d  Satan  tempt  you  not  for  your  in- 
continency.  But  I  speak  this 
by  permission,  eand  not  of  com¬ 
mandment.  7  For  f  I  would  that 
all  men  were  seven  as  I  myself. 
But  h  every  man  hath  his  proper 
gift  of  God,  one  after  this  manner, 
and  another  after  that.  8  I  say 

3.  5. - e  Vers.  12,  25 ;  2  Cor.  8. 8 ;  11. 17. — /Acts 

26.29. - g  Chap.9.5. - A  Matt.  19.12  ;  chap. 12.11. 

sually  large  number  of  false  readings, 
interpolated  by  ascetics,  to  whom  the 
apostle  did  not  seem  rigid  enough. 
Come  together  again — Greek,  eni  to 
avro  rjTs ,  be  at  the  same  ordinary  habit 
of  matrimony.  For  your  inconti- 
nency — Rather,  through  your  inconti¬ 
nence,  or  incapability  of  self-control. 

6.  But — Although  this  is  often  a 
proper  course.  This — The  temporary 
abstinence  prescribed  in  verse  5.  By 
permission — It  is  a  divinely  allowable 
but  not  commanded  suspension  of  the 
command  in  verses  3,  4. 

7.  For — Greek,  but.  This  verse  does 
not  assign  a  reason  for  the  last  verse, 
but  adds  a  qualification.  I  cannot  com¬ 
mand  this  suspension  of  marriage  in¬ 
tercourse,  but  I  wish  that,  in  some  way, 
suited  to  each  case,  every  man  may  at¬ 
tain  my  standard  of  Christian  perfect¬ 
ness,  a  standard  which  I  have  attained 
in  the  way  of  continent  celibacy.  As 
I — Whether  Paul  was  a  widower  or  a 
bachelor  there  is  nothing  to  decide. 
But  this  phrase  implies  that  at  this 
writing  he  was  in  the  unmarried  state. 
Gift  of  God — A  natural  gift  in  the 
person’s  constitution  as  the  base,  and  a 
gracious  gift  superadded  by  the  Spirit. 
For  God  suits  his  special  gracious  gifts 
to  the  natural  qualities  of  a  man’s 
mind  and  body.  Paul’s  blended  gift, 
both  natural  and  gracious,  were  perfect 
continence.  This  manner — Of  tem¬ 
porary  abstinence,  as  in  verse  5,  or 
of  permanent  abstinence,  as  Paul  him¬ 
self.  Another  after  that  —  In  the 
order  and  condition  of  matrimony,  as  in 
verses  2-4.  Each  in  his  own  way  may 
be  as  completely  perfected  as  I  myself. 


48 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


therefore  to  the  unmarried  and 
widows,  Ht  is  good  for  them  if 
they  abide  even  as  I.  9  But  k  if 
they  cannot  contain,  let  them  mar¬ 
ry  :  for  it  is  better  to  marry  than 
to  burn. 

1 0  And  unto  the  married  I  com¬ 
mand,  1  yet  not  I,  but  the  Lord, 


i  Verses  1,  26.- 


-k  1  Tim.  5. 14. - 1  See  verses 

12,  25,  40. 


The  power  of  continence  may  or 
may  not  be  an  admirable  quality.  It 
may  be  a  happy  physical  balance;  it 
may  be  a  physical  defect ;  it  may  be  a 
strong  power  of  will,  able  to  subject  it 
self  to  reason ;  and  it  may,  finally,  be 
a  complete  subordination,  through  the 
Spirit,  to  the  will  of  God,  aided  more  or 
less  by  the  natural  qualities.  Through 
it.  Paul  attained  his  Christian  develop¬ 
ment;  but  he  does  not  prescribe  it  to 
all  others  as  the  only  way.  For  he  now 
proceeds  to  show  how  others,  in  their 
own  way,  and  after  their  proper  gift 
and  calling,  may  attain  their  own  best 
Christian  state/The  unmarried,  (8,  9,) 
the  married,  (10-12,)  the  married  with 
the  unchristian,  (13-16,)  each  and  ail, 
as  God  hath  distributed,  (17,)  may 
become  holy  in  their  own  way  as  Paul 

has  in  his  way. 

8.  Unmarried — Bachelor  or  maid¬ 
en.  Widows — The  feminine  widows 
are  named  as  the  more  obvious,  and 
the  widowers  are  simply  implied. 
Good — More  conducive  to  holy  life 
for  the  possessor  of  the  gift  than  mar¬ 
riage  ;  as  marriage  is  more  so  to  those 
unendowed  with  the  gift.  Marriage,  as 
well  as  celibacy,  has  its  complex  temp¬ 
tations  and  avenues  to  sin. 

9.  Cannot — The  cannot  is  not  in 
the  apostle’s  Greek.  The  true  render¬ 
ing  is,  If  they  do  wot  he  continent — 
if  Experience  shows  the  certainty  of 
failure.  Burn— An  ordinary  figure, 
expressing  both  the  intensity  and  con¬ 
suming  power  of  lust.  Relief  from 
the  burning  impulse  allows  the  soul, 
by  cultivating  the  other  virtues,  to  at 
tain  as  high  a  piety  as  celibacy  would 
afford.  The  very  exaggeration  of  the 
virtue  of  celibacy  in  the  post  apostolic 
age  of  the  Church  had,  no  doubt,  the 
gE)d  effect  of  almost  recreating  the 


mLet  not  the  wife  depart  from  he#' 
husband:  11  But  and  if  she  de¬ 
part,  let  her  remain  unmarried,  oi 
be  reconciled  to  her  husband :  and 
let  not  the  husband  put  away  his 
wife.  12  But  to  the  rest  speak  I, 
n  not 'the  Lord :  If  any  brother  hath 
a  wife  that  believeth  not,  and  she 

m  Mai.  2.  14, 16  ;  Matt.  o.  32 ;  19.  6,  9 ;  Mark  10. 

11, 12;  Luke  16.  18. - n  Verse  6. _ 

lost  virtue  of  chastity  in  the  Roman 
empire.  It  was  the  restoration  of  the 
balance  of  the  virtues,  as  presented 
here  by  Paul,  since  the  Reformation, 
that  has,  as  it  were,  brought  the  family 
virtues  to  a  lustre  of  development  un¬ 
known  to  former  ages. 

2.  Law  and  counsel  as  to  separa¬ 
tion  of  married  parties,  10-17. 

10.  Not  I — By  my  own  authority. 
But  the  Lord — By  his  recorded  com¬ 
mand  in  Matt,  v,  31,  32,  and  xix,  3-12, 
where  see  our  notes  It  is  not  at  all 
improbable  that  Paul  was  acquainted 
with  Matthew's  gospel ;  yet,  no  doubt, 
both  pure  verbal  traditions  (see  our 
vol.  ii,  p.  5)  and  authentic  documents 
(see  our  note  on  Luke  i,  1-4)  fur¬ 
nished  to  him  the  words  in  which  the 
Lord  laid  down  this  law.  Mark  x,  12, 
(which  gospel  was  not  now  published,) 
states  the  law  for  both  men  and  wom¬ 
en.  But  one  side  is  stated  here ;  per¬ 
haps,  as  Alford  suggests,  because  it 
was  the  Corinthian  women  who  were 
conscientiously  most  inclined  to  hold 
celibacy  as  obligatory  on  all. 

11.  If — A  provision  both  for  cases 
of  separation  already  existing,  and  for 
separations  from  unavoidable  causes. 
The  party  must  then  remain  single,  or 
if  a  resumption  of  the  connexion  be 
practicable,  it  must  be  made. 

12.  To  the  rest — The  rest  of  the 
Corinthian  inquirers ;  namely,  those 
intermarried  with  Jews  or  pagans. 
Christianity  does  not  dissolve  the  tie, 
but  ennobles  it,  and  seeks  to  make  it 
the  instrument  of  salvation.  Speak  I 
—With  an  apostolic  and  inspired  au¬ 
thority,  supplementing  what  the  Lord 
has  in  express  words  said.  It  is  a  very 
mistaken  perversion  of  the  apostle’s 
words  which  imputes  a  mere  human 
authority  to  his  injunctions,  in  con- 


A.  I).  57. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


49 


be  pleased  to  dwell  with  him,  let 
him  not  put  her  away.  13  And 
the  woman  which  hath  a  husband 
that  believeth  not,  and  if  he  be 
pleased  to  dwell  with  her,  let  her 
not  leave  him.  14  For  the  unbe- 

_ _ o  Mai. 

trast  with  the  Lord’s  words.  His  real 
antithesis  is  between  the  Lord’s  record¬ 
ed  words,  and  his  own  apostolic  words 
given  by  the  Lord’s  inspiration. 

12,  13.  A  Christian  man  mast  not 
put  away  a  pagan  wife ;  a  Christian 
wife  must  not  leave  a  pagan  husband. 
Put  away— Applied  to  the  man  be¬ 
cause  he  alone,  by  Jewish  law,  could 
divorce ;  the  wife  could  only  leave. 
Believeth  not— By  Hebrew  law,  if 
a  Jew  married  a  pagan  he  was  dese¬ 
crated  ;  his  marriage  was  void,  and  his 
children  illegitimate,  as  not  pure  Jews. 
See  Ezra  ix,  11-15;  x,  10-44;  Neh. 
xiii,  23-28.  Hence  the  inquiry  would 
arise, especially  among  Jewish  converts, 
What  is  the  law  of  Christianity  re¬ 
garding  intermarriage  between  Christ¬ 
ian  and  unbeliever  ?  The  answer  of 
St.  Paul  on  this,  as  on  other  points, 
while  expressed  in  analogy  with  Jew¬ 
ish  law,  emancipates  believers  from  its 
trammels. 

14.  Sanctified — A  Jew  marrying  a 
pagan  is  desecrated  and  his  marriage  a 
sin,  and  so  void ;  but,  reversely,  if  a 
Christian  marry  an  antichristian  his 
sacredness  is  conceived  as  extending 
to  and  covering  the  unbeliever,  so  far, 
at  any  rate,  that  the  marriage  is  still 
“  boly  matrimony,”  and  the  tie  must  not 
be  broken.  Unbelieving  —  If  under 
Christianity,  as  under  Judaism,  the  in¬ 
fidel  desecrated  the  believer  by  mar¬ 
riage  and  the  marriage  was  void,  then, 
by  parity,  the  children  would  be  illegiti¬ 
mate,  and  by  inheritance,  infidel.  Now 
—Under  the  Christian  law.  Holy— 
Undesecrated  and  legitimate. 

During  the  old  dispensation  the  pa¬ 
gan  child  had,  under  the  common  atone¬ 
ment  of  Christ,  the  same  right  to  cir¬ 
cumcision  that  the  Jewish  child  had  ; 
oat  his  misfortune  was,  that  not  being 
born  within  the  chosen  seed,  where  the 
institution  was  imperative,  he  failed  to 
inherit  it  as  a  performed  rite,  with  the 
v  OL.  IV.— 4 


lieving  husband  is  sanctified  by 
the  wife,  and  the  unbelieving  wife 
is  sanctified  by  the  husband :  else 
•were  your  children  unclean;  but 
now  are  they  holy.  15  But  if  the 
unbelieving  depart,  let  him  de- 
2.  15.  - - - 

accompanying  nurture  that  followed. 
He  was,  therefore,  ritually  not  holy. 
Under  the  new  dispensation,  similarly, 
all  children  being  under  the  common 
atonement  have  an  equal  right  to  bap¬ 
tism.  They  stand  in  a  common  justifi¬ 
cation  and  salvability,  which  baptism 
now,  as  circumcision  of  old,  does  not 
create,  but  recognises ;  holding  the  in¬ 
fant  as  a  virtual  believer.  The  child  of 
Christian  parents  inherits,  as  did  the 
child  of  the  Jewish,  not  a  special  right 
to  baptism,  but  a  special  inherited  prob¬ 
ability  of  receiving  the  rite ,  with  its  con¬ 
sequent  recognition  by  the  Church  as 
being  her  nursling,  to  be  embodied  into 
her  full  membership  when,  at  respon¬ 
sible  age,  the  responsibilities  of  such 
a  membership  are  properly  accepted. 
Hence,  by  parity,  the  child  of  Christian 
parents,  like  the  child  of  Jewish  pa¬ 
rents,  may  be  called  holy.  Yet  the 
child  under  the  new  dispensation  has 
this  advantage  over  the  child  of  the 
old,  that  under  the  latter  the  infidelity 
of  either  parent  disfranchised  him. 

€  If  will  be  seen  that  the  words  sanc¬ 
tified,  holy,  and  unholy,  are  here 
used,  not  in  reference  to  inward  holi¬ 
ness  of  heart,  but  in  the  sense  that 
Jerusalem  is  called  the  holy  city, 
that  the  temple,  and  even  its  consecrated 
vessels,  were  called  holy,  and  even  the 
J ewish  race  was  holy ;  namely,  in  the 
sense  of  sacred,  chosen,  consecrated  to 
a  special  divine  purpose.  So  St.  Paul 
says,  “  If  the  root  be  holy,  so  are  the 
branches,”  (Rom.  xi,  16;)  a  holiness 
which,  in  view  of  ultimate  restoration, 
he  considers  as  still  inherited  by  the 
Jewish  race.  The  child  of  Christian 
parents  is  hero  called  holy  in  the  same 
sense  that  the  child  of  the  Jew  was 
holy,  namely,  as  providential  heir,  and 
probable  recipient,  of  the  consecrating 
ordinances  of  the  Church. 

15.  If  the  unbelieving  depart— 
The  Christian  may  not  desert  the  infi- 


50 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


part.  A  brother  or  a  sister  is  not 
under  bondage  in  such  cases :  but 
God  hath  called  us  p  1  to  peace. 
10  For  what  knowest  thou,  (3 
wdfe,  whether  thou  shalt  q  save  thy 
husband?  or  2 how  knowest  thou, 

V  Rom.  12.  18;  14.  19;  chap.  14.  33;  Heb.  12.  14. 

1  Greek,  in  peace. 

del ;  but  suppose  the  infidel  desert  the 
Christian  ?  Let  him  depart — Use  no 
legal  obstacles  to  prevent  his  going. 
Is  not  under  bondage — Literally,  is 
not  enslaved ;  bu  b  the  question  now  is, 
How  far  is  the  Christian  emancipated  ? 
Different  replies  have  been  given,  as, 
1.  That  the  Christian  is  released  from 
the  duty  of  compelling  the  unbeliever 
to  remain  in  cohabitation ;  but  to  this 
the  obvious  replies  are,  first,  that  no 
such  duty  of  compulsion  to  cohabit  can 
have  been  supposed  to  exist,  and, 
therefore,  no  emancipation  from  such 
duty  was  needed:  and,  second,  it  is  a 
very  awkward  interpretation  to  make 
the  apostle  say,  that  the  Christian 
is  not  enslaved  to  the  duty  of  enslav¬ 
ing  the  opposite  party.  2.  That  the 
Christian  is  required  to  let  the  infidel 
depart  rather  than  give  up  Chris¬ 
tianity  in  order  to  retain  him.  But, 
surely,  Paul  could  not  have  under¬ 
stood  any  Corinthian  believer  as  inquir¬ 
ing  whether  he  should  not  apostatize 
in  order  to  save  the  marriage  cohabita¬ 
tion  !  Obviously,  therefore,  the  only 
meaning  is,  that  though  the  Christian 
may  not  dissolve  the  marriage  tie,  the  in¬ 
fidel  may.  To  peace — But  the  Christ¬ 
ian  calling  to  peace  forbids  the  so  con¬ 
ducting  as  to  induce  the  unbeliever  to 
depart.  On  the  contrary,  the  Christian 
spirit  should  be  most  earnestly  exert¬ 
ed  to  induce  the  unbeliever  to  remain, 
with  the  hope,  expressed  in  the  next 
verse,  of  a  conversion  to  Christianity. 

16.  For — Assigning  as  a  reason  for 
peace.  Whether — The  Greek  word 
usually  means  simply  if.  And  as  there 
is  no  negative  so  as  to  make  if  not,  so 
Stanley,  Alford,  and  others  make  the 
apostle  ask,  How  knowest  thou  that  thou 
wilt  convert  the  infidel  party  ?  And 
then  the  question  gives  a  reason  to  let 
the  party  go  without  interposing  any 
legal  obstacle  Let  him  go,  for  you 


O  man,  whether  thou  shalt  save 
thy  wife  ?  17  But  as  God  hath 

distributed  to  every  man,  as  the 
Lord  hath  called  every  one,  so  let 
him  walk.  And  rso  ordain  I  in  all 
churches. 

q  1  Peter  3.  1. - 2  Greek,  what. - r  Chap. 

_ 4.  17;  2  Cor,  11.  28. _ 

know  not  that  you  shall  convert  him. 
We  reject  this  view.  For,  1.  The  not 
is  not  necessary  in  order  to  indicate 
that  a  question  implies  an  affirmative 
hope.  Dr.  Hodge  rightly  quotes  2  Sam. 
xii,  22  ;  Joel  ii,  14;  Jonah  iii,  9.  Take 
the  first  passage.  David  fasted  and 
prayed  in  the  hope  of  his  child’s  life  be¬ 
ing  spared,  asking,  “  Who  can  tell  t/tho 
Lord  will  be  gracious,  that  the  child  may 
live?  ”  Thus  David  conducts,  as  Paul 
would  have  the  married  Christian  con¬ 
duct,  in  the  hope  expressed  by  the  in¬ 
terrogative  if,  that  a  favourable  issue 
might  result.  2.  The  meaning  given 
by  Alford  is  very  un-Pauline.  It  makes 
Paul,  by  emphatic  repetition,  very 
earnest  to  expel  the  hope  of  saving  a 
soul,  and  very  earnest  to  prevent  action 
for  that  purpose  !  The  Christian  could 
not,  indeed,  know  that  the  opposite  party 
would  be  converted,  and  it  would  be 
very  superfluous  for  Paul  to  so  inform 
him.  But  there  often  might  be  a 
hope ;  and  it  would  be  very  unlike 
Paul  to  deny  that  such  a  hope  should 
be  a  ground  of  action  to  save  a  wife  or 
husband  from  infidelity,  sin,  and  death. 
To  act  from  such  hopes,  where  he  did 
not  know  a  favourable  result,  was  one  of 
the  fundamental  purposes  of  Paul’s  life. 

17.  Distributed  —  Allotted.  This 
new  Christianity  does  not  intend,  as 
some  aspiring  spirits  are  inclined  to 
fancy,  to  break  up  the  order  of  society, 
but  rather  to  make  every  man  stay 
where  he  is,  and  perform  the  duties  of 
his  place  in  the  very  best  way.  Hay, 
it  considers  every  man’s  position  rath¬ 
er  a  providential  allotment ,  a  calling 
which  he  should  retain  and  adorn.  And 
this  maxim  Paul  now  enforces,  both  by 
illustration  and  repetition.  Verses 
20,  24.  Ordain  I — Implying  that  an 
apostle  possesses  authority  to  supple¬ 
ment  the  ordinances  of  Christ.  All 
churches  —  So  that  the  Corinthians 


CHAPTER  VII. 


51 


A.  D.  5  7. 


18  Is  any  man  called  being 
circumcised  ?  let  him  not  become 
uncircumcised.  Is  any  called  in 
uncircumcision  ?  s  let  him  not  be 
circumcised.  19  Circumcision 
is  nothing,  and  uncircumcision  is 

e  Acts  15.  1,  5,  19,  24,  28 ;  Gal.  5.  2. - 1  Gal.  5.  6; 

need  not  feel  themselves  specially  bur¬ 
dened  by  this  injunction.  It  is  the 
law  for  universal  Christianity. 

3.  Counsel,  generally,  as  to  abid¬ 
ing  in  present  calling,  1 8-24. 

18.  Circumcised — The  first  illus¬ 
tration.  Uncircumcised — Put  olf  hi? 
Jewish  relationships.  The  physical 
circumcision  could  be  undone,  or  at 
least  modified,  by  a  surgical  operation. 
See  1  Macc.  i,  13-15. 

19.  Is  nothing — It  has  no  moral  or 
religious  significance.  It  has  become 
by  Christianity  a  mere  condition  of  the 
body.  Keeping  of  the  command¬ 
ments — Holy  living,  regardless  of  the 
ph}* 1 2 * * * * 7'sical  fact,  is  the  condition  of  ac¬ 
ceptance  with  God. 

20.  Same  calling  —  This  calling 
does  not  imply  what  is  theologically 
called  an  “  effectual  calling,”  excepting 
so  far  as  the  agent’s  voluntary  accept¬ 
ance  has  made  it  “  effectual,”  and  so  his 
regular  and  permanent  calling.  See 
our  note  on  Rom.  i,  1.  He  was  called 
— A  play  upon  words.  Let  every  man 
remain  in  the  secular  calling  wherein 
he  was  when  the  Gospel  gave  him  a 
successful  call  to  its  blessings. 

21.  Servant — As  opposed  to  free¬ 
man  in  verse  22;  the  word,  doubtless, 
here  implies  a  slave.  Care  not  for  it — 
Care  not  in  the  sense  of  repining.  You 
have  a  divine  freedom ;  let  that  inspire 
you  with  a  free  contentment  with  your 
condition.  That  fully  obeys  the  law  of 
abiding  stated  in  verse  20.  But — A 
limitation  now  comes  to  the  extent  of 
that  law  of  abiding.  If — In  the  Greek 
u  Kai ,  if  also ;  that  is,  if,  in  addition 
to,  or  over  and  above  this  Christian 
uncaringness,  thou  art  able  to  become  a 
freeman ,  for  such  is  the  Greek  reading. 
Use  it  rather — The  question  is  to 
what  the  it  here  refers.  Some  refer  it 
to  fiovheLci,  slavery ,  implied  in  the  word 
servant  or  slave.  Others  refer  it  to 


nothing,  but  “the  keeping  of  the 
commandments  of  God.  20  Let 
every  man  abide  in  the  same  call¬ 
ing  wherein  he  was  called.  21  Art 
thou  called  being  a  servant  ?  care 
not  for  it :  but  if  thou  mayest  be 

6.  15. - u  John  15.  14;  1  John  2.  3;  3.  24. 

e^evdegta,  freedom ,  as  is  implied  in  the 
words  made  free.  Stanley  considers 
the  grammatical  question  between  these 
two  as  remarkably  evenly  balanced,  as¬ 
suming  that  there  is  no  third  suppo¬ 
sition.  We  think,  on  the  contrary,  that 
it  refers  to  neither.  Beyond  reason¬ 
able  doubt,  we  think,  it  refers  to  the 
chance  of  being  free  implied  in  dvvacQat , 
art  able.  (Whilst  revising  these  notes 
for  the  press  we  find,  with  satisfaction, 
that  Dr.  Fairbairn  suggests  the  same 
reference.  Our  own  notes  stand  pre¬ 
cisely  as  they  were  written  months  be¬ 
fore  seeing  his  work  on  the  “  Pastoral 
Epistles.”)  Alford  maintains  that  the 
meaning  is,  use  slavery ,  arid  supports 
it  elaborately  by  a  series  of  arguments 
which  we  think  to  be  so  many  mis¬ 
takes. 

1.  He  argues  that  also  implies  an  ad¬ 
ditional  thought  in  the  same  direction 
with  the  antecedent  thought.  This  is 
true,  and  our  interpretation,  as  above, 
provides  for  it.  The  antecedent  thought 
is  the  moral  freedom  of  Christian  quie¬ 
tude,  and  the  also  implies  an  additional 
thought  in  the  same  direction,  name¬ 
ly,  the  actual  chance  of  emancipation. 

2.  But  the  position  of  this  also,  (aai,')  he 

says,  ought,  by  the  interpretation  he 

opposes,  to  be  not  before,  but  after  art 

able.  That  is  true,  we  reply,  if  free¬ 

dom  is  supplied  as  the  reference  of  it ; 

but  if,,  as  we  suppose,  the  chance  im¬ 
plied  in  art  able  is  the  reference,  the 
also  is  placed  just  right.  3.  The  but, 
he  says,  expresses  too  strong  a  con¬ 
trast.  Assuredly  not.  The  contrast  is 
between  remaining  a  contented  slave 
and  the  becoming  a  freeman ;  a  contrast 
justifying  a  very  strong  but.  4.  The 
absence,  of  a  supplied  objective  after 
use  (it  is  supplied  by  the  translator,  as 
the  italics  show)  flings  us  back,  not  on 
the  secondary  subject  of  the  sentence, 
freedom ,  but  the  primary,  slavery.  But 


52 


T.  CORINTHIANS, 


A.  D.  57. 


made  free,  use  it  rather.  22  For 
he  that  is  called  in  the  Lord,  being 
a  servant,  is  Tthe  Lord’s  3 freeman: 
likewise  also  he  that  is  called, 

v  John  8.36;  Rom.  6.  18,  22;  Philem.  16. - 

3  Gr.  made  free. - to  Chap.  9.  21;  G&1.  5.  13; 

our  interpretation  makes  it  refer  to 
neither  slavery  nor  freedom ,  but  to  the 
being  able  to  be  free;  and  that  is  the 
subject  of  the  entire  sentence  after  the 
but ;  if  thou  hast  a  chance  to  be  free  use 
it  in  preference.  5.  Our  interpretation, 
Alford  says,  is  inconsistent  with  the 
context ;  for  the  context  tells  the 
Christian  to  remain  as  he  is,  and  the 
interpretation  tells  him  to  change  his 
position.  But  Alford  entirely  miscon¬ 
strues  the  context.  Paul  does  not,  as 
Dr.  Hodge  well  says,  forbid  a  man  to 
“better  his  condition.'’  He  does  not 
forbid  a  journeyman  mason  becoming 
a  boss  mason;  or  an  employe  laying 
up  money  and  becoming  a  capitalist 
and  an  employer ;  or  a  rail  splitter’s  be¬ 
having  himself  well  and  becoming 
president.  What  he  is  forbidding  is, 
the  expectation  that  Christianity  is  to 
break  up  the  social  order  and  fling 
every  believer  out  of  his  position  in  the 
general  system.  The  direction,  there¬ 
fore,  to  the  slave ,  to  remain  a  free¬ 
hearted  slave,  or  to  become  free  in  ac¬ 
cordance  with  social  order,  is  truly  tell¬ 
ing  him  to  remain  in  the  system  as  he 
is.  6.  But  our  interpretation,  he  says, 
makes  the  apostle  “turn  out  of  his 
way  to  give  a  precept  of  merely  world¬ 
ly  wisdom,  that  a  slave  should  become 
free  if  he  could.”  But  is  the  direction 
to  rise,  if  possible,  from  slavery,  “a  pre¬ 
cept  of  mere  worldly  wisdom?”  For 
a  man  to  remain  a  voluntary  slave 
when  he  might  be  free  is  a  base  self- 
degradation,  an  endorsement  of  the 
enslavement  of  others,  and  thereby  a 
heinous  wickedness.  It  is  none  the 
less  this  because,  under  the  Mosaic  law, 
a  slave  might  prefer  slavery,  and  so 
have  his  ear  bored  as  a  token  of  per¬ 
petual  bondage ;  for  that,  like  polygamy 
and  free  divorce,  was  on  account  of  the 
hardness  of  the  hearts  of  that  age.  A 
perverted  state  of  society  may,  no  doubt, 
exist  under  pagan  despotism,  where  all 
are  virtual  slaves,  in  which  emancipa- 


being  free,  is  w  Christ’s  servant. 

23  x  Ye  are  bought  with  a  price ; 
be  not  ye  the  servants  of  men. 

24  Brethren,  y  let  every  man, 

Epb.  6.  6;  1  Pet.  2.  16. - ccChap.  6.  20;  1  Pet.  1. 

18, 19;  see  Lev.  25.  42. - y  Verse  20. 

tion  may  bring  no  higher  wellbeing, 
moral  or  economical,  especially  for 
some  individuals.  But  as  Christianity 
asserted  the  law  of  marriage,  so  it  could 
not  but  assert  the  moral  obligation  of 
every  man  to  be  free,  unless  the  social 
state  held  him  fast.  The  Christian  was 
morally  bound  to  be  a  freeman  if  pos¬ 
sible.  And  in  the  day  when  a  govern¬ 
ment  becomes  Christian — when  right 
and  progress  are  understood  principles, 
slave  laws  and  fugitive-slave  laws  are 
crimes  and  have  no  validity — then  it 
is  the  duty  of  the  slave,  according  to 
the  law  of  revolution,  when  the  oppor¬ 
tunity  arrives  to  assert  his  freedom  by 
war  and  blood.  Short  of  that  it  is  his 
right,  if  possible,  to  escape;  and  the 
“underground  railroad,”  that  aids  his 
passage,  is  no  unrighteous  institution. 
7.  Finally,  Alford  asserts  that  the 
Greek  for  use  is  better  suited  to  the 
word  for  slavery  than  for  freedom ,  and 
he  quotes  so  old  an  author  as  Herodo¬ 
tus  to  justify  his  criticism  on  the  New 
Testament.  All  this  has  nothing  to  do 
with  our  position ;  which  is,  that  nei¬ 
ther  freedom  nor  slavery  is  the  object  of 
use,  but  the  chance  of  emancipation. 
And  it  is  conclusive  to  our  purpose  for 
us  to  say  that  every  instance  in  the 
New  Testament  of  the  Greek  word 
for  use  has  for  its  object  a  means  to  an 
end.  And  here  it  means  to  use  the 
chance  of  emancipation  as  a  means  to 
the  end  of  becoming  a  freeman. 

22.  For — Assigning,  now,  a  reason 
for  the  precept  just  given  for  both  con¬ 
tentment  in  necessary  slavery  and  use 
of  means  for  emancipation.  The  slave 
is  the  Lord’s  freeman,  and,  therefore, 
can  be  con  tent.  The  freeman  is  Christ’s 
sei /ant,  and  should,  therefore,  choose 
to  be  not  the  slave  of  man. 

23.  Bought — Carrying  out  the  met¬ 
aphor  of  the  slave ;  but  it  is  still  used 
to  show  that,  as  purchased  by  Christ, 
they  are  wrongfully  bought  and  sold 
and  owned  by  men.  Be  not  ye — By 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


53 


wherein  he  is  called,  therein  abide 
with  God. 

25  Now  y  concerning  virgins 
*1  have  no  commandment  of  the 
Lord:  yet  I  give  my  judgment,  as 
one  athat  hath  obtained  mercy  of 

V  Verse  28. - z  Verses  6,  10,  40;  2  Cor.  8.  8,  10. 

a  1  Timothy  1.  16. 

any  consent  of  your  own.  If  slaves 
you  are  by  compulsion  of  men,  the 
crime  is  that  of  men,  not  yours.  But 
whether  you  are  compulsory  bonds¬ 
men  or  not,  be  in  soul  so  completely  the 
liege  of  Christ  that  you  are  freemen  as 
to  men.  There  is  every  reason  to  be¬ 
lieve  that  slaves  formed  a  large  part 
of  the  first  Christian  Churches.  Says 
Mr.  Withrow,  in  his  Catacombs  of  Rome, 
p.  487. 

“  The  condition  of  the  slave  popula¬ 
tion  of  Rome  was  one  of  inconceivable 
wretchedness.  Colossal  piles  built  by 
their  blood  and  sweat  attest  the  bitter¬ 
ness  of  their  bondage.  The  lash  of 
the  taskmaster  was  heard  in  the  fields, 
and  crosses  bearing  aloft  their  quiver¬ 
ing  victims  polluted  the  public  high¬ 
ways.  Vidius  Pollio  fed  his  lampreys 
with  the  bodies  of  his  slaves.  Four 
hundred  of  these  wretched  beings  del¬ 
uged  with  their  blood  the  funeral  pyre 
of  Pedanius  Seeundus.  A  single  freed- 
man  possessed  over  four  thousand  of 
these  human  chattels.  They  had  no 
rights  of  marriage  nor  any  claim  to 
their  children.  This  dumb,  weltering; 
mass  of  humanity,  crushed  by  power, 
led  by  their  lusts,  and  fed  by  public 
dole,  became  a  hotbed  of  vice  in  which 
every  evil  passion  grew.” 

Yet  how  Christianity  ignored  degrad¬ 
ing  distinctions  is  thus  shown  by  the 
rec  >rds  on  their  tombs.  “  Out  of  elev¬ 
en  thousand  Christian  inscriptions  of 
the  first  six  centuries,  scarce  half  a 
dozen  make  any  reference  to  a  condition 
of  servitude,  and  of  these,  as  Dr.  North- 
cote  remarks,  two  or  three  are  doubtful. 
Yet  of  pagan  epitaphs  at  least  three 
fourths  are  those  of  slaves  or  freedmen. 
The  conspicuous  absence  of  recognition 
of  this  unhappy  distinction  is  no  mere 
accident.  We  know  that  the  Chris¬ 
tians  were  largely  drawn  from  the  ser¬ 
vile  classes,  but  in  the  Church  of  God 


the  Lord  bto  be  faithful.  26  I 
suppose  therefore  that  this  is  good 
for  the  present * *  4  distress,  I  say , 
cthat  it  is  good  for  a  man  so  to  be. 
27  Art  thou  bound  unto  a  wife  ? 
seek  not  to  be  loosed.  Art  thou 

b  Chap.  4.  2;  1  Tim.  1.  12. - 4  Or,  necessity. 

c  Verses  1.  8. 

there  was  no  respect  of  persons.” — 

Catacombs,  p.  485. 

4.  Response  on  marriage  under 
pressure,  especially  of  maiden 
daughters,  25-40. 

The  response  of  Paul  concerning 
marriage  thus  far  is  applicable  to  the 
proper  cases  in  all  ages.  Through  the 
remainder  of  the  chapter  his  advice  is 
given  in  view  of  the  present  pressure ; 
namely,  the  impending  persecution, 
apparently  apprehended  from  the  in¬ 
creasingly  cruel  character  of  the  Em¬ 
peror  Nero.  To  that  persecution  Paul 
himself  fell  a  victim ;  but  wdiether  it 
really  reached  Corinth,  so  as  to  fulfil 
the  gloomy  anticipation,  is  not  histori¬ 
cally  certain. 

25.  Virgins — Unmarried  females. 
Yet  the  advice  given  would,  by  analogy, 
be  in  some  degree  applicable  to  males. 
No  commandment  of  the  Lord — 
That  is,  no  recorded  or  traditional  words 
of  Christ.  Note  verse  10.  My  judg¬ 
ment —  Note  verse  40.  Faithful  — 
Not  only  persevering,  as  a  believer,  but 
trusty,  as  God’s  dispenser  of  inspired 
truth. 

26.  The  present  distress — Present 
avuyurjv,  compulsion.  Necessities  of  the 
times  compelling  a  caution  against  form¬ 
ing  ties,  for  such  ties  would  involve 
trouble,  verse  28.  Alford  absurdly 
explains  this  distress  as  referring  to 
the  second  advent,  then  imagined  by 
Paul  to  be  at  hand.  In  refutation  of 
which  we  esteem  it  sufficient  at  present 
to  say,  that  the  Greek  word  here  ren¬ 
dered  present  is,  in  2  Thess.  ii,  2,  the 
verv  word  which  is  translated  at  hand, 
and  is  denied  to  be  predicable  of  our 
Lord’s  coming.  So  to  be — Just  as 
he  is. 

27.  Loosed — The  word  seems  nat¬ 
urally  to  imply  a  previous  marriage, 
and  hence,  in  some  periods  of  the 
Church,  second  marriages  have  been 


54 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


loosed  from  a  wife  ?  seek  not  a 
wife.  2§  But  and  if  tliou  marry, 
thou  hast  not  sinned  ;  and  if  a  vir¬ 
gin  marry,  she  hath  not  sinned. 
Nevertheless  such  shall  have  trou¬ 
ble  in  the  flesh :  but  I  spare  you. 

d  Rom.  13.  11;  1  Peter 

disfavoured. .  But  the  word  loosed  is 
adopted  by  Paul  as  merely  an  antithesis 
to  bound,  and  means  unbound.  See 
note  on  1  Tim.  iii,  12. 

28.  If  thou  marry  —  There  doubt¬ 
less  were  those  in  the  Corinthian 
Church  “  forbidding  to  marry  as  a  sin.” 
While  Paul,  on  prudential  grounds,  ad¬ 
vises  celibacy  for  the  present,  he  dis¬ 
countenances  the  depreciation  of  the 
sacred  institution  as  if  it  were  an  un¬ 
holiness.  Trouble — Rendered,  in  Matt, 
xxiv,  21,  “tribulation.”  In  the  flesh 
— In  our  temporal  circumstances. 
Spare  you — From  dwelling  on  a  topic 
so  unpleasant  as  your  coming  troubles 
and  the  privations  they  demand. 

29.  But,  though  I  thus  “spare  you,” 
yet  this  I  must  say.  There  is  a  truth 
that  must  be  declared.  The  time  is 
short — We  may  note  three  different 
interpretations  put  upon  this  sentence : 
1.  That  of  Alford,  Stanley,  and  many 
German  commentators,  which  makes  it 
affirm  that  time  is  short  before  Christ’s 
second  advent,  and  imply,  positively, 
that  that  event  would  cut  short  the 
earthly  life  of  Paul  and  his  Corinthian 
brethren.  This  interpretation  we  per¬ 
emptorily  reject.  It  makes  Paul  affirm 
a  positive  untruth  under  inspiration. 
It  makes  him  contradict  what  a  short 
time  previous  he  had  said  to  the  Thes- 
salonians,  denying  the  impending  ad¬ 
vent:  2  Thess.  ii,  1-3,  where  see  our 
notes.  We  can  freely  grant  that  Paul, 
even  under  inspiration,  knew  neither  the 
day  nor  the  age  when  the  advent  is  to 
take  place.  But  to  make  him  claim  to 
know  and  to  tell  the  age,  under  inspi¬ 
ration,  is  quite  a  reverse  thing.  This 
pruriency  for  making  every  expression 
in  the  apostolic  writings  expressing  the 
transitory  duration  of  human  probation 
signify  the  end  of  the  world ,  does  most 
unwisely  make  it  difficult  for  the  sacred 
writers  to  describe  earthly  time  as  it 


29  But  dthis  I  say,  brethren,  the 
time  is  short  :  it  remaineth,  that 
both  they  that  have  wives  be  as 
though  they  had  none ;  30  And 

they  that  weep,  as  though  they 
wept  not ;  and  they  that  rejoice, 

4.  7 ;  2  Peter  8.  8,  9. 

truly  is.  2.  The  interpretation  of  Gto- 
tius  and  others,  which  makes  it  mean 
that  the  time  before  the  impending 
persecution  is  short ;  and  so,  in  view  o* 
possible  martyrdom,  we  must  hold  to 
earthly  things  as  not  permanently  pos 
sessing  them.  This  is  more  plausible 
but  we  reject  it  in  our  note  on  verse  31 
3.  That  of  Barnes,  Hodge,  and  others, 
that  the  time  of  our  probationary  ex 
istence  is  short.  This  is,  no  doubt, 
essentially  the  correct  view.  Short— 
Or,  rather,  contracted;  that  is,  mad p 
short  by  our  Creator,  for  a  purpose  soon 
to  be  stated.  It  remaineth  —  By 
most  commentators  the  Greek  for  this 
phrase,  to  /.olttov,  is  joined,  more  prop¬ 
erly,  perhaps,  to  the  previous  sentence, 
so  that  it  would  read,  the  time  is  con¬ 
tracted  as  to  the  future ;  that  is,  out 
remaining  sublunary  time  is  brief: 
our  day  is  nearly  past,  and  our  future 
is  abbreviated.  That — So  that. 

29-31.  The  brevity  of  sublunary 
time  renders  us  but  transient  tenants 
of  worldly  things.  We  must  own 
them  as  not  owning  them.  The  patri¬ 
monies,  the  matrimonies,  the  griefs, 
the  joys,  the  traffics,  in  short,  the 
worid,  must,  doubtless,  in  the  general, 
all  be  gone  through  with ;  but  their  re¬ 
ality  must  be  held  as  an  unreality,  in 
comparison  with  the  reality  that  lies 
above  and  over  them  all.  The  eternal 
is  the  sole  real. 

30.  Weep — Weeping  must  be  done. 
The  sorrow  has  its  actual  existence; 
and,  when  looked  at  by  itself,  has  its 
reality.  But  when  surveyed  in  com¬ 
parison  with  the  eternity  within  a 
step’s  distance,  it  becomes  —  nothing. 
Weep,  then,  as  weep  you  may;  but 
weep  as  realizing  that  your  weeping 
has  its  nothingness.  Rejoice  —  For 
joy  is  becoming  in  our  finite  sphere. 
Even  on  these  low  grounds  of  earthly 
existence  there  is  a  round  of  pleasant- 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


55 


as  though  they  rejoiced  not;  and 
they  that  buy,  as  though  they  pos¬ 
sessed  not ;  31  And  they  that  use 
this  world,  as  not  e abusing  it:  for 

the  fashion  of  this  world  passeth 
away.  32  But  I  would  have  you 
without  carefulness.  gHe  that  is 
unmarried  caretli  for  the  things 
6 that  belong  to  the  Lord,  how  he 
may  please  the  Lord :  33  But 

eChap.  9.  18. - r/Tsa.  39.  6;  James  1.  10;  4.  14; 

1  Pet.  1.  24 ;  4.  7 ;  1  John  2.  17. 

nesses  that  may  prompt  the  smile  and 
the  gratitude.  But  forget  not  that 
there  is  a  higher,  an  eternal  joy,  that 
dwarfs  this  earthly  rejoicing  to  nothing. 
Buy — Trade,  labour,  literature,  politics, 
all  have  their  place  as  duties  and  en¬ 
gagements  of  an  earthly  life ;  but  there 
is  a  life  whose  interests  are  so  stupen¬ 
dous  as  to  shrivel  them  all  to  insignifi¬ 
cance. 

Men  boast  of  worldty  greatness. 
Statesmen,  warriors,  and  princes,  figure 
proudly  in  human  history.  And  these 
will  and  must  exist — accomplish  their 
programme — and  amaze  and  fill  the 
minds  of  men.  But  it  is  only  by  for¬ 
getfulness  of  eternity  that  they  are 
great.  One  thought  of  the  infinite 
truth  empties  them,  like  a  pricked 
balloon,  of  all  their  swell. 

31.  Use  this  world  —  For  every 
man  must,  in  his  sphere,  use  his  little 
share  of  this  world.  Not  abusing 
—Rather,  overusing  it;  that  is,  grasp¬ 
ing  it  as  hard  as  if  it  were  not  only  a 
reality,  but  the  only  reality,  and  our 
own  full  possession  forever.  That  is 
the  way  men  do  use,  overuse ,  and  so 
abuse  the  world.  The  apostle’s  next 
senten  ce  exposes  their  mistake.  Fash¬ 
ion — The  scheme,  present  phase.  The 
word  seems  figuratively  drawn  from 
the  change  of  scenes  in  a  theatre. 
Passeth  away — And  we,  as  part  of 
its  scheme ,  pass  with  it.  How  great 
the  folly  of  those  who  use  the  world 
as  if  it  was  the  only  permanent  thing ! 

32.  But — Rather,  and ,  as  he  states  a 
wish  in  accordance  with  the  previous 
context.  You — This  pronoun  is  em¬ 
phatic.  The  Thessalonians  (2  Tliess.  iii, 
6-12)  who  were  neglecting  their  tempo- 


he  that  is  married  careth  for  the 
things  that  are  of  the  world,  how 
he  may  please  his  wife.  34  There 
is  difference  also  .between  a  wife 
and  a  virgin.  The  unmarried  wom¬ 
an  careth  for  the  things  of  the  Lord, 
that  she  may  be  holy  both  in  body 
and  in  spirit:  but  she  that  is  mar¬ 
ried  careth  for  the  things  of  the 

world,  how  she  may  please  her 
- - - 

g  1  Timothy  5.  5. - 5  Greek,  of  the  Lor‘d ,  as 

verse  34. 

ral  affairs  in  false  expectation,  perhaps, 
of  the  approaching  advent,  he  ordered 
to  attend  to  their  own  business ;  but  to 
the  overworldly  Corinthians  he  gives 
directions  that  they,  in  view  of  impend¬ 
ing  trouble,  present  distress,  should 
remember  the  transitoriness  of  the 
world,  and  keep  from  too  deeply  in¬ 
volving  themselves  in  its  complex 
cares.  Without  carefulness — With 
that  freedom  from  care  which  celibacy 
affords.  Paul  does  not,  by  this,  favour 
a  mere  contemplative,  inactive  piety, 
dwelling  in  the  luxury  of  its  own  emo¬ 
tions.  That  is  the  truest  inner  life 
which  produces  the  purest  and  most 
energetic  outer  life.  He  desired  for 
his  Corinthians  an  exemption  from  secu¬ 
lar  cares,  that  they  might  consecrate 
themselves  to  a  life  of  holy  welldoing. 

33.  Please  his  wife — And  there  is 
a  sad  chance  that  the  things  that 
please  his  wife  may  not  please  the 
Lord.  Hence  there  is  a  danger  in 
every  marriage ;  but  a  danger  which  in 
many  a  marriage  turns  out  a  safeguard. 

34.  Is  difference — The  difference 
stated  by  Paul  between  a  wife  and  a 
virgin  is  not  that  virginity  is  intrinsi¬ 
cally  holier  than  marriage,  as  Roman¬ 
ism  teaches,  but  that  it  affords  advan¬ 
tages  for  a  more  exclusively  religious 
life.  Married  careth . . .  world  —  In 
the  practical  duties  of  married  life  her 
style  of  Christian  character  may  never¬ 
theless  be  perfected ;  yet  if  all  are  mar¬ 
ried,  the  style  of  usefulness  which  celi¬ 
bacy  affords  is  lost.  Please  her  hus¬ 
band — Dr.  Poor,  on  the  passage,  (in 
Schaff’s  Lange,)  well  says:  “This  is 
not  charged  upon  her  as  a  sin,  but  it  is 
a  part  of  her  obligation  of  marriage, 


56 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


husband.  35  And  this  I  speak 
for  your  own  profit ;  not  that  I 
may  cast  a  snare  upon  you,  but  tor 
that  which  is  comely,  and  that  ye 
may  attend  upon  the  Lord  witli- 

and  is,  therefore,  expected  of  her. 
And  if  she  has  married  in  the  Lord, 
then  even  this  very  effort  to  please  her 
husband  may  be  a  part  of  the  service 
she  renders  unto  the  Lord.  Yet, 
while  this  is  so.  the  obligation  of' the 
husband,  it  must  be  confessed,  not  un- 
frequentlv  presents  a  temptation  to  a 
divided  service ;  and  in  her  endeavours 
to  gratify  his  wishes,  especially  if  he  is 
of  a  worldly,  or  even  partially  sancti¬ 
fied  spirit,  is  often  betrayed  into  acts 
which  militate  against  her  piety,  and 
interfere  with  her  higher  obligations. 
This  is  how  it  happens  that  many  a 
Christian  woman  comes  to  be  found 
absenting  herself  from  the  place  of 
prayer,  frequenting  the  ball-room,  giv¬ 
ing  parties  on  the  Sabbath,  and  in 
other  ways  compromising  her  con¬ 
science,  to  her  own  spiritual  injury  and 
the  discredit  of  her  profession.  And  it 
is  to  the  danger  of  such  evils,  incurred 
by  marriage,  that  the  apostle  points.” 

35.  A  snare — A  lasso  by  which,  be¬ 
ing  thrown,  an  animal  is  caught  in  its 
noose;  figuratively,  a  fetter  by  which 
one  is  hampered  and  burdened.  Paul 
would  not  lay  fetters  upon  the  Corin¬ 
thians  by  these  injunctions,  requiring 
them  to  be  celibates  against  their  will. 
His  object  is  their  profit.  The  apos¬ 
tle’s  condensed  Greek  is  difficult  to  be 
given  in  exact  parallel  English,  and  so 
our  translators  have  paraphrased  it. 
We  translate:  I  speak  not  that  I  may 
throw  a  lasso  upon  you ,  but  in  behalf  of 
the  becoming ,  and  vjell-beside-sitiing  to 
the  Lord)  undistractedly.  And  now  our 
English  will  need  translating  about  as 
much  as  St.  Paul’s  Greek. 

He  alludes,  we  think,  to  Luke  x, 
38-42,  where  see  our  notes  upon  the 
relation  between  outward  and  inner 
p?>.ty.  Both  passages  have  several  of 
the  same  peculiar  Greek  words,  and 
the  comparison  conclusively  proves  to 
our  own  mind  that  Paul  had  read  Luke. 
The  word  which  we  literally  render 
well-beside-sitting,  has  a  close  parallel 


out  distraction.  36  But  if  any 
man  think  that  he  behaveth  him¬ 
self  uncomely  toward  his  virgin,  if 
she  pass  the  flower  of  her  age,  and 
need  so  require,  let  him  do  what 

with  the  Greek  of  Mary’s  sat  at  Jesus' 
feet.  But  among  manuscript  critics 
there  was  a  curious  contest  (see  Bloom¬ 
field’s  Becensio  Synopiica )  whether  the 
true  reading  is  evnapedpov ,  well-beside- 
sitting ,  or  EynpooeSpov,  well- toward- sit¬ 
ting.  Anciently  the  suppliant  was  ac¬ 
customed  to  sit  evTcpocedpov ,  with  face 
toward  the  altar,  and  the  pupil  with 
face  toward  the  rabbi  or  sophos ;  and 
so  we  should  have  expected  that  Luke 
would  make  Mary  sit  (as  our  English 
translation  really  does)  facing  Jesus; 
whereas  his  real  words  are  napnadeo- 
deloa ,  beside- sitting.  Without  dis¬ 
traction — Produced  by  worldly  cares. 

36-38.  Paul  here  treats  the  case  of 
a  parent  having  maiden  daughters. 
By  ancient  law  and  custom  the  parent 
had  absolute  disposal  of  the  child  in 
marriage,  and  Paul  speaks  as  assuming 
such  to  be  the  case.  Among  the  Jews 
it  was  a  disgrace  to  parent  and  daugh¬ 
ter  for  her  to  pass  her  marriageable 
age  unmarried.  Hence  in  Ecclesiasticus 
(Apoc.)  xlii,  9,  it  is  said,  “  The  father 
waketh  for  the  daughter  when  no  man 
knoweth,  and  the  care  for  her  taketh 
away  sleep  while  she  is  young,  lest  she 
pass  the  flower  of  her  age.”  This  last 
clause  includes  the  very  wrord  Paul  uses 
in  verse  36.  If  the  best  good  of  the 
daughter  require  it  (36)  her  marriage  is 
right.  But  if  no  proper  obstacle  to  her 
celibacy  offer  (37)  he  does  well  to  re¬ 
tain  her  unmarried.  Her  marriage 
would,  then,  be  well,  but  her  celibacy 
would  be  better  (38).  Paul  through¬ 
out  speaks  in  reference  to  the  estab¬ 
lished  custom  that  a  father  had  abso¬ 
lute  right  of  decision  in  the  case. 

36.  Behaveth  himself  uncomely 
— Either  by  bringing  upon  her  the  dis¬ 
credit  of  celibacy,  or  exposing  her  to 
the  danger  of  incontinence  by  disre¬ 
garding  her  inclinations.  Pass... 
flower — And  so  the  plea  of  immaturity 
is  past.  So — Refers  to  marry  at  the 
close  of  the  verse.  A  closer  render¬ 
ing  would  be,  ought  so  to  become.  St 


4.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


57 


he  will,  he  sinneth  not :  let  them 
marry.  37  Nevertheless  he  that 
standeth  steadfast  in  his  heart,  hav¬ 
ing  no  necessity,  but  hath  power 
aver  his  own  will,  and  hath  so  de¬ 
creed  in  his  heart  that  he  will  keep 
his  virgin,  doeth  well.  38  h  Bo  then 
he  that  giveth  her  in  marriage  do¬ 
eth  well;  but  lie  that  giveth  her  not 

h  Heb.  13.  4. - i  Rom.  7.  2. - k  2  Cor.  6.  14. 

Paul,  though  recognising  the  absolute 
legal  authority  of  the  parent,  holds  that 
the  daughter’s  wishes,  character,  and 
happiness  should  be  the  paramount 
consideration  in  the  Christian  parent’s 
decision.  Let  him  do  what  he  will — 
What  Paul  assumes  from  these  consid¬ 
erations  will  be  the  father’s  purpose. 
Let  them — May  mean  the  daughter 
and  her  suitor ;  or  it  may  refer  to  daugh¬ 
ters,  generally,  in  such  circumstances. 

37.  Nevertheless  —  St.  Paul  now 
presents  the  reverse  supposition ;  and 
the  clauses  are  well  explained  by  being 
contrasted  with  each  other.  Stand¬ 
eth  steadfast — Instead  of  suspecting 
that  he  is  behaving  uncomely.  In  his 
heart — Wordsworth  well  says:  “The 
virgin  daughter’s  resolves  are  blended 
in  one  with  her  parents ;  but  the  pa¬ 
rent  (in  his  decision)  gives  expression 
to  them.  Power  over  his  own  will 
— Opposed  to  the  need  so  require  of 
the  preceding  verse.  No  need  or  re¬ 
quirement  controls  his  will,  so  that  he 
can  rightly  and  freely  decide  for  celi¬ 
bacy.  Decreed — Bather,  judged  from 
the  circumstances.  Keep  his  virgin 
— Instead  of  giving  her  to  her  suitor. 

The  Jewish  custom  condemned  celi¬ 
bacy  in  all  cases;  the  oriental  pagan 
customs,  imported  from  Buddhism  and 
Brahmanism,  assuming  the  necessary 
impurity  of  all  matter  and  all  corporeal¬ 
ity,  condemned  marriage.  Paul,  Chris¬ 
tianity,  and  truth  agree  with  neither, 
but  decide  that  the  propriety  of  mar¬ 
riage  depends  upon  the  facts  of  the 
particular  case. 

38.  Doeth  well — For  he  avoids  the 
evils  of  celibacy,  though  he  incurs  the 
evils  of  matrimony.  Doeth  better — 
For  he  is  secure  from  the  evils  both  of 
celibacy  and  matrimony. 


in  marriage  d  oeth  better.  39  1  The 
wife  is  bound  by  the  law  as  long  as 
her  husband  liveth ;  but  if  her  hus¬ 
band  be  dead,  she  is  at  liberty  to 
be  married  to  whom  she  will ;  k  on¬ 
ly  in  the  Lord.  49  But  she  is 
happier  if  she  so  abide,  1  after  my 
judgment:  and  ,nI  think  also  that 
I  have  the  Spirit  of  God. 

I V erse  25. m  1  Thess.  4.  8. 

39.  The  wife... bound  —  And  by 

parity,  doubtless,  the  husband  is  under 
the  reciprocal  law.  Death  or  adultery 
is  the  only  dissolution  of  the  tie  by  the 
law  of  Christ,  however  it  may  be  by 
the  law  of  any  State.  The  looseness 
of  human  laws  can  justify  no  laxity 
in  the  Church  or  the  individual  Chris¬ 
tian.  To  marry  in  the  Lord  is  either 
to  marry  a  Christian,  or  one  whom  the 
conscience  is  assured  will  not  hinder 
the  Christian  life,  and  may  become  a 
Christian  under  connubial  Christian  in¬ 
fluences. 

40.  Happier — More  safe  and  blessed. 
So  abide — As  a  widow.  St.  Paul  as¬ 
sumes  her  power  of  continence  in  the 
case.  I  think — A  modest  reserve  of 
language,  with,  perhaps,  delicate  refer¬ 
ence  to  the  Corinthian  party  who  de¬ 
nied  his  authority.  Yet  we  receive 
the  inspired  validity  of  the  apostolic 
writings  not  on  the  authority  of  the 
writers  themselves  solely,  but  on  the 
concurrent  authority  of  the  apostolic 
Church  which  accepted  them.  A  cha¬ 
rismatic  Church  sympathized  with  the 
inspired  apostles,  and  from  the  concur¬ 
rent  witness  of  the  two,  under  the  au¬ 
thority  of  Christ,  did  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  Canon  grow  into  existence  and 
authority.  See  notes  at  the  close  of 
chap.  iv.  Have . . .  God — A  single  man 
has  often  falsely  supposed  himself 
inspired;  but  the  miraculous  Church, 
founded  by  the  Son  of  God,  guided  by 
apostles  whom  he  selected,  could  not 
be  mistaken  in  accepting  the  inspira¬ 
tion  of  St.  Paul.  I  have  the  Spirit 
of  God — An  expression  of  amazing 
energy.  The  divine  Spirit  is  within 
the  human  spirit,  so  that  the  outward 
utterance  is  the  expression  of  both  the 
divine  and  the  human  spirit. 


58 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

W  aas  touching  tilings  of¬ 
fered  unto  idols,  we  know 
t-liat  we  all  have  b knowledge. 
c  Knowledge  puffeth  up,  but  char¬ 
ity  edifieth.  2  And  d  if  any  man 
think  that  he  knowetli  any  tiling, 
he  knowetli  nothing  yet  as  lie 

a  Acts  15.  20,  29;  chap.  10.  19. - b  Rom.  14. 

14,  22. - c  Rom.  14.  3,  10. - d  Chap.  13.  8,  9,  12 ; 

Gal.  6.  3;  1  Tim.  6.  4. - eExod.  33.  12,  17  ;  IS  ah. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Paul’s  Fourth  Response: — To  the 
Question  Concerning  eating  Idol 
Sacrifices,  viii,  1-13;  x,  14-xi,  1. 

St.  Paul  is  informed  by  letter  that 
cultured  Corinthian  Christians,  having 
full  knowledge  that  an  idol  and  an 
idol  temple  are  a  nothing,  feel  that 
they  may  eat  meat  offered  to  idols  as 
they  would  any  other  meat,  and  eat  it 
in  an  idolatrous  temple  just  as  they 
would  anywhere  else.  He,  in  reply, 
reprehends  this  knowledge,  that  is 
so  unloving  as  to  override  the  tender 
conscience  of  the  less  knowing  and 
more  scrupulous. 

1.  Assuming  the  first  verse  to  intro¬ 
duce  a  passage  from  the  Corinthian 
letter  to  the  apostle,  we  would  print  it 
somewhat  thus:  Now  concerning  idol 
sacrifices,  “we  are  convinced,”  [you 
say,]  “that  all  have  knowledge.” 
Knowledge,  [I  reply,]  puffeth  up  ; 
it  is  love  that  buildeth  up ;  and  if  any 
man  imagine  he  knows  any  thing,  he 
knows  nothing  as  he  ought  to  know.” 
Were  the  words  on  both  sides  spoken , 
not  written,  we  would  suppose  Paul  to 
cut  short  their  soft,  apologetic  words 
rather  abruptly,  with  a  firm  expression 
of  countenance,  softened  by  a  smile, 
showing  that  his  was  a  rebuke  of  love. 
Knowledge — r  vuglq.  Gnosis — knowl¬ 
edge — is  the  word  whence  the  Gnos¬ 
tics  drew  their  title,  and  designates 
what  claimed  to  be  a  deep  insight  into 
a  profound  subject,  requiring  a  pene¬ 
trative  mind.  And  upon  this  their  pet 
word,  knowledge ,  the  apostle  plays  with 
a  covert  sarcasm  through  the  chapter. 
Verses  2,  3,  4,  7,  10,  11.  Its  arrogance 
was  a  quality  largely  belonging  to  the 
sect  which  assumed  it  as  their  title. 


ought  to  know.  3  But  if  any  man 
love  God,  ethe  same  is  known  of 
him.  4  As  concerning  therefore 
the  eating  of  those  things  that  are 
offered  in  sacrifice  unto  idols,  we 
know  that  fan  idol  is  nothing  in 
the  world,  £  and  that  there  is  none 
other  God  but  one.  5  For  though 

1.  7;  Matt.  7.  23;  Gal.  4.  9 ;  2  Tim.  2. 19. - / Isa. 

41.  24;  chap.  10.  19. - o  Deut.  4.  39;  6.  4;  Isa. 

44.  8 ;  Mark  12.  29 ;  verse  6 ;  Eph.  4.  6 ;  1  Tim.  2.  a. 

Puffeth  up — An  unloving  knowledge, 

even  where  it  is  real  knowledge,  often 
results  in  haughty  assumption,  and  in 
scorn  of  humbler  minds.  Knowing 
perfectly  the  nothingness  of  idols,  the 
proud  believer  might  be  reckless  of 
the  difficulties  and  dangers  of  feebler 
minds.  Charity — An  unfortunate 
rendering  of  the  Greek  for  love.  St. 
Paul  affirms  that  it  is  love ,  mixed  with 
knowledge,  which  perfects  knowl¬ 
edge  into  true  wisdom.  Edifieth — 
Buildeth  the  possessor  into  a  true 
Christian  edifice.  If  knowledge  be 
the  bricks  of  the  edifice ,  love  must  at 
least  be  the  mortar. 

2.  Any  man — Destitute  of  this  love, 
and  with  gnosis  alone.  Nothing — He 
that  knows  every  thing  with  his  brain, 
but  nothing  with  his  heart,  fails  of 
true  wisdom.  Satan  is  the  model  of 
intellect  without  love. 

3.  Love  God — As  no  one  does  who 
does  not  love  his  brother  man.  Known 
of  him — He  who  loves  God,  and  so 
man,  is  known  of  God  as  so  loving. 
And  that,  be  sure,  is  a  knowledge 
worthy  of  being  the  object  of. 

4.  We  know — We  have,  indeed, 
this  knowledge.  Nothing  in  the 
world — A  literal  rendering  would  be : 
There  is  no  idol  (that  is,  idol-god )  in  the 
world.  The  definition  idol-god  is  given 
to  the  Greek  word  E IScjXov  in  Robin¬ 
son’s  N.  T.  Lexicon,  and  sustained  by 
quoting  Sept,  of  Num.  xxv,  2,  2  Kings 
xvii,  33,  and  other  texts.  The  import 
of  the  gnosis ,  therefore,  is,  that  there  is 
no  statue  or  image  with  any  divinity 
or  other  important  significance  in  it. 
An  idol  is  a  nothing  in  the  world ,  ex¬ 
presses  the  true,  contemptuous  idea 
of  Paul,  both  as  a  J ew  and  a  Christian. 
But  the  more  exact  verbal  rendering 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


59 


there  be  that  are  h  called  gods, 
whether  in  heaven  or  in  earth,  as 
there  be  gods  many,  and  lords 
many,  6  But  ‘to  us  there  is  but 
one  God,  the  Father,  k  of  whom  are 
all  things,  and  we  1  in  him ;  and 

one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  m  by  whom 

h  John  10.  34. - i  Malachi  2.  10;  Ephesians 

4.  6. - k  Acts  17.  28;  Romans  11.  36. - 1  Ow  for 

him. 1  John  13.  13;  Acts  2.  36;  chapter  12.  3; 

preserves  more  clearly  Paul’s  antithe¬ 
sis:  There  is  no  idol-god  in  the  world , 
none  other  God  hut  one. 

5.  Called  gods — The  world  is  full 
of  pantheons  and  mythologies  of  gods, 
so  called  by  their  worshippers.  In 
heaven  or  in  earth  —  Chrysostom 
says,  that  in  heaven  means  the  sun 
and  stars,  worshipped  by  Persians  and 
others ;  on  earth,  the  gods  and  demi¬ 
gods  in  human  form,  as  in  the  Greek 
mythology.  Yet  the  phrase  refers,  per¬ 
haps,  to  the  name  of  God  as  above,  and 
to  Christ  as  manifest  on  earth.  There 
be — In  men’s  estimation  and  worship. 

6.  To  us — Emphatically  to  us  Christ¬ 
ians.  St.  Paul  now  takes  occasion  to 
lay  down  the  positive  Christian  creed 
on  the  subject,  cleansing  our  moral 
sky  of  all  mythologies,  and  giving  us 
alone  God  in  heaven  and  our  Lord 
Christ  on  earth.  God,  the  Father — 
Father  here  used  not  of  his  divine  pa¬ 
ternity  of  us,  but  in  relation  to  the  Son. 
Of  whom — As  himself  the  unrevealed 
background  of  Deity.  One  Lord.  . . 
Christ — The  divine  Manifestation  on 
earth  of  the  hidden  Infinite  in  heaven. 
Lord  as  being  the  executive  of  the 
divine  power  and  grace  immediately 
upon  us,  on  earth.  Idolatry  was  the 
unregenerate  effort  of  fallen  man  to 
frame  an  earthly  representative  of 
God.  Christ  is  the  true  living  repre¬ 
sentative,  humanizing  the  divine,  and 
bringing  the  Infinite  into  finite  sympa¬ 
thy  with  us.  The  idol-lord  is  there¬ 
fore  a  false,  fabricated,  rival  to  the  true 
Lord.  It  must  be  abolished  in  order 
that  He  may  stand  supreme  and  alone. 
God,  therefore,  is  not  here  so  styled 
God  as  to  exclude  Christ  from  the 
Godhead,  any  more  than  Christ  is 
styled  Lord  to  exclude  God  from  the 
Lordship.  One  is  distinctly  God  and 


are  all  things,  and  we  by  him. 
7  Howbeit  there  is  not  in  every 
man  that  knowledge:  for  some 
"with  conscience  of  the  idol  un¬ 
to  this  hour  eat  it  as  a  thing 
offered  unto  an  idol ;  and  their 
conscience  being  weak  is  “defiled. 

Ephesians  4.  5 ;  Philippians  2. 11. - m  John  1.  3 ; 

Colossians  1.  16;  Hebrews  1.  2. - n  Chapter  10. 

28,  29. - o  Romans  14.  14,  23. 

the  other  Lord,  yet  both  are  both  God 
and  Lord.  And  St.  Paul  thus  states 
the  true  Christian  gnosis  as  abolishing 
the  idol  as  a  nothing  in  the  world. 

7-13.  The  two  preliminaries,  the 
knowledge  and  the  monotheism,  now 
being  settled,  St.  Paul  takes  up  the 
vital  topic  of  sacrificial  eating.  He 
denies  that  all  possess  the  true  gnosis, 
affirming  that  there  is,  on  the  contrary, 
a  class  of  tremulous  Christians  with 
whose  weakness  it  is  a  bounden  Christ¬ 
ian  duty  to  sympathize. 

7.  Howbeit — Nevertheless.  What¬ 
ever  you  Corinthians  may  say  in  your 
letter,  (verse  1,)  it  is  certain  that  not  in 
every  man  is  that  gnosis.  He  denies 
the  full  accuracy  of  their  statement. 
Some — Who  were  doubtless  Gentile 
converts,  who  could  not  expel  their  old 
habits  of  thought  so  but  that  the  im¬ 
pression  of  the  reality  of  the  idol-god 
would  impress  their  minds.  This  was, 
doubtless,  a  large  class  of  persons.  It 
was  impossible  for  the  more  sound- 
minded  Christians  to  eradicate  their  life¬ 
long  tendencies ;  and  to  trample  upon 
them  with  cool  philosophic  indifference 
might  be  a  desolating  course.  Con¬ 
science  of  the  idol — One  reading  with 
a  habituation  of  the  idol :  that  is,  with 
their  habitual  view  of  the  idol,  contract¬ 
ed  from  paganism.  Conscience — With 
a  consciousness ,  intellectual  and  moral, 
that  recognises  it  as  an  idol-god,  and  not 
a  mere  nothing.  Being  weak--SLll 
under  the  power  of  old  pagan  associa¬ 
tions  of  thought.  Defiled — Induced 
by  Christian  example  to  eat,  and  yet 
trembling  with  fear  for  the  imaginary 
guilt  of  their  own  act,  they  realty  trans¬ 
gress  their  own  conscience,  and  are 
thus  condemned ;  and,  perhaps,  learn 
to  brave  conscience  and  thus  become 
wicked.  Note  on  Horn,  x.v,  23. 


60 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


8  But  p  meat  commendeth  us  not 
to  God:  for  neither,  if  we  eat, 
2  are  we  the  better;  neither,  if 
we  eat  not,  8 9 10  are  we  the  worse. 

9  But  take  heed  lest  by  any 
means  this  4  liberty  of  yours  be¬ 
come  ra  stumbling-block  to  them 
that  are  weak.  10  For  if  any 
man  see  thee  which  hast  knowl¬ 
edge  sit  at  meat  in  the  idol’s  tem¬ 
ple,  shall  not  8  the  conscience  of 
him  which  is  weak  be  Bembold- 


p  Rom.  14. 17. - 2  Or,  have  ice  the  more. - 

3  Or,  have  we  the  less. - </Gal.  5.  13. - 4  Or, 

power. - r  Rom.  14.  13,  20. 

8.  But — This  verse,  as  being  repeat¬ 
ed  by  Paul  from  the  Corinthians’  letter, 
might  also  be  included  in  quotation 
marks.  It  is  in  continuation  of  their 
apology  for  free  eating  of  idol  sacrifices. 
Their  first  position  was,  (verse  1,)  we  all 
have  a  gnosis  that  an  idol-god  is  a  noth¬ 
ing  ;  this,  their  second,  is,  that  meat  be¬ 
ing  a  physical  substance  is  not  im¬ 
pregnated  with  any  moral  quality,  and 
so  can  make  a  man  neither  better  nor 
worse.  Paul  grants  this  last  position, 
and  yet  shows  that  it  does  not  secure 
the  safety  of  the  practice. 

9.  But — Nevertheless ;  there  is  still 
a  drawback.  Take  heed — Paul’s  re¬ 
ply  to  the  Corinthian  statement  of  the 
last  verse.  Liberty — E^ovaia,  right, 
prerogative.  Paul  grants  the  existence 
of  the  intrinsic  right  to  eat. 

10.  If  any  man — Scarce  firmly  con¬ 
verted  from  idolatry.  Knowledge — 
The  hosted  Tvuolq  of  verse  1.  Sitting 
— Greek,  reclining ,  as  was  the  ancient 
custom  at  meals.  See  note  on  Matt. 
xxiii,  6.  Idol’s  temple — Greek  Eido- 
Xelov,  an  idoleum.  The  word,  Stanley 
says,  “is  only  used  by  Jewish  writers, 
apparently  to  avoid  designating  heathen 
temples  by  the  sacred  word  vaoc ,  naos , 
used  to  express  the  temple  of  Jerusa¬ 
lem.  1  Mac.  i,  47  ;  x,  83.  It  is  a  kind 
of  parody  on  the  names  of  temples,  as 
derived  from  the  divinities  to  which 
they  are  dedicated.”  Similar  words  are 
museum ,  lyceum.  Emboldened — Built 
up.  The  beauty  of  the  apostle’s  word 
is  lost ;  it  being  the  same  Greek  word 
as  for  edified,  in  verse  1.  The  weak¬ 


ened  to  eat  those  things  which 
are  offered  to  idols;  11  And 
1  through  thy  knowledge  shall  the 
weak  brother  perish,  for  whom 
Christ  died?  12  But  “when*  ye 
sin  so  against  the  brethren,  and 
wound  their  weak  conscience,  ye 
sin  against  Christ.  13  Where¬ 
fore,  v  if  meat  make  my  brother  to 
offend,  I  will  eat  no  flesh  while  the 
world  standeth,  lest  I  make  my 
brother  to  offend. 


s  Chap.  10.  28,  32. - 5  Gr.  edified. - 1  Rom. 

14.  15,  20. - u  Matt.  25.  40,  45. - v  Rom.  14.  21 ; 

2  Cor.  11.  29. 


ling  is  built  up,  but  in  a  bad  direction, 
to  a  proud  wrong-doing. 

11.  And — The  Greek  is  for.  This 
particle  in  Greek  often  refers  to  some 
omitted  phrase,  easily  understood  by 
the  context.  The  true  rendering,  with 
the  omitted  phrase  supplied,  with  the 
verb  perish  brought  into  its  true  pres¬ 
ent  tense,  and  the  spurious  interrogation 
point  removed,  is  this:  [ Alas  that  it 
should  be  so,]  for  the  weak  brother  polishes 
by  thy  knowledge.  See  note  on  Rom. 
xiv,  15.  Christ  died — A  pathetic  and 
forcible  argument,  drawn  from  the 
depths  of  Christian  truth  and  Christian 
feeling,  and  possible  for  a  Christian 
solely  to  adduce.  Will  you  not  suffer 
a  privation  in  behalf  of  the  soul  for 
which  Christ  died  ? 

12.  Sin  against  Christ — By  destroy¬ 
ing  the  fruit  of  his  death.  This  was  a 
new  argument  in  the  world,  drawn  from 
a  new  source,  and  in  behalf  of  a  new 
virtue,  namely,  tenderness  for  the  souls 
of  men. 

13.  Offend — Note  on  Matt,  xviii,  7. 
I  will  eat  no  flesh — Mark  how  deli¬ 
cately  the  apostle  passes  now  from 
the  second  person  plural,  ye,  to  the  first 
person  singular,  I.  He  enjoins  upon 
them  a  somewhat  burdensome  take 
heed  ;  but  when  it  comes  to  the  inten¬ 
sity  of  perfect  self-denial  he  takes  it  up¬ 
on  himself.  It  is  a  sublime,  nay,  a  dar¬ 
ing  height  of  self-consecration,  rising  to 
the  level  of  an  apostle ,  and  that  apostle, 
Paul.  And,  as  in  other  high  things, 
there  is  some  danger  in  it.  Note  Rom. 
xiv,  16,  21.  We  may  by  obeying  an- 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


61 


A 


CHAPTER  IX. 

M  aI  not  an  apostle  ? 


a  Acts  9.  15;  13.  2;  26.  17;  2  Cor.  12.  12;  Gal. 

2.  7,  8;  1  Tim.  2.  7;  2  Tim,  1.  11. _ 

other  man’s  false  conscience  confirm 
his  self-conceit,  encourage  his  tyranny, 
or  establish  a  false  morality,  and  make 
it  a  part  of  the  present  Christianity. 
Against  this  last  danger  Paul  special¬ 
ly  here  provides.  While  he  complies 
with  the  weak  brother’s  error  he  open¬ 
ly  proclaims  that  it  is  an  error,  and  that 
he  complies,  not  for  truth,  but  from 
tenderness.  He  yields  to  the  unsound 
conscience  ;  but  nothing  would  induce 
him  to  admit  that  the  conscience  was 
sound.  While  temporizing  with  the 
weakness,  he  takes  all  care  for  the 
abolishment  of  the  error. 

At  this  point  St.  Paul  suspends,  not 
terminates,  his  discussion  of  the  idol 
sacrifices,  and  resumes  it  at  chapter 
x,  14r-xi,  1.  He  suspends  it  in  order, 
through  an  extended  and  interesting 
digression,  (ix,  1-x,  18,)  at  once  to  illus¬ 
trate  this  principle  of  resigning  one’s 
rights  for  others’  good,  and  to  defend 
himself  from  the  charge  of  deprecia¬ 
ting  his  own  apostleship  in  making  such 
surrender.  Though  a  digression,  and  a 
long  one,  it  is  so  full  of  the  noblest 
sentiments  and  loftiest  piety  that  none 
should  wish  it  shorter. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Paul’s  Fifth  Response: — To  the 
Question  Affecting  his  Apostolic- 

ITY,  ix,  1-X,  13. 

The  intense  purpose  of  sacrificing 
his  own  rights  in  regard  to  eating 
meat,  expressed  so  vividly  in  the  last 
chapter,  (see  note  on  the  closing  verse,) 
suggests  to  St.  Paul  a  parallel  sacrifice 
of  his  own  apostolic  rights  which  he 
had  thus  far  practiced  through  his 
whole  mission.  Fully  maintaining  the 
right  of  an  apostle  to  be  maintained 
by  the  Church,  he  had  abdicated  that 
right  in  his  own  case,  and  had  earned 
his  living  by  the  skill  of  his  own  hand 
and  the  sweat  of  his  own  brow.  His 
Christian  calumniators,  so  far  from  ap¬ 
preciating  this  magnanimity,  made  it 
the  ground  of  a  charge  against  him, 
that  he  did  not  claim  his  maintenance 


not  free  ?  ’’have  I  not  seen  Jesus 
am  I  Christ  our  Lord?  care  not  ye  my 

b  Acts  9.  3, 17 ;  18.  9 ;  22.  14, 18 ;  23. 11 ;  chap. 
15.  8. - cChap.  3.  6;  4.  15. 

because  he  was  conscious  of  not  being 
a  true  apostle.  He  was  not  one  of  the 
twelve.  He  had  never  seen  the  living 
Christ.  He  was  no  brother  or  kins¬ 
man  of  Jesus.  He  was,  therefore,  a 
spurious  apostle,  and  not  worthy  the 
pay  he  dare  not  claim.  Paul  now  re¬ 
plies,  and  replies  here ,  because  this 
self-sacrifice  of  his  lies  in  direct  line 
with  the  self-sacrifice  expressed  at  the 
close  of  the  last  chapter.  The  follow¬ 
ing  is  his  train  of  self-explanation. 

1.  He  asserts  his  apostolic  freedom 
and  prerogative,  1-6.  2.  Maintains 

the  minister’s  right  to  pecuniary  sup¬ 
port  from  the  Church  by  the  law  of 
compensation,  1-14.  3.  Declares  why 

he  renounced  that  right,  namely,  be¬ 
cause  his  glory  and  his  reward  were 
a  gratis  gospel ,  15-19.  In  accordance 
with  this  self  -  sacrifice,  4.  He  made 
himself,  within  the  limits  of  right,  all 
things  to  all  men,  in  order  to  win  them 
to  Christ,  20-22.  5.  Thus  to  attain 

the  final  prize,  like  an  athlete,  he  ear¬ 
nestly  disciplines  and  subdues  himself 
that  he  may  not  become  at  last  a  cast- 
away,  23-27.  6.  Precisely  in  contin¬ 

uance  with  this  train  of  thought,  in 
the  next  chapter  he  charges  the  Corin¬ 
thians,  not  in  the  image  of  an  athlete, 
but  by  the  example  of  Israel  in  the  wil¬ 
derness ■,  to  escape  a  like  cast-away 
finality,  x,  1-14.  Then  the  digression 
being  closed,  (as  noted  in  our  last  note 
on  chap,  viii,)  he  resumes  the  topic  of 
idol  sacrifice. 

1.  Assertion  of  his  apostolical 
right  and  prerogative,  1-6. 

1.  Am  I  not  free? — By  the  best 
readings  this  question  stands  first,  and 
forms  the  hinge  from  the  previous 
topic  to  what  follows.  Do  I  thus  sub¬ 
ject  myself  to  privation  for  others, 
even  of  food,  because  I  am  not  truly  a 
free  man  like  yourselves  ?  Hay,  more, 
am  I  not  an  apostle  ?  —  And  so  en¬ 
titled  to  the  apostle’s  maintenance, 
which  I  decline  to  receive  ?  And  as 
his  apostleship  is  questioned,  he  adds 
a  running  interrogative  assertion  of  it 


62 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


work  in  the  Lord?  2  If  I  be  not  I  do  examine  me  is  this.  4  eHave 
an  apostle  unto  others,  yet  doubt-  we  not  power  to  eat  and  to  drink  ? 
less  I  am  to  you :  for  d  the  seal  of  5  Have  we  not  power  to  lead  about 
mine  apostleship  are  ye  in  the  a  sister,  a  1 2 3 4  wife,  as  well  as  other 
Lord.  3  Mine  answer  to  them  that  apostles,  and  as  fthe  brethren  of 

ji  2  Cor.  3.  2;  12. 12. - e  Verse  14;  1  Thess.  2.  6;  I  1  Or,  woman .  — /  Matt.  13.  55;  Mark  6. 3;  Luke 


2  Thess.  3.  9. 


Seen  Jesus — The  requisite  qualifica¬ 
tion  for  being  an  apostle.  See  our 
notes  on  Luke  i,  2;  Acts  ix,  3.  Ye 
my  work — This  practical  proof  con¬ 
vinced  the  council  of  Jerusalem  of 
Paul’s  apostleship,  (notes  on  Acts  xv, 

4,  6,  12,)  as  Paul  more  fully  asserts  to 

the  Galatians,  ii,  7-9. 

2.  I  am  to  you — A  direct  argu- 
mentam  ad  homines.  Whoever  else 
could  gracefully  question  his  apostle¬ 
ship  the  Corinthians  could  not.  If 
they  were  true  Christians,  he  was  a 
true  apostle.  Seal — A  seal  on  a  doc¬ 
ument  is  a  voucher  for  its  genuineness 
and  validity.  The  Corinthians  con¬ 
verted  by  Paul,  and  their  Church  by 
him  founded,  were  as  a  confirmatory 
seal  upon  his  apostolic  diploma.  In 
the  Lord  —  Note  on  Rom.  ix,  1. 
Christ  is  the  very  embodiment  of  spir¬ 
itual  Christianity,  and  whoever  .is 
deeply  centred  in  that  is  centred  in 
Christ. 

3.  Them  that  do  examine  me- 

A  judicial  term,  and  may  be  rendered, 
my  triers.  It  alludes  to  a  class  of 
Corinthian  detractors  who  are  brought 
into  the  foreground,  and  more  fully 
answered  in  the  second  epistle.  This 
— Followed  by  a  period,  and  properly 
referring  to  the  answer  just  given,  not 
to  what  follows.  His  answer  as  to 
the  validity  of  his  apostleship  is  now 
complete.  Wliat  follows  is  to  assert 

that  he  is  free. 

4.  Power — Rightful  authority.  The 
change  from  the  I  of  the  previous  verses 
to  the  we  of  this  doubtless  anticipates 
the  mention  of  Barnabas,  verse  6,  as 
included  in  the  question.  Eat  . .  drink 
— Of  the  contributions  of  the  Church. 

5.  Lead  about — Implying  an  itin¬ 
erancy,  not  a  settled  pastorate.  A 
sister,  a  wife  —  A  sister  of  the 
Church,  who  is  a  wife  of  the  apostle. 
The  English  version  gives  the  exact 
verbal  Greek,  except  that  the  latter 


6.  15;  Gal.  1.  19. _ 

word  may  signify  either  wife  or 
woman .  That  here,  however,  the 
word  does  not  mean  woman  is  plain, 
for  a  sister  is  of  course  a  woman , 
and  the  latter  word  would  be  superflu¬ 
ous.  If  sister  express  a  relation ,  so 
must  the  latter  term.  Dr.  Words¬ 
worth,  however,  renders  it,  as  do  some 
of  the  Greek  and  Roman  fathers,  a 
Christian  woman.  But  the  word  sister 
alone  would  express  that  meaning. 
Wordsworth’s  rendering  assumes  that 
the  apostles  took  upon  their  circuits 
female  attendants  of  suitable  charac¬ 
ter,  who  should  perform  those  Christ¬ 
ian  offices,  such  as  baptism  for  fe¬ 
males,  who  were  in  that  age  inaccessi¬ 
ble  to  the  male  minister.  But  of  this 
practice  there  is  no  trace  in  the  New 
Testament  or  earliest  Church  history. 
Nor  is  the  case  of  those  women  who 
upon  occasions  ministered  to  our  Lord 
at  all  parallel.  This  erroneous  view  of 
the  text  was  probably  the  occasion  of 
the  later  introduction  into  the  Church 
of  an  order  of  women  called  after  this 
passage  avvEioaicTai ,  which  led  to  such 
immoralities  that  it  was  abolished  by 
the  Council  of  Nicea.  The  Rhemish 
(Romanistic)  version  unscrupulously 
transposes  the  terms,  and  reads  a 
woman ,  a  sister,  which  would  give  the 
same  sense  as  Wordsworth,  liable  to 
the  same  objection.  Tradition  (which 
Romanism  usually  presses  upon  us  as 
a  binding  authority)  asserts,  as  this 
passage  also  implies,  that  several  of 
the  apostles  were  married,  and  Matt, 
viii,  14  asserts  that  Peter  (claimed  as 
the  first  pope)  was.  Paul  declares  that 
“  a  bishop  must  be  the  husband  of  one 
wife.”  When  Orientalism  became  more 
fully  developed  in  the  Church,  about 
the  middle  of  the  second  century,  vir¬ 
ginity  began  to  become  an  exagger¬ 
ated  virtue.  As  the  popedom  devel¬ 
oped  itself,  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy, 
contrary  to  fhe  above  quoted  express 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


63 


the  Lord,  and  s  Cephas  ?  0  Or  I 

only  and  Barnabas,  h  have  not  we 
power  to  forbear  working  ? 

7  Who  ‘goeth  a  warfare  any 
time  at  his  own  charges  ?  who 
kplanteth  a  vineyard,  and  eateth 
not  of  the  fruit  thereof  ?  or  who 
1  feedeth  a  flock,  and  eateth  not  of 

g  Matt.  8.  14. - h  2  Thess.  3.  8,  9. - i  2  Cor. 

10.  4;  1  Tim.  1.  18;  6.  12;  2  Tim.  2.  3;  4,  7. - • 

Scripture,  was  found  to  be  a  powerful 
aid  to  the  central  despotism.  Sepa¬ 
rated  from  all  other  ties,  the  cler^v  be- 
came,  as  now,  the  devotees  of  absolute 
ecclesiastic  power.  Hence  the  pope 
has  been  the  most  violent  advocate  of 
celibacy,  and  the  late  enactment  of  the 
infallibility  of  the  pope  renders  the 
dogma  of  clerical  celibacy  absolutely 
immutable.  The  brethren  of  the 
Lord — Who  were  not  of  the  twelve 
apostles,  but  who,  after  the  Lord’s  res¬ 
urrection,  became  apostolic  men.  See 
note  on  Matt,  xiii,  55.  Cephas — 
Mentioned  here  specially  as  the  high 
authority  with  the  Judaizers  whom 
Paul  is  answering. 

6.  Barnabas — Note  on  Acts  xv,  39. 
It  would  appear  that  though  Barnabas 
never  visited  Corinth,  yet  his  name 
was  familiar  there.  This  is,  indeed, 
probably  true  of  most  of  the  person¬ 
ages  mentioned  in  the  preceding  verse. 
Indeed,  the  Corinthians  seem  to  have 
been  lively  and  critical  canvassers  of 
the  eminent  Christian  leaders.  Prob¬ 
ably  the  fact  that  Barnabas  was  com¬ 
missioned  by  the  Gentile  Church  of 

xiii,  2)  at  the  same 
time  with  Paul,  would  bring  his  name 
into  the  discussion.  The  Judaizers 
would  maintain  that  the  apostolic  au¬ 
thority  of  both  was  equally  illegitimate, 
having  neither  come  from  Christ  nor 
started  from  Jerusalem.  The  inference 
drawn  by.  some  commentators,  that 
Barnabas,  like  Paul,  maintained  himself 
by  his  own  manual  labour,  is  not  valid. 
Luring  the  first  apostolic  tour,  in 
which  Barnabas  and  Paul  were  asso¬ 
ciated,  their  career  appears  to  have 
been  too  rapid  for  such  labour,  and 
nothing  of  the  kind  is  intimated  in  the 
narrative.  Paul  here  asserts  only  Bar¬ 
nabas  s  right ;  not  that  he  declined  to 


the  milk  of  the  flock  ?  8  Say  I 

these  things  as  a  man  ?  or  saith 
not  the  law  the  same  also  ?  9  For 

it  is  written  in  the  law  of  Moses, 
m  Thou  shalt  not  muzzle  the  mouth 
of  the  ox  that  treadeth  out  the 
corn.  Doth  God  take  care  for 
oxen  ?  10  Or  saith  he  it  alto- 

JDeut.  20.  6;  Prov. 27. 18;  chap. 3.  6-8. - 1  John 

21.  lo;  1  Pet.  5.  2. - m  Deut  25.  4;  1  Tim.  5.  18. 

use  the  right.  Forbear  working — • 

Working  at  manual  labour  for  our  sup¬ 
port  while  we  preach  a  gratuitous  Gos¬ 
pel.  Is  it  I  and  Barnabas  alone  that 
must  preach  for  nothing,  and  support 
ourselves  ? 

2.  Ministers  are  entitled  to  sup¬ 
port  by  the  law  of  compensation, 

7-14. 

By  this  law  the  soldier,  the  vintner, 
the  shepherd,  nay,  the  very  oxen,  are 
entitled  to  their  recompense. 

7.  Who  feedeth  —  Literally,  who 
shepherdeth  the  flock.  Eateth — Not  the 
milk,  but  of  or  from  the  milk ;  that  is, 
food  made  from  the  milk. 

8.  As  a  man — Literally,  after  or  ac¬ 
cording  to  man,  that  is,  to  man’s  author¬ 
ity  ;  in  distinction  from,  according  to 
God’s  law. 

9.  Doth  Grod  take  care  for  oxen 

—  This .  passage  we  have  lately  seen 
quoted  in  a  beautiful  sermon  on  tender¬ 
ness  to  brutes  (by  a  “liberal”  Christ¬ 
ian  preacher)  as  inhuman  language. 
He  understands  the  apostle  as  affirm¬ 
ing,  contrary  to  many  beautiful  texts  of 
sympathy  for  the  lower  creatures,  that 
God  has  no  care  for  brutes!  Darwin¬ 
ism,  while  it  confessedly  degrades  man, 
claims  to  elevate  the  lower  animals  and 
to  prompt  to  mercy  toward  them — a 
happy  result  of  error,  if  real.  Sad,  if 
Paul’s  Christianity  were  in  this  below 
its  level ! 

Alford  thus  interprets  it:  “  We  must 
not,  as  ordinarily,  supply  povov,  only , 
for  oxen,  and  thus  rationalize  the  sen¬ 
tence.  The  question  imports:  ‘In  giv¬ 
ing  this  command,  are  the  oxen,  or 
those  for  whom  the  law  was  given,  its 
objects  ?’  And  to  such  a  question  there 
can  be  but  one  answer.  Fver}r  duty  of 
humanity  has  its  ultimate  ground,  not 
the  mere  welfare  of  the  animal  con- 


64 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


gether  for  our  sakes  ?  For  our 
sakes,  no  doubt,  this  is  written  : 
that  n  he  that  plougheth  should 
plough  in  hope;  and  that  he  that 
thresheth  in  hope  should  be  par¬ 
taker  of  his  hope.  11  °If  we  have 
sown  unto  you  spiritual  thin  gs,  is 
it  a  great  thing  if  we  shall  reap 
your  carnal  things  ?  12  If  others 

be  partakers  of  this  power  over 
you,  are  not  we  rather  ?  p  Never¬ 
theless  we  have  not  used  this 
power;  but  suffer  all  things,  9  lest 
we  should  hinder  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  13  r  Do  ye  not  know  that 


they  which  minister  about  holy 
things *  2 3 * * * *  live  of  the  things  of  the 
temple  ?  and  they  which  wait  at 
the  altar  are  partakers  with  the 
altar  ?  Even  so  8  hath  the  Lord 
ordained  ‘that  they  which  preach 
the  gospel  should  live  of  the  gos¬ 
pel. 

15  But  UI  have  used  none  of 
these  things :  neither  have  I  writ¬ 
ten  these  things,  that  it  should  be 
so  done  unto  me:  for  y  it  were  bet¬ 
ter  for  me  to  die,  than  that  any 
man  should  make  my  glorying 
void.  16  For  though  I  preach 


n  2  Tim.  2.  6. 
p  Acts  20.  33 ; 

1  Thess.  2.  6. 

7.  6.  &c 


-o  Rom.  15.  27 ; 
verse  15.  18 ;  2  Cor. 


q  2  Cor.  11. 12. 
Num.  5.  9,  10;  18. 


Gal.  6. 
11.  7,9; 


6.- 

12. 


13  • 

r  Lev.  6. 16, 26 ; 
8-20;  Deut.  10.  9; 


18.  1. - 2  0 r,feed. - sMatt.  10.  10;  Luke  10.  7. 

- if  Gal.  6.  6;  1  Tim.  5.  17. - u  Verse  12;  Acts 

18.  3  ;  20.  34 ;  chap.  4.  12;  1  Thess.  2.  9;  2  Thess. 
3.  8. - v  2  Cor.  11.  10. 


cerned,  but  its  welfare  in  that  system  of 
which  man  is  the  head ,  and,  therefore, 
mans  welfare.  The  good  done  to  man’s 
immortal  spirit  by  acts  of  humanity  and 
justice  infinitely  outweighs  the  mere 
physical  comfort  of  a  brute  which  per¬ 
ishes.”  Our  own  view  is,  however,  that 
the  question  is  an  argument  d  fortiori : 
Cares  God  for  oxen  in  this  law  ?  Much 
more  cares  he  for  men,  and  for  minis¬ 
ters  who  work  like  oxen.  If  the  law  of 
compensation  includes  even  the  honest 
labouring  cattle,  it  surely  includes  us 
apostles. 

10.  Altogether — II avTug1  wholly;  not 
meaning  that  the  law  speaks  exclusive¬ 
ly  for  men,  but  completely ,  and  without 
defect  of  application.  Plougheth— In 
God’s  spiritual  husbandry,  as  appears 
from  the  following  verse.  In  hope — 
Sustained  by  the  Church,  the  minister  is 
cheered  in  hope  of  a  blessed  result  of 
his  labours.  Thresheth — Both  the 
earlier  and  the  later  labourer  in  the 
spiritual  held.  In  hope— Cheered  by 
the  same  anticipation  as  the  plougher, 
the  thresher  should  be  partaker  of 
his,  the  plougher’ s,  hope  — namely, 
the  crop . 

1 1.  Carnal  things — That  is,  secular 
goods. 

12.  Others — The  parties,  for  in¬ 
stance,  mentioned  in  verse  5.  We — 
As  in  verse  6 :  I  only  and  Barnabas. 
This  power — The  right  of  mainte¬ 


nance  by  the  Church.  Hinder — By 
burdening  the  poor  and  subjecting  our¬ 
selves  to  the  charge  of  being  merce¬ 
naries.  St.  Paul,  now  rising  above  the 
analogical  argument  for  compensation 
drawn  from  labourers  and  oxen,  quotes 
the  analogy  of  the  Jewish  Levites  and 
priesthood. 

13.  They  which  minister — Allud¬ 
ing  to  the  Levites.  Wait  at  the  altar 

— The  priests. 

14.  Even  so — The  third  and  con¬ 
clusive  argument — the  command  of 
Christ.  Matt,  x,  10;  Luke  x,  1.  An¬ 
other  instance  indicating,  probably, 
Paul’s  acquaintance  with  the  gospels 
of  Matthew  and  Luke. 

3.  Reason  why  Paul  renounced 
his  right  of  Church  maintenance — 
because  his  glory  and  pay  was  a 
gratis  gospel,  15-22. 

15.  But  I — Omitting  all  others,  Paul 
drops  his  we  and  comes  down  to  his 
own  personal  I.  So  done — That  I 
might  be  maintained  by  the  Church 
Better  .  . .  die  . . .  than  . .  .  glorying 
void — Since  that  glorying  is  the  sal¬ 
vation  of  souls  and  the  honour  of 
Christ. 

16-18.  St.  Paul  here  declares  that  a 
simple  preaching  of  the  gospel,  as  be¬ 
ing  a  duty,  on  the  lower  plane  of  moral 

compulsion  yields  no  glory ;  it  has  not 

the  special* higher  reward  he  courts. 

His  reward,  the  result  of  renouncing 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


65 


the  gospel,  I  have  nothing  to  glory 
of:  for  w  necessity  is  laid  upon  me ; 
yea,  woe  is  unto  me,  if  I  preach 
not  the  gospel!  17  For  if  I  do 
this  thing  willingly,  XI  have  a  re¬ 
ward:  but  if  against  my  will,  a 
>'  dispensation  of  the  gospel  is  com 


w  Rom.  1  14. - CO  Chap.  3.  8,  14. - y  Chap. 

_ 4.  1;  Gal.  2.  7;  Phil.  1.  17;  Col.  1.  25. 


his  rights,  consists  in  this  very  con¬ 
ferring  of  a  gratis  gospel,  embracing 
all  the  good  which  that  is  sure  to  in¬ 
clude. 

16.  For  necessity ..  .woe —  A  di¬ 
vine  requisition,  enforced  by  a  penalty 
of  woe,  obligated  him  to  preach 
the  gospel.  But  this  was  upon  the 
level  plane  of  absolute  duty,  while  his 
holy  ambition  aspired  to  a  Christian 
glory  from  higher  self-denial  and  em¬ 
prise.  Barely  to  escape  the  woe  did 
not  suffice. 

17.  For — Literally  translated — For 
if  willing  I  do  this ,  I  have  a  reward ;  if 
unwilling ,  with  a  stewardship  am  I  in¬ 
trusted. 

By  willing ,  here,  is  meant  a  willing¬ 
ness  not  enforced  by  the  necessity  and 
the  woe,  but  free  and  enterprising, 
ready  to  sacrifice  rights  and  perquisites. 
By  unwilling ,  is  meant  a  reluctant  and 
obligated  consent  from  fear  of  penalty. 
A  reward — For  the  heartiness  and  the 
sacrifices  resulting.  A  dispensation 
— -A  stewardship;  an  obligation  sus¬ 
tained  by  penalty  to  discharge  the  sa¬ 
cred  office  remains,  with  a  correspon¬ 
dent  low  blessing  upon  him. 

18.  What  . .  .reward— Of  this  eager 
and  self-sacrificing  willingness,  at  the 
expense  of  a  livelihood,  what  is  my 
reward  ?  The  answer  to  this  question 
is  not,  as  Stanley  and  others  give  it, 
“My  reward  is,  that  I  have  no  re¬ 
ward  !  ”  By  no  means.  His  reward  is 
a  gratis  gospel  to  the  people,  with  all 
the  blessedness  embraced  in  that  glo¬ 
rious  fact.  His  service  is  willingness 
for  any  sacrifice ;  his  reward,  his 
glory,  dearer  than  life  itself,  is  that 
unpaid  yet  priceless  gospel.  If  Paul’s 
commentators  cannot  see  that  this  is  a 
reward,  he  could  see  it  to  be  so ;  a  re¬ 
ward  pregnant  with  salvation  to  unnum¬ 
bered  souls,  and  with  the  richest  bless- 

VOL.  I\r._ 5 


mitted  unto  me.  18  What  is  my 
reward  then  ?  Verily  that, z  when 
I  preach  the  gospel,  I  may  make 
the  gospel  of  Christ  without  charge, 
that  I a  abuse  not  my  power  in  the 
gospel.  19  For  though  I  be  bfree 
from  all  men ,  yet  have  CI  made 

*  ChaP-  10-  33;  2  Cor.  4.  5 ;  11.  7. - a  Chap.  7. 31 

_ t>  Verse  1. - cGal.  5.  13. 

ings  of  his  divine  Master  on  his  own 
soul.  This  view  is  confirmed  by  the  en¬ 
tire  following  context,  1 9-22  ;  where  he 
declares  that  for  various  self-abnega¬ 
tions,  the  reward  is  that  he  might  gain 
more,  save  some.  An  earnest  will  is 
the  antecedent ;  the  gospel’s  rich  suc¬ 
cess  is  the  consequent  reward.  Not 
that  he  fails  to  include  in  this  reward 
all  the  resultant  blessedness  to  others 
and  himself.  Such  inclusion  is  proved 
23—27,  where  he  claims,  as  in  the  result, 
the  being  partaker  with  you,  the  final 
prize  an  incorruptible  crown.  It 
is  in  the  vigorous  faith  of  the  apostle 
to  lump  all  the  glory  of  this  eternal  fu¬ 
ture  in  the  present  and  the  future  im¬ 
mediate.  Make  the  gospel.  .  .with¬ 
out  charge — Literally,  I  may  present  an 
expenseless  gospel.  Such  an  attainment 
Paul  holds  to  be  a  glory  and  a  reward. 
That — To  the  end,  or  result,  that.  He 
makes  the  gospel  expenseless,  termi¬ 
nating  in  the  fact  that  he  has  underused 
his  power  in  the  gospel. 

In  full  accordance  with  the  magna¬ 
nimity  with  which  St.  Paul  renounced 
pecuniary  support  did  he  also  renounce 
his  own  preferences,  tastes,  and  con¬ 
veniences,  in  order  that  by  conceding 
to  others  he  might  win  them  to  Christ 
That  in  this  accommodation  he  never 
surrendered  the  right  and  the  true ,  ho 
does  not  consider  it  necessary  to  say. 
That  might  be  assumed  as  of  course. 

f  ^^f  his  own  conduct  on 
that  point,  as  given  by  Luke,  is  a  bet¬ 
ter  statement  of  his  most  delicate  dis¬ 
crimination  on  this  point  than  any 
profession  of  his  own.  Note  on  Acts 
xv,  6;  xxi,  24. 

19.  Free. .  .made  myself  servant 

— Greek,  kpavrov  edov/iocra.  Free  from 
all,  I  have  enslaved  myself  to  all,  is  his 
terse,  antithetic  language.  Jt  presents 
his  independence  of  soul  and  body 


66 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


myself  servant  unto  all,  dtliat  I 
might  gain  the  more.  20  And 
eunto  the  Jews  I  became  as  a  Jew, 
that  I  might  gain  the  Jews;  to 

them  that  are  under  the  law.  as 

/ 

under  the  law,  that  I  might  gain 
them  that  are  under  the  law  ; 
21  fTo  sthem  that  are  without 
law,  as  without  law,  (h  being  not 
without  law  to  God,  but  under  the 

cl  Matt.  18. 15 ;  1  Pet.  3. 1. - e  Acts  16. 3 ;  18. 18 ; 

21.  23,  &c. f  Gal.  3.  2. Q  Horn.  2.  12,  14. 

by  nature;  the  enslavement  of  both 
to  all  by  grace.  Yet  in  that  very  en¬ 
slavement  he  finds  a  dignity,  a  re¬ 
ward,  a  glory.  Gain  the  more — A 
prize  above  all  other  earthly  gain.  To 
submit  to  the  whim  and  caprice  of 
others  is  a  hard  trial  to  the  flesh  and 
spirit.  It  reduces  a  high-spirited  man 
from  a  freeman  to  a  slave.  If  done  for 
self-interest,  it  is  a  sordid  debasement. 
If  so  done  as  to  sacrifice  truth  and  right¬ 
eousness  it  is  a  crime.  If  by  such  con¬ 
formity  we  confirm  a  caprice,  a  falsity,  a 
superstition,  it  is  an  error  and  a  danger. 
But  if  done  for  a  high  moral  purpose, 
with  careful  limitations  for  rectitude, 
with  the  aim  of  delivering  from  falsity 
and  superstition,  then  it  is  a  high  attain¬ 
ment,  worthy  the  chief  of  the  apostles. 
This  is  a  renunciation  of  self,  not  of 
a  mere  mystic  kind,  or  that  shows  it¬ 
self  in  self-mortifications  or  self-flagel¬ 
lations,  but  in  renouncing  self-gratifica¬ 
tion  for  human  good.  It  is  thus  that 
Paul,  Luther,  and  Wesley  have  become 
the  objects  of  reverence  to  mankind. 

20.  Became  as  a  Jew  —  Not  be¬ 
came  a  Jew.  In  circumcising  Timothy 
Paul  became  as  a  Jew ;  in  refusing 
to  circumcise  Titus  he  refused  to  be¬ 
come  a  Jew.  Them  that  are  under 
the  law — But  not  born  Jews  ;  namely, 
the  proselytes  to  Judaism.  His  ad¬ 
justment  to  these  “he  proved  by  non- 
observance  of  the  law,  by  the  rejec¬ 
tion  of  circumcision,  by  intercourse 
with  the  Gentiles,  or  by  accommoda¬ 
tion  to  their  language  and  arguments, 
as  in  Acts  xiv,  16,  17  ;  xvii,  28  ;  1  Cor. 
viii,  1-7  ;  ix,  24-27.” — Stanley. 

21.  Them ...  without  law  —  Gen¬ 
tiles.  Note  on  Bom.  ii,  14.  Not  with- 


law  to  Christ,)  that  I  might  gain 
them  that  are  without  the  law. 
22  ‘To  the  weak  became  I  as  weak, 
that  I  might  gain  the  weak :  k  I  am 
made  all  things  to  all  men ,  Rhat  I 
might  by  all  means  save  some. 

23  And  this  I  do  for  the  gos¬ 
pel’s  sake,  that  I  might  be  partaker 
thereof  with  you.  24  Know  ye 
not  that  they  which  run  in  a  race 

h  Chap.  7.  22. - i  Rom.  15.  1 ;  2  Cov.  11.  29. — * 

k  Chap.  10.  33. - 1  Rom.  11.  14 ;  chap.  7.  16. 

out  law — For  the  being  as  a  thing  is 
not  being  the  thing  itself.  Paul  de¬ 
fines  his  position  as  showing  that  the 
gospel  emancipation  from  law  is  still 
submission  to  the  law  of  Christ.  Paul, 
as  Bengel  says,  is  neither  lawless  nor 
anti-law. 

22.  To  the  weak — The  weak  in 
faith,  of  which  the  weaklings  of  Rom. 
xiv,  where  see  notes,  and  1  Cor.  viii,  10, 
are  classes.  Paul  studied  and  sympa¬ 
thized  with  their  weakness  in  order  to 
save  and  bring  them  from  weakness  to 
strength.  All  things — Transforming 
himself,  as  it  were,  to  all  the  shapes  of 
character  he  met,  j~et  without  hypoc¬ 
risy  or  partaking  in  sin,  in  order  to 
save  those  to  whom  he  accommodated 
himself. 

4.  These  various  self-denials  are 
undergone  for  an  eternal  future 
prize,  23-27. 

23.  Partaker  thereof— Partaker, 

that  is,  of  the  gospel,  embracing  there¬ 
in  all  the  blessings,  temporal  or  eter¬ 
nal,  in  the  included  gospel.  Note  on 
verse  18.  This  gospel  includes  the 
prize  of  verse  24,  the  incorruptible 
crown  of  verse  25.  You — In  italics; 
it  is  not  in  the  Greek.  Literal  ren¬ 
dering,  be  a  fellow-partaker  of  it; 
that  is,  a  sharer  with,  not  only  you, 
but  all  the  glorified,  of  the  blessed  re¬ 
sults  wrapped  up  in  the  gospel.  So  a 
blissful  eternity  is  ever  present  to  the 
faith  of  Paul,  being  included  in  the  very 
gospel  he  preaches. 

24.  Know  ye  not — They  had  abum 
dant  chance  to  know,  from  the  exhibi¬ 
tions  at  the  Isthmian  stadium ,  near 
their  city.  A  race — Here,  for  the  first 
time  in  the  New  Testament,  occurs  an 


A.  D.  5  7. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


67 


allusion  to  the  ancient  games.  They 
are  mentioned  neither  in  the  gospels 
nor  in  the  Old  Testament.  The  solemn 
Hebrews  never  practised  them ;  and 
when  introduced,  with  theatres  and 
other  spectacles  by  the  Herodian  fam¬ 
ily,  they  were  the  abhorrence  of  all 
earnest  Jews.  In  the  days  of  his  big¬ 
oted  Judaism  Paul  would,  probably, 
never  have  used  them  as  a  religious  il¬ 
lustration. 

But  with  the  Greeks  these  games, 
traceable  to  an  heroic  age  of  gods  and 
demigods,  were  a  part  of  their  religion. 
They  were  practised  to  bring  the  hu¬ 
man  form  to  that  same  idealized  perfec¬ 
tion  as  Grecian  genius  endeavoured  to 
produce  in  its  statues  of  heroes  and 
gods.  They  formed  a  part  of  the  wor¬ 
ship  of  beauty  in  the  human  person,  as 
in  all  other  noble  forms.  Hence  the  vic¬ 
tor  in  those  games,  at  which  all  Greece 
was  ambitious  to  be  present,  was  a  no¬ 
blest  of  the  race,  a  masterpiece  of  hu¬ 
manity.  He  was  gazed  at,  as  he  proudly 
passed,  as  a  model  of  manhood.  He 
was  the  pride  of  his  family,  and  hon¬ 
oured  by  his  state  and  city  among  her 
great  generals  and  statesmen.  From 
the  victory  he  departed  crowned  with 
a  garland,  was  escorted  home  in  a  tri¬ 
umphal  chariot,  and,  in  some  instances, 
instead  of  being  received  through  the 
ordinary  gate,  a  breach  was  made  in 
the  city  wall,  that  he  might  be  received 
with  a  unique  triumph. 

When,  a  short  time  before  the  birth 
of  Christ,  Rome  conquered  the  known 
world,  she  adopted  the  games,  varying 
their  form,  and  in  every  respect  debas¬ 
ing  them.  By  the  Greeks  they  were 
idealized,  by  the  Romans  brutalized. 
They  were  no  longer  heroic  exercises 
in  which  the  noblest  men  engaged  for 
self-perfection,  but  exhibitions  of  fe¬ 
rocious  and  bloody  contests  by  profes¬ 
sional  or  compulsory  combatants,  for 
the  gratification  of  spectators  gazing 
from  their  safe  and  cowardly  seats 
upon  scenes  of  savage  bloodshed  of 
which  others  were  the  inflictors  or 
victims.  There  were  beast  fights ;  of 
men  with  beasts  or  beasts  with  beasts. 
There  were  gladiatorial  fights  of  men 
with  men.  These  sanguinary  exhi¬ 
bitions  were  not,  like  the  pugilistic 


fights  of  our  day,  followed  solely  by 
the  baser  classes  in  violation  of  law, 
but  by  the  highest  aristocracy,  and  pro¬ 
vided  for  by  either  eminent  individu¬ 
als  or  the  state  itself.  The  civiliza¬ 
tion  of  the  age  exerted  itself  in  the 
invention  of  new  ferocities,  or  in  the 
increased  amount  of  the  exhibition. 
Sylla,  the  despot  of  Rome,  sent  a  hun¬ 
dred  lions  into  the  arena  to  be  butch¬ 
ered  by  as  many  men.  But  Pompey 
had  six  hundred  lions  and  twenty  ele¬ 
phants  thus  slaughtered.  Under  the 
Emperor  Titus  (surnamed  “  The  De¬ 
light  of  the  human  race  ”)  five  thou¬ 
sand  wild  and  four  thousand  tame  ani¬ 
mals,  and  under  Trajan  eleven  thou¬ 
sand  animals,  were  slain  for  IJoman 
amusement.  Still  more  ferocious  were 
the  gladiatorial  fights,  in  which  pro¬ 
fessional  combatants,  or  captives  taken 
in  war,  or  criminals,  were  made  to 
slaughter  each  other.  This  practice 
began  B.  C.  264,  and  made  such  prog¬ 
ress  that  Trajan  exhibited  a  bloody 
fight  of  ten  thousand  gladiators  on  the 
arena  for  Roman  amusement.  These 
scenes  created  not  bravery  in  the  pub¬ 
lic  heart,  but  a  base  and  cowardly  ap¬ 
petite  for  blood.  They  aided  in  spread¬ 
ing  that  utter  depravity  through  all 
classes  of  society  that  prepared  the 
empire  to  sink  before  the  northern 
barbarians. 

With  these  games  in  their  Grecian 
form  the  Corinthians,  and  St.  Paul  at 
Corinth,  would  be  familiar.  As  he 
travelled  from  Athens  to  Corinth  he 
passed  the  stadium ,  or  race-course,  of 
the  celebrated  Isthmian  games,  so 
called  from  the  Corinthian  Isthmus. 
In  the  nature  of  those  games  he  saw 
the  elements  of  a  vivid  physical  im¬ 
agery  (especially  in  the  race)  for  the 
illustration  of  the  Christian  life.  Al¬ 
most  every  point  of  the  gymnastic 
contest  he  has  in  some  part  of  his 
writings  brought  into  use.  Gal.  ii,  2, 
v,  7;  Phil,  ii,  16,  iii,  14;  1  Tim.  vi, 
12;  2  Tim.  ii,  5;  Heb.  xii,  1,  4,  12. 
In  the  present  passage  we  have  the 
race,  the  racer,  the  prize,  the  temper¬ 
ance,  the  garland,  the  herald,  the  re¬ 
jected  combatant.  At  verse  26,  by  a 
momentary  change,  the  boxing  match 
is  the  source  of  allusion. 


68 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


run  all,  but  one  reeeiveth  the  prize? 
n'So  run,  that  ye  may  obtain. 
25  And  every  man  that n  striveth 
for  the  mastery  is  temperate  in  all 
things.  Now  they  do  it  to  obtain 

7 n  Gal.  2.  2 ;  5.  7 ;  Phil.  2. 16 ;  3. 14 ;  2  Tim.  4.  7 ; 

Ileb.  12.  1. - n  Eph.  6.  12;  1  Tim.  6.  12;  2  Tim. 

2.  5 ;  4.  7. 

Run  all — All  the  competitors.  One 
— Paul  here  illustrates  by  contrast.  In 
the  Isthmian  race  there  could  be  but 
one  victor  among  all  the  runners  ;  in 
the  Christian  race  every  candidate  that 
rightly  runs  may  win  the  garland.  So 
run — With  such  applied  vigour,  with 
such  self-control  and  concentration, 
with  &ich  increasing  persistence,  to  the 
end.  Obtain — Win. 

25.  Every  man  that  striveth  — 
Every  agonistts ,  or  champion.  Is  tem¬ 
perate — Is  self-controlling.  Then,  as 
now,  the  candidate  for  the  race  put 
himself  under  a  long  and  severe  train¬ 
ing,  in  diet,  in  potations,  in  exercise, 
in  order  to  tone  himself  up  to  the 
highest  vigour.  Even  the  professional 
pugilist  of  our  modern  execrable  prize¬ 
fights  will,  in  order  to  obtain  victory, 
put  himself  upon  a  regimen  of  strict 
temperance,  making  himself  an  exam¬ 
ple  of  physical  virtue  for  better  men. 
lie  is  a  practical  proof  that  strict  ab¬ 
stinence  from  intoxicating  drinks  is, 
ordinarily,  a  requisite  condition  to  the 
highest  health  and  vigour.  He  shows, 
too,  that  the  most  profligate  of  men 
are  amply  able  to  discover  and  recog¬ 
nise  the  severest  truths,  when  they 
have  even  a  sordid  interest  in  know¬ 
ing  them.  Would  the  pugilist  be  as 
wise,  as  keenly  searching  after  the 
truth,  as  energetic  and  as  self-deny¬ 
ing  in  pursuing  the  eternal  prize  as 
he  is  the  temporal,  he  could  not  fail  to 
win.  But  Paul  uses  a  Greek  word  that 
covers  more  than  bodily  temperance. 
It  includes  self-denial  of  every  kind, 
and  is  used  by  him  in  reference  to  his 
own  self-denials  in  eating  idol  sacri¬ 
fices,  (viii,  13,)  in  refusing  Churchly 
maintenance,  (verse  15,)  and  in  all 
the  self-mortifying  compliances  of 
vv.  19-22.  And  this  reference  runs 
through  to  the  end  of  the  chapter;  nay, 
even  to  the  end  of  the  next  chapter. 


a  corruptible  crown;  but  we  °an 
incorruptible.  26  I  therefore  so 
run,  Pnot  as  uncertainly;  so  fight 
I,  not  as  one  that  beatetli  the  air: 
27  ^ But  I  keep  under  my  body, 

o  2  Tim.  4.  8 ;  James  1.  12 ;  1  Pet..  1.  4 ;  5.  4 , 

Rev.  2.  10;  3. 11. - p  2  Tim.  2.  5. - q  Rom.  8 

13 ;  Col.  3.  5. 

It  is  a  thread  of  which  the  reader 
should  not  for  a  moment  lose  hole 
who  would  completely  understand  St 
Paul.  Crown — From  the  pine  groves 
contiguous  to  the  stadium  the  Gorin 
tliians  would  gather  the  branches,  and 
wreath  a  garland  for  the  brow  of  the 
victor,  amid  the  applauding  crowds  of 
spectators.  It  was  an  evergreen ;  a 
not  unfitting  emblem  of  that  earthly 
immortality  of  renown  which  it  indi 
cated  that  the  wearer  had  attained 
But,  alas !  this  emblem  of  imperishabil 
ity  was  itself  perishable.  The  lyrics 
of  the  poet  Pindar  are  almost  the  sole 
mementos  of  the  victors,  but  they, 
too,  in  time  will  perish. 

The  most  eminent  emblematic  gar¬ 
land  of  victory  was  the  laurel.  It  was 
said  that  Apollo,  after  having  slain  the 
dragon  Python  at  Delphos,  wreathed 
his  brows  with  the  laurel,  and  estab 
lished  his  oracle  at  the  Castalian  spring 
issuing  from  the  cave  at  Delphos.  A1 
the  Olympic  games  they  used  the  wild 
olive;  at  the  Nemean,  the  parsley 
An  incorruptible — Our  Christian  life 
is  the  race,  crowned  with  everlasting 
triumph  at  its  close.  St.  Paul,  as  he 
drew  near  his  martyrdom,  beautifully 
styles  it  the  crown  of  righteousness 
2  Tim.  iv,  8. 

26.  Uncertainly  —  Making  sure 
work ;  leaving  nothing  to  chance.  So 
fight — As  a  boxer.  Beateth  the  air 
—  Alluding,  not  to  the  mock-fight 
( oKioyaxia ,  shadow -fight)  used  by  com 
batants  beforehand  for  practice,  but  to 
the  missing  his  antagonist  and  strik 
ing  into  vacancy.  It  stands  parallel  to 
uncertainly.  Both  in  his  race  and 
his  battle  Paul  did  a  sure  business 
In  the  battle  for  eternity  there  is  an 
infinite  difference  between  winning  the 
crown  and  becoming  a  castaway. 

27.  I  keep  under  —  Viewing  his 
body  as  ready,  with  its  fleshly  appetites, 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  IX, 


69 


and  r  bring  it  into  subjection :  lest 
that  by  any  means,  when  I  have 

r  Roin.  6.  18, 19. 

the  reverse  of  the  temperate  of  verse 
25, )  to  break  the  certainty  and  surety  of 
his  running,  he  beat  it  to  discoloration. 
Note  on  Luke  xviii,  5,  where  the  same 
Greek  word  is  used  in  a  slightly  dif¬ 
ferent  sense.  The  term  is  a  pugilistic 
one ;  literally,  to  black-eye  one.  Paul 
refers  not,  as  the  Romanists  pervert 
the  word,  to  any  bodily  flagellation, 
any  more  than  beateth  the  air  refers 
to  a  muscular  blow.  Nor,  as  Mr.  Al¬ 
ford  well  says,  does  it  refer  even  to 
“fasting  and  prayer,”  but  to  the  self- 
subduing  and  self-denial,  as  we  have 
specified  in  note  to  verse  25.  Bring 
it  into  subjection — Literally,  enslave 
it.  Have  preached — Have  heralded. 
The  Greek  word  for  preacher  in  the 
New  Testament  is  icr/pv £,  herald ,  and 
to  preach  is  to  herald ,  (the  word  used 
here,)  that  is,  to  proclaim,  to  announce, 
to  call.  In  the  games  the  herald  was 
one'  who  made  the  proclamations ;  so 
that  Paul  happily  uses  the  word  in  its 
double  sense.  So  Chrysostom,  quoted 
by  Wetstein,  says:  “Tell  me,  I  pray 
you,  at  the  Olympic  contests  does  not 
the  herald  stand  proclaiming  strong 
and  high,  ‘  Does  any  one  charge  that 
this  candidate  is  a  slave  ?  a  thief  ?  a 
man  of  bad  morals  ?  ’  ”  A  castaway 
— A  rejectee,  or  reprobate,  who  cbuld 
not  stand  the  double  scrutiny.  The 
first  scrutiny  was  to  decide  whether  he 
was  worthy  to  enter  the  games :  the 
second  was  to  decide  whether  he  had 
so  run,  honourably  and  according  to 
rule,  as  to  be  entitled  to  the  evergreen 
chaplet.  If  not,  he  was  rejected  as  a 
reprobate  and  a  castaway.  It  is  by 
only  an  apparent  confusion  that  Paul 
here  makes  himself  play  the  part  both 
of  herald  and  athlete.  In  fact,  the 
Emperor  Nero  did  once  play  both 
these  parts.  He  was  combatant,  vic¬ 
tor,  and  chosen  herald  to  proclaim  his 
own  triumph. 

This  elaborate  illustration  of  the 
Christian  life  from  the  Isthmian  games, 
for  the  first  time  drawn  by  Paul,  must 
have  formed  a  striking  picture  to  the 
Corinthians,  who  were  so  familiar  with 


preached  to  others,  I  myself  should 
be  s  a  castaway. 

s  Jer.  6.  30;  2  Cor.  13.  5,  6. 

the  animating  spectacle.  Hencefor¬ 
ward  the  sight  of  the  stadium  would 
awaken  higher  thoughts.  It  had  a 
lesson  to  inspire  them  to  new  earnest¬ 
ness  in  the  Christian  race  to  make 
sure  work  of  winning  the  incorrup¬ 
tible  crown. 

CHAPTER  X. 

Continuance  of  Response  touch¬ 
ing  Paul’s  Genuine  Apostolicity, 
1-13. 

The  picture  of  the  Grecian  games 
closing  the  last  chapter,  (vv.  24-27,)  and 
this  picture  of  the  wilderness  history 
of  Israel,  (vv.  1-13,)  are  beautiful  coun¬ 
terparts  of  each  other.  The  former 
(applied  by  Paul  specially  to  himself) 
draws  from  Grecian  life,  and  the  lat¬ 
ter  (which  includes  the  Corinthians 
with  himself)  from  Hebrew  memories, 
a  vivid  illustration  of  the  Christian 
life.  The  former  would  appeal  to  the 
feeling  of  Paul’s  Gentile  readers ;  the 
latter,  more  especially  to  the  Jewish ; 
but  nevertheless  assumes  that  the  Gen¬ 
tile  converts  are  becoming  familiar  with 
that  dispensation  which  was  specially 
preparatory  to  Christianity.  Hence 
both  classes  recognise  the  Jewish  an¬ 
cestry  as  spiritual  fathers.  Verse  1. 

Prom  all  this  parallelism  the  reason 
will  appear  why  we  consider  this  para¬ 
graph  as  a  continuance  of  Paul’s  re¬ 
sponse  in  regard  to  his  own  apostolic¬ 
ity,  yet  now  including  his  Corinthian 
brethren  as  typified  with  himself.  The 
race  from  startingpoint  to  goal,  and 
the  pilgrimage  from  Egypt  to  Canaan, 
each  furnishes  an  image  of  our  transit 
through  and  from  earth  to  heaven. 
The  former,  however,  is  upon  a  small 
scale,  and  is  the  immediate  creation  of 
the  apostle’s  own  conception  ;  the  lat¬ 
ter  is  extended,  filled  with  symbolical 
details,  and  is  not  a  mere  momentary 
product  of  the  apostle’s  individual  fan¬ 
cy,  but  an  established  type ,  recorded 
for  the  very  purpose  of  admonition. 
The  two  passages  should  be  read  to¬ 
gether  as  parallels,  and  as  both  lying 


70 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  X. 


through b the  sea;  And  were  all 


MOREOVER,  brethren,  I  would  baptized  unto  Moses  in  the  cloud 
not  that  ye  should  be  igno-  and  in  the  sea ;  3  And  did  all  eat 

rant,  how  that  all  our  fathers  were  the  same  spiritual  meat;  4  And 
under  athe  cloud,  and  all  passed  did  all  drink  the  same  d  spiritual 

a  Exodus  13.  21;  40.  34;  Numbers  9  18 ;  14. 14 ;  Joshua  4  .23 ;  Pi salm  78.  13. 


Deuteronomy  1.  33 ;  Nehemiah  9.  12,  19;’  Psalm  Nehemiah  9.  15,  20;  Psalm  78.  24.- 
78. 14 ;  105. 39. — — b  Exodus  14.  22 ;  Numbers  33.  8 ;  17.  6 ;  Numbers  20.  11 ;  Psalm  78.  lo. 


c  Exodus  16.  15; 
cl  Exodus 


in  the  line  of  thought  illustrating  the 
duty  of  Christian  self-restriction.  The 
general  principle  is  undoubtedly  true, 
that  the  Old  Testament  dispensation 
was,  in  its  great  structure,  a  type  of 
the  new.  Under  this  general  typism 
countless  analogies  and  illustrations 
would  arise  in  minute  details  of  history. 
These  minute  resemblances,  however, 
are  rather  illustrations  than  types. 
They  are  such  as  the  conception  of  the 
individual  author  traces  out,  not  organic 
and  divinely  fixed  pre figurations. 

5.  Israel’s  wilderness-sojourn  a 
type  of  the  Christian  race,  1-13. 

1.  I  would  not  that  ye  should  be 
ignorant — Or  that  ye  should  ignore 
what  you  so  well  know.  All — This 
word  occurs  five  times  in  the  passage, 
(1-4,)  and  stands  in  contrast  with  the 
many  of  verse  5.  All  started  from 
Egypt,  but  only  Caleb  and  Joshua,  with 
perhaps  a  few  others,  arrived  in  Canaan. 
So  in  the  last  chapter  all  run,  but  only 
one  wins.  Under  the  cloud  Hie 
miraculous  pillar  of  cloud  by  day,  which 
was  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  in  which 
“  the  Lord  went  before  ”  Israel.  Exod. 
xiii,  20-22.  In  the  passage  of  the  Red 
Sea  this  cloud  removed,  and  so  went 
behind  the  camp  of  the  Israelites  as  to 
hang  between  them  and  the  Egyptians 
The  cloud  thus  between  the  two  shed 
at  once  darkness  upon  the  Egyptians 
and  light  upon  Israel.  In  passing  from 
front  to  rear  of  the  Hebrew  camp  it 
may  have  so  passed  over  it  that  the 
people  were  literally  under  the  cloud. 
<Vt  any  rate  they  were  under  its  pro¬ 
tection.  Of  course  it  was  not  a  water 
cloud,  and  no  rain  or  sprinkling  can 
be  supposed  to  have  dropped  from  it. 
Passed  through  the  sea — In  safety 
Exod.  xiv,  29,  30. 

2.  Were  baptized  —  Greek  middle 
voice,  baptized  themselves;  that  is,  ac 
cepted  the  virtual  baptism.  Their  own 


wills  concurred  with  the  divine  act. 
Unto  Moses — Greek,  elq,  into  Moses; 
into  that  religion  of  which  Moses  was 
representative.  So  Rom.  vi,  3,  bap¬ 
tized  into  Christ.  In  the  cloud — 
As  overshadowing  them.  In  the  sea 
— The  sea,  like  the  flood  in  1  Pet.  i,  2, 
suggests  the  baptismal  element  from 
which  the  simile  of  baptism  takes  its 
start.  No  definite  image  of  the  form 
of  baptism,  whether  by  affusion  or  im¬ 
mersion,  is  framed  in  either  case. 

Satan  is  our  Pharaoh,  Christ  is  our 
Moses,  the  pass  of  the  sea  is  our  bap¬ 
tism,  the  Holy  Spirit  is  our  guiding, 
protecting,  separating,  and  consecrat¬ 
ing  fiery-cloudy  pillar. 

3,  4.  All. .  .same— The  same  bap¬ 
tism,  the  same  spiritual  meat,  the 
same  spiritual  drink  were  shared  by 
all.  And  all  shared  the  same  faith. 
The  people  feared  the  Lord,  and  be¬ 
lieved  the  Lord  and  his  servant  Moses. 
This  emphatic  repetition  of  the  same 
spiritual  state  of  all  deserves  a  more 
marked  attention  than  has  usually 
been  bestowed  upon  it.  Israel  was 
now  the  complete  Church,  in  which 
all  had  the  same  faith,  baptism,  and, 
consequently,  the  same  regeneration. 
Yet  the  large  majority  of  them  apos¬ 
tatized  utterly  and  totally,  and  under 
divine  wrath  their  carcasses  strewed 
the  wilderness.  Here  not  the  bare 
possibility  of  apostasy  is  affirmed,  but 
its  actual  reality.  The  racers  all  start 
in  the  same  Christian  race  alike.  The 
Israelites  all  start  alike  through  regen¬ 
eration  for  the  promised  land.  Yet 
they  fail  of  both  the  earthly  and  the 
heavenly  Canaan.  Spiritual  meat.  . . 
spiritual  drink — Of  which  the  manna 
and  the  water  from  the  smitten  rock 
are  the  suggestive  similes.  Like  the 
bread  and  wine  of  the  sacrament,  the 
manna,  the  water,  and  even  the  rock, 
are  all  emblematical  of  the  body  oi 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  X. 


71 


drink ;  for  they  drank  of  that  spir¬ 
itual  Rock  that  ‘followed  them: 
and  that  Rock  was  Christ.  5  But 

1  Or,  went  with  them ,  Deut.  9.  21 ; 

Psa.  105.  41. 

blood  of  Christ.  Hence  all  Israel  par¬ 
took  not  only  of  the  manna,  but  of  the 
spiritual  meat  of  which  the  manna  was 
the  emblem.  Spiritual  drink  —  The 
water  of  life,  of  which  the  water  from 
the  smitten  rock  was  an  emblem.  Spir¬ 
itual  Rock . . .  Christ — Hence  it  is  not 
the  rock  smitten  by  Moses  that  St.  Paul 
calls  the  spiritual  Rock ;  but  Christ, 
typified  by  the  smitten  rock,  is  the  real 
spiritual  Rock,  of  which  they  all  did 
drink.  Dr.  Hodge  and  most  other 
commentators  involve  themselves  in 
inextricable  confusion  by  making  Paul 
call  the  material  manna,  water,  and  rock 
spiritual.  Rock  that  followed  them 
—  Rabbinical  tradition  affirmed  that 
either  the  rock  smitten  by  Moses,  or 
the  water  flowing  from  it,  followed  the 
Israelites  through  all  their  journey 
from  Rephidim  to  Canaan.  If,  as  Dr. 
Hodge  interprets,  it  is  the  material 
manna,  water,  and  rock,  that  Paul 
means,  then  it  follows  conclusively 
that  Paul  endorses  the  tradition  as 
true.  And  Alford  not  only  carries  the 
physical  interpretation  through,  but  he 
affirms  that  it  is  violence  not  to  agree 
that  Paul  actually  affirms  the  truth  of 
the  tradition  !  But  when  Paul  tells  us 
that  the  Rock  was  Christ,  it  is  inad¬ 
missible  to  make  him  say  that  the  ma¬ 
terial  rock,  or  the  stream  from  it,  fol¬ 
lowed  them. 

That  Christ  was  the  Jehovah  of  the 
Old  Testament,  the  angel- Jehovah,  has 
ever  been  a  scriptural  maxim  in  the 
Christian  Church.  Dr.  Hodge  well 
says :  “Our  Lord  said,  Abraham  saw 
his  day,  for  he  was  before  Abraham. 
John  viii,  58.  .  John  says,  (xii,  41,) 
Isaiah  beheld  his  glory  in  the  temple ; 
Paul  says,  the  Israelites  tempted  him 
in  the  wilderness,  (1  Cor.  x,  9;)  and 
that  Moses  suffered  his  reproach.  Heb. 
xi,  26.  Jude  5  says,  the  Lord,  or  (as 
Lachrnann,  after  the  ancient  versions 
and  manuscripts,  reads)  Jesus,  saved 
his  people  out  of  Egypt.”  Hence  there 
was  a  rock  and  a  stream  that  fol- 


witli  many  of  them  God  was  not 
well  pleased:  for  they  ewere  over¬ 
thrown  in  the  wilderness.  6  Now 

e  Num.  14.  29,  32,  35 ;  26.  64,  65 ;  Psa.  106.  26 ; 

Heb.  3.  17 ;  Jude  5. 

lowed  Israel  all  their  journey  through ; 
but  that  rock  was  not  the  rock  of 
Horeb,  as  the  rabbins  fancied,  but 
Christ  himself. 

Schoettgen  quotes  a  Jewish  writer 
thus :  “  There  was  a  rock,  shaped  like 
a  beehive,  globular,  and  it  rolled  itself 
and  went  with  them  in  their  journey- 
ings.  When  the  camps  stopped  at 
their  stations,  and  the  tabernacle  stood 
still,  this  rock  came  and  placed  itself  in 
the  threshold  of  the  tent.  Then  came 
the  princes,  and,  standing  near  it,  said, 
Spring  up,  0  well,  etc.,  (Num.  xxi,  17,) 
and  it  sprung  up.” 

Dr.  Wordsworth  says,  that  as  there 
were  clouds  to  rain  manna  all  their 
journey  through,  so  there  were  rocks 
(generically,  rock)  to  supply  water. 
“  He  clave  the  rocks  in  the  wilderness, 
and  gave  them  drink  as  out  of  the  great 
depths.”  Psa.  lxxviii,  15.  “He  opened 
the  rock,  and  the  waters  gushed  out ; 
they  ran  in  the  dry  places  like  a  river.” 
Psa.  cv,  41. 

5.  Many — All  ate  and  drank  sacra¬ 
mentally  of  Christ,  but  many  aposta¬ 
tized.  Overthrown — Rather,  strown ; 
their  carcasses  tying  on  the  desert  sur¬ 
face.  This  refers  not  to  the  myriads 
who  died  a  natural  death,  but  to  the 
numbers  that  were  slain  by  divine  sen¬ 
tence  for  sin. 

6-13.  Thus  far  the  apostle  has  typi¬ 
cally  endowed  the  Old  Church  with  the 
sacraments,  from  Christ,  of  the  New; 
he  will  now  warn  the  New  to  beware  of 
the  typical  sins,  apostasies,  and  deaths, 
of  the  Old.  Here  note, 

1.  The  sins  specified  by  Paul  are,  first, 
that  general  lust  from  which  proceed 
1)  idolatry,  2)  fornication,  3)  presump¬ 
tion,  4)  murmurs.  2.  This  enumeration 
of  sins  is  rightly  interpreted  as  those 
peculiarly  besetting  the  Church  at  Cor¬ 
inth.  3.  They  are  to  be  interpreted  as 
sins  through  which  apostasy  and  de¬ 
struction  were  likely  to  result.  Hence 
Paul  warns  them  (verse  12)  against  a 
fall,  yet  assures  them  (verse  13j  that 


72 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


these  things  were *  2 * * * 6 7 8  our  examples, 
to  the  intent  we  should  not  lust 
after  evil  things,  as  f  they  also  lust¬ 
ed.  7  s  Neither  be  ye  idolaters, 
as  were  some  of  them ;  as  it  is  writ¬ 
ten,  h  The  people  sat  down  to  eat 

2Gr.  on r  figures. — /Num.  11.  4,  33,34;  Psa. 

106.  14 - g  Ver.  14. - h  Exod.  32.  6. - i  Chap. 

6.  18;  Rev.  2. 14. 

God  ever  makes  apostasy  unnecessi¬ 

tated.  4.  For  all  their  sins,  falls,  and 

deaths,  the  Corinthians  may  find  in 

the  wilderness-history  of  Israel,  as  in 

a  mirror,  the  warning  types. 

6.  Examples — Literal  Greek,  types. 
Yet  not  divinely-established  types,  to 
which  we  are  to  conform ;  but  figures 
of  wrongs  which  we  should  avoid. 
Lust — As  the  mental  source  whence 
sins,  especially  of  the  sensuous  kind, 
proceed.  Literal  Greek,  That  we  he  not 
lusters  of  evil  things.  It  was  to  these 
sensuous  sins,  especially,  that  Christ¬ 
ians  in  the  licentious,  idolatrous,  and 
heaven-daring  city  of  Corinth  were 
liable. 

7.  Idolaters — Lust,  or  sensuous  de¬ 
sires,  in  Corinth  as  in  Israel,  craved 
after  idolatry.  The  revels  and  feasts 
of  the  golden  calf  were  the  very  type  of 
those  wanton  rites  by  which  Paul’s 
Gentile  Christians  were  lured  to  idola¬ 
try.  People  sat  down — At  the  ban¬ 
quet  of  sacrifice  to  the  golden  calf ; 
held  by  them  to  be  an  image  represent¬ 
ative  of  Jehovah,  yet  made  in  disobe¬ 
dience  to  the  second  commandment  of 
the  decalogue.  Precisely  so  the  Co¬ 
rinthians  were  liable  to  join  in  idola¬ 
trous  banquets  under  supposition  that 
the  compliance  was  in  perfect  alle¬ 
giance  to  Jesus.  To  play — To  dance, 
and  other  antic  sports,  tending  to  but 
not  necessarily  including  lasciviousness. 

8.  Let  us — Paul,  perhaps,  reverts 
here  to  the  first  person  from  delicacy. 
Fornication — Any  illicit  sexual  con¬ 
nexion.  This  caution  well  follows  next 
after  that  against  idolatry ;  for  the  idol 
rites  consisted  largely  of  debauchery, 
as  is  illustrated  by  the  case  to  which 
Paul  now  refers.  Committed — While 
the  Israelites  yet  sojourned  on  the  east 
side  of  the  Jordan,  the  Moabite  women 
first  invited  them  to  their  sacrificial 


and  drink,  and  rose  up  to  play. 
§  ‘Neither  let  us  commit  fornica¬ 
tion,  as  some  of  them  committed, 
and  k  fell  in  one  day  three  and 
twenty  thousand.  9  Neither  let 
us  tempt  Christ,  as  'some  of  them 

k  Num.  25.  1 ;  Psa.  106.  29. - 1  Exod.  17.  2,  7  . 

Num.  21.  5 ;  Deut.  6.  16 ;  Psa.  78.  18,  56 ;  95.  9 
106.  14. 

banquets,  and  thereby  seduced  them  to 
whoredom.  Num.  xxv.  The  worship  of 
the  Corinthian  Venus  was  of  precisely 
the  same  kind;  in  which  debauchery 
was  consecrated  as  a  religious  rite. 
How  liable  the  Corinthian  Christians 
were  to  that  sort  of  seduction  the 
case  of  the  incestuous  man  indicates. 
Three  and  twenty  thousand  —  The 
Old  Testament  (Num.  xxv,  9)  says,  four 
and  twenty  thousand.  Scholars  gen- 
erallv  admit  that  Paul  wrote  as  this 
present  text  stands  ;  and  many,  as  Al¬ 
ford  and  Kling,  treat  it  as  a  failure  of 
apostolic  memory.  Alford  considers 
it  discreditable  to  maintain  any  other 
view.  Grotius  reconciles  the  contra¬ 
diction  by  supposing  that  the  twenty- 
three  thousand  were  slain  by  the  plague 
and  one  thousand  by  Phinehas  and  his 
fellows.  Wordsworth  supposes  that 
Paul  gives  the  number  who  fell  in  the 
single  day ,  while  Numbers  gives  all 
that  fell  in  consequence  of  the  crime. 
Bengel  supposes,  that  both  accounts 
giving  only  the  round  numbers,  the 
exact  count  might  be  between  the  two, 
and  so  both  numbers  be  equally  correct. 
Of  course  no  moral  truth  is  affected  by 
the  variance. 

9.  Tempt  Christ  —  Some  manu¬ 
scripts  read  the  Lord ,  instead  of  Christ. 
The  meaning  would  then  be  the  same, 
but  the  analogy  of  verse  4  and  of  Heb. 
xi,  26  is  convincing  proof  that  Christ 
is  the  true  reading.  To  tempt  the  Di¬ 
vine  Being  is  to  provoke  and  dare  his 
wrath  by  a  persistence  in  presumptu¬ 
ous  sin.  The  allusion  is  to  Num. 
xxi,  4—6,  where  Israel  is  described  as 
provoking  God  by  reproaches  for  bring¬ 
ing  them  into  the  desert  and  feeding 
them  upon  manna.  So  the  Corinthian 
Christians  might  rebel  at  their  sepa¬ 
ration  from  the  pagan  social  world, 
and  their  restriction  under  the  severe 


A.  I).  57. 


CHAPTER  X. 


73 


also  tempted,  and  ,n  were  destroyed 
of  serpents.  SO  Neither  murmur 
ye,  as *  11  some  of  them  also  mur¬ 
mured,  and  “were  destroyed  Pof 
*he  destroyer.  11  Now  all  these 

mNum.  21.  6. - n  Exod.  16.  2;  17.  2;  Num.  14. 

<,29;  16.  41. - o  Num.  14.  37 ;  16.  49. — -p  Exod. 

12.  23;  2  Sam.  24.  16;  1  Chron.  21.  15. 

morality  of  Christ.  In  this  way  myr¬ 
iads  of  professing  Christians  have 
tempted  Christ,  have  apostatized  from 
his  religion,  and  died  of  the  liery  bite 
of  the  old  serpent  or  his  “  infernal 
brood.” 

10.  Murmured  —  Korah  and  his 
company  murmured  against  Moses  and 
Aaron,  (and  so  against  God,)  and  more 
than  14,000  of  the  people  were  de¬ 
stroyed.  Num.  xvi,  49.  By  analogy 
this  warns  the  Corinthians  to  beware 
of  those  who  would  excite  a  captious 
rebellion  and  schism,  not  only  against 
the  gospel  and  the  Church,  but  against 
the  authority  of  Christ’s  true  apostles. 
Destroyer — In  the  pestilence  follow¬ 
ing  the  crime  of  Korah  and  his  com¬ 
pany  no  personal  destroyer  is  men¬ 
tioned  ;  but  one  is  presupposed  as 
executing  that  divine  judgment,  per¬ 
haps  from  the  analogy  of  Exod.  xii,  23, 
where  the  destroyer,  the  divine  exe¬ 
cutioner  of  death  for  sin,  is  mentioned. 

11.  For  ensamples — Greek,  typi¬ 
cally  ;  that  is,  illustratively.  The 
world — World  in  the  Greek,  here,  is 
plural,  making  ends  of  the  worlds. 
The  word  signifies  age  or  dispensation ; 
implying  a  cycle  of  time  in  which  some 
great  round  of  Providence  is  accom¬ 
plished.  Hence,  if  the  word  here  be 
rendered  world,  it  must  be  understood 
to  signify  not  k oopog,  cosmos ,  the  mate¬ 
rial  world,  but  a  world-period,  or  time- 
world.  These  ages  or  time-worlds  of 
sacred  history  can  be  variously  meas¬ 
ured.  We  may  reckon  the  antedilu¬ 
vian  period  or  world ;  the  patriarchal ; 
the  Mosaic  and  the  Christian.  In  Matt, 
xxiv,  3  the  Greek  for  end  of  the  world 
is  ryg  avvreXeiag  tov  aitivog ;  literally, 
the  together  ending  of  the  age ,  or  present 
time-world.  The  term  together  ending,  or 
cwi-surnrnation,  implies  the  converging 
of  several  threads  of  providential  events 
to  a  common  close.  Similarly,  here  we 


things  happened  unto  them  for 3  en¬ 
samples  :  and  ^  they  are  written 
for  our  admonition,  rupon  whom 
the  ends  of  the  world  are  come. 
12  Wherefore  s  let  him  that  think 

3  Or,  types. - q  Rom.  15.  4;  chap.  9.  10. — 

r  Chap.  7.  29;  Phil.  4.  5;  Heb.  10.  25;  1  John 
2.  18. - s  Rom.  11.  20. 

have  the  (plural)  endings ,  convergings  to 
one  close,  of  all  the  previous  ages  int< 
the  present  final  age.  The  age  of  th* 
Messiah  is  the  age  for  which  the  pro 
vious  ages,  or  time-worlds,  were 
framed.  Heb.  i,  2.  Hence  the  wilder 
ness-histories  of  Israel  find  their  ant- 
type  in  the  present  history  of  the 
Church,  and  so  were  written  for  our 
admonition.  We  are  heirs  to  all  the 
past. 

12.  Wherefore  —  As  a  deductioi 
from  the  wilderness-history,  Paul  draw^ 
this  inference  :  beware  of  apostasy.  Ann 
as  this  whole  passage  (1-14)  is  parade 
to  ix,  24-27,  so  this  warning  agains 
,  apostasy  (12-14)  is  parallel  to  PaulV 
avoidance  of  becoming  a  castaway 
chap,  ix,  27.  Thinketh — Each  one’i 
own  consciousness  must  decide  for  hin? 
self  whether  he  standeth  on  the  Christ 
ian  journey ing-ground  or  not.  But  tin 
exhortation  of  persons  not  to  fall,  h 
this  and  all  other  cases,  must  presup 
pose  that  they  are  really  standing  in 
state  of  grace.  The  presupposition  is 
that  if  they  stand  as  they  are  they  wil 
be  saved.  If,  as  some  maintain,  they 
are  false  professors,  either  by  hypocrisj 
or  self-deception,  the  sooner  they  cease 
to  stand  the  better.  Hence  all  exhorta 
tions  not  to  fall  are  made  on  the  as 
sumption  of  the  possibility  and  practica. 
liability  to  fall  from  a  true  state  of 
grace,  or  they  are  absurd.  Take  heed 
— By  believing  it  possible  and  guard 
ing  against  it.  Fall — From  a  state  ii 
which,  if  he  persevered,  he  would  bo 
saved. 

To  all  this  it  cannot  be  widely  ro 
plied  that,  although  there  is  dangor  of 
a  Christian’s  fall,  yet  the  danger  will 
never  result ;  the  very  warning  wib 
be  successful  and  prevent  the  fading 
For  in  the  present  case  the  v/arning  ia 
based  on  the  historic  fact  that  thou 
sands  of  Israel  did  fad;  and  we  must 


74 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


till  iic  standetli  take  heed  lest  he 
fad.  There  hath  no  tempta¬ 

tion  taken  you  but  such  as  is  4  com¬ 
mon  to  man:  but  1  God  is  faitlilul, 
u  who  will  not  sutler  you  to  be 
tempted  above  that  ye  are  able ; 
but  will  with  the  temptation  also 

4  Or,  moderate. 1  Chap.  1. 9.  u  Psa.  125. 3 ; 

2  Pet.  2.  9. - v  Jer.  29.  11. _ 

not  fall  as  they  did.  We  are  exhorted 
not  to  fall  from  a  true  state  of  grace 
as  they  fell  from  a  true  state  of  grace. 
And  Paul  has  taken  great  pains  to  de¬ 
clare  and  show,  in  verses  1-4,  how 
they  were  all ,  all,  all  a  true  part  of  a 
true  Church,  baptized  and  sacrament- 
ed,  so  that  their  final  perdition  was  a 
true  and  fearful  fall;  a  type  for  true 
Christians  carefully  to  avoid.  If  they 
never  truly  stood,  they  never  fell;  and 
if  they  fell,  they  once  stood.  If  their 
fault  and  ruin  was  in  actually  falling, 
then  their  salvation  would  have  been 
in  actually  standing — standing  just  as 
they  were. 

13.  There — But  your  falling  from 
grace,  though  possible,  is  by  no  means 
necessary.  God,  on  his  part,  has  done 
every  tiling  for  your  perseverance  if 
you  do  yours.  He  will  keep  you,  none 
can  pluck  you  from  his  hand,  he  will 
provide  your  escape  from  every  temp¬ 
tation  ;  only  you  must  consent  to  be 
kept,  to  stay  in  his  hand,  and  to  es¬ 
cape  by  the  way  he  provides.  Sinners 
and  apostates  can  defeat  all  the  pro¬ 
visions  of  God’s  grace.  See  our  Note 
on  Romans  viii,  35-39.  Common  to 
man — A  prolix  but  correct  rendering 
of  the  Greek  word  uvOpu'KLvoq,  human. 
No  temptation  not  ordinary  in  the  lev¬ 
el  of  human  probation.  Whether  to 
idolatry,  to  fornication,  to  presumption 
against  Christ,  or  to  murmuring  against 
his  Church,  all  are  no  greater  than  Is¬ 
rael  suffered  before  you  and  others  will 
suffer  after  you.  To  escape — Even  if 
force  compels  a  mechanical  wrong  act 
the  will  may  refuse  consent,  and  the 
deed  is  guiltless.  If  there  were  no 
power  of  escape ,  these  would  (unless 
we  have  wickedly  destroyed  our  own 
power)  be  irresponsible  for  yielding  to 
the  t^mpation.  Able  to  bear — I lius 
fur  does  God’s  grace  go.  No  power  of 


'  make  a  way  to  escape,  that  ye 
may  be  able  to  bear  it. 

14  Wherefore,  my  dearly  be¬ 
loved,  "  flee  from  idolatry.  15  I 
speak  as  to  xwise  men;  judge  ye 
what  I  say.  16  >  The  cup  of  bless¬ 
ing  which  we  bless,  is  it  not  the 

O  _ ' _ 

io  Verse  7 ;  2  Cor.  6. 17 ;  1  John  5.  21. - x  Chap. 

8.  1. - y  Matt.  26.  26-28. _ 

motive  will  oblige  our  *wills  to  aposta¬ 
tize  or  sin.  When  we  choose  to  sin,  it 
is  not  because  we  have  not  the  power 
of  contrary  choice,  but  because  we  do 
not  use  it,  or  have  guiltily  forfeited  it. 
On  the  other  hand,  no  divine  efficiency 
or  decree — no  motive  force — will  oblige 
us  to  use  the  way  of  escape.  When 
God  purposes  to  leave  our  free  wills  to 
act  on  trial,  he  does  not  destroy  the 
trial  by  previously  fixing  the  way  we 
shall  choose.  From  the  very  nature* 
of  trial  or  probation  that  would  be  to 
upset  his  own  divine  purpose. 

Resumption  (from  viii,  13)  of  the 
response  touching  the  eating  of 
idolatrous  sacrifices,  x,  14-xi,  1. 

14.  Wherefore  —  As  an  inference 
from  all  the  above  warnings,  ix,  24-27, 
and  x,  1-13.  Idolatry— Which  resumes 
the  thread  of  thought  from  viii,  13, 
touching  idol  offerings,  and  continues 
it  to  xi,  1. 

15.  Wise  men  — In  the  apostolic 
Church  there  was,  in  spite,  of  every 
shortcoming,  an  inspired  wisdom,  re¬ 
sponsive  to  the  inspired  teachings  of 
the  apostles,  and  ratifying  them  as  the 
true  doctrine  of  Christ.  Judge  ye 
For  the  statement  of  the  true  nature 
of  the  holy  communion  he  relies  on 
their  full  knowledge  of  its  history  and 
character.  All  this  shows  that  the 
evangelical  history  was  familiar  both 
to  apostle  and  Church,  and  is  full  proof 
of  its  truth  and  reality. 

16.  Cup  of  blessing — Note  on  Matt, 
xxvi,  26.  Communion  is  the  common 
ownership  of  an  undivided  property , 
participation  or  partaking  is  the  taking 
of  a  part  of  the  common  property  for 
individual  use.  The  Church  in  com¬ 
mon  possess  the  sacramental  cup  and 
bread ;  thereby  the  Church  is  one,  as 
the  cup  and  the  bread  are  one.  Is  it 
not.  .  .blood — Note  Matt,  xxvi,  26. 


CHAPTER  X. 


75 


A.  D.  57. 


tommunion  of  the  blood  of  Christ? 
1  The  bread  which  we  break,  is  it 
not  the  communion  of  the  body  of 
Christ  ?  17  For  awe  being  many 

are  one  bread,  and  one  body:  for 
we  are  all  partakers  of  that  one 
bread.  18  Behold ’’Israel0  after  the 
flesh :  d  are  not  they  which  eat  of  the 

z  Acts  2.  42,  46;  chap.  11.  23,  24. - a  Rom. 

12.  5;  chap.  12.  27. - b  Rom.  4.  12;  Gal.  6.  16. 

- c  Rom.  4.  1 ;  9.  3,  5;  2  Cor.  11.  18. 

17.  One  bread — The  bread  is  one, 
not  by  being  a  single  loaf,  as  some 
suppose,  but  by  being  one  species  or 
substance,  and  so  one  emblem.  We  are 
one  bread,  as  all  the  particles  of  the 
bread  are  one  composite  whole.  One 
body — Being  members  of  an  organic 
whole,  which  is  Christ’s  body.  Par¬ 
takers — Note  on  verse  16. 

18.  This  unity  and  communion  Paul 
now  illustrates  from  the  Jewish  sys¬ 
tem,  where  partaking  of  the  sacrifices 
rendered  all  adherents  of  the  common 
altar.  Israel  after  the  flesh — In  dis¬ 
tinction  from  Israel  after  the  spirit. 
Note  Rom.  ix,  8.  Partakers  of  the 
altar  —  If  the  altar  be  an  idolatrous 
one,  the  partaker  is  an  idolater;  if  it  be 
an  altar  of  Jehovah,  then  he  acknowl¬ 
edges  Jehovah.  Such  may  not  be  the 
intention  of  the  partaker,  but  such  is 
the  established  and  public  import  of 
the  act. 

1 9.  What  say  I  then  ? — What  is 

the  import,  then,  of  what  I  am  now  say¬ 
ing  ?  Do  I  attribute  any  real  existence 
to  the  imaginary  gods  and  demigods 
represented  by  the  idol,  as  Jupiter, 
Venus,  Apollo?  Or  that  the  sacrifice 
is  any  thing  more  than  a  fiction  ? 

20.  But — On  the  contrary ,  what  I 
say  is  that,  etc.  Devils — Demons. 
Note  on  Luke  x,  17.  Our  translators 
should  never  have  confounded  devil 
and  demon.  In  pagan  mythology  a  de¬ 
mon  was  intermediate  between  gods 
and  men.  One  class  were  supposed  to 
be  the  spirits  of  dead  men,  either  good 
or  evil,  according  to  their  character  in 
life.  Another  class  were  beings  of 
supernatural  origin,  somewhat  like  the 
angels.  They  might  be  good,  like  the 
demon  which  Socrates  claimed  to  be 
his  supernatural  monuur;  and  it  is 


sacrifices  partakers  of  the  altar? 
19  What  say  I  then?  ethat  the  idol 
is  any  thing,  or  that  which  is  offered 
in  sacrifice  to  idols  is  any  thing? 
iO  But  Isay ,  that  the  things  which 
the  Gentiles  f  sacrifice,  they  sacri¬ 
fice  to  devils,  and  not  to  God :  and 
I  would  not  that  ye  should  have 

d  Leviticus  3.  3;  7.  15. - e  Chapter  8.  4. - 

f  Leviticus  17.  7 ;  Deuteronomy  32.  17 ;  Psalm 
l06.  37 ;  Revelation  9.  20. 

singular  to  note  how  wonderfully  many 
of  the  attributes  of  the  Pythian  Apol¬ 
lo  prefigured  Christ !  They  might  be 
evil,  as  held  by  the  wisest  philosophers, 
and  send  diseases  and  pestilences  to 
men  and  animals,  and  supply  tempta¬ 
tions  to  wrong. 

In  the  Septuagint'the  word  demon  is 
used  to  designate,  generally,  an  evil 
supernatural  spirit,  or  whatever  evil 
living  reality  there  was  to  appropriate 
the  service  of  pagan  worshippers.  So 
Psa.  xcvi,  5.  All  the  gods  of  the  pa¬ 
gans  are  demons ;  Deut.  xxxii,  17,  they 
sacrificed  unto  demons,  and  not  unto 
God.  It  is  clear  from  verse  22  that 
the  apostle  has  this  passage  in  mind. 
J osephus  uses  the  word  demons  to 
denote  the  surviving  spirits  of  wicked 
dead  men,  who  often  possess  the  living, 
and  are  to  be  expelled  by  exorcisms  and 
fumigations. 

In  the  New  Testament  the  word  is 
always  used  in  a  bad  sense.  There  is 
but  one  Satan,  one  devil ,  and  his  an¬ 
gels,  (Matt,  xxv,  41,)  and  his  angels  are 
doubtless  identical  with  the  demons. 
There  is  no  intimation  in  Scripture  that 
they  are  the  surviving  spirits  of  the 
wicked  dead.  Wherever  in  our  trans¬ 
lation  the  plural  word  devils  is  used, 
the  Greek  is  demons.  Paul  denies  that 
there  is  any  real  god  or  goddess  in  pa¬ 
ganism,  but  Satan’s  spiritual  emissaries 
may  so  impersonate  those  imaginary 
beings  as  to  appropriate  the  honours  of 
the  worship,  and  keep  the  worshippers 
in  paganism.  Notes  on  Mark  v,  2, 
and  Acts  xvi,  16,  18.  Not  to  God — 
They  belong  to  the  idolatrous  and  in¬ 
fernal,  and  antagonize  the  true  religion 
and  the  true  God.  I  would  not — 
And  this  would  not,  he  shows  next 
verse,  involves  a  cannot. 


76 


I.  -CORINTHIANS. 


A.  I).  57. 


fellowship  with  devils.  21  &Ye 
cannot  drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord, 
and  hthe  cup  of  devils:  ye  cannot 
be  partakers  of  the  Lord’s  table, 
and  of  the  table  of  devils.  22  Do 
we  'provoke  the  Lord  to  jealousy? 
b  are  we  stronger  than  he?  23  1  All 

a  2  Cor.  6.  15, 16. - h  Deut.  32.  38. - i  Deut. 

32.  21. - k  Ezek.  22.  14. - 1  Chap.  6. 12. 

21.  Cannot — Ye  can  do  one  or  the 
other ;  but  ye  cannot  do  both.  It  is 
a  cannot  arising  from  the  incompati¬ 
bility  of  the  two  things.  It  was  the 
contrariety  of  the  kingdoms  of  light 
and  of  darkness,  and  the  apostle  sol¬ 
emnly  warns  them  to  beware  on  which 
side  they  stand.  Cup  of  the  Lord— 
The  Jehovah  of  the  Old  Testament,  who 
was  at  war  with  all  idolatries,  the 
Christ  of  the  Yew  Testament,  who  is 
establishing  the  kingdom  of  light  on 
earth.  Cup  of  devils — This  refers  to 
the  festal  cup  at  the  pagan  sacrifices, 
from  which  the  libations  were  poured 
forth,  symbolizing  the  treating  the  god 
with  wine.  “Wherefore,”  says  Eneas 
in  Virgil,  “  come  forth,  0  youths,  and 
in  honour  of  so  much  excellence, 
wreath  your  foreheads,  bring  forth  the 
cups,  invoke  the  common  deity,  and 
present  your  wines.”  Whatsoever  Jew 
drank  of  these  cups  or  ate  the  meats 
was  denounced  as  an  apostate.  Lord’s 
table  —  The  Rhemish  (Romanistic) 
commentator  makes  here  a  desperate 
effort  to  show  that  St.  Paul  sustains 
the  doctrine  that  in  the  sacrament  of 
the  Lord’s  supper  there  is  a  living 
victim,  Christ,  repeatedly  and  literally 
sacrificed  upon  an  altar.  His  oppo¬ 
nent,  Dr.  Fulke,  very  truly  replied  that 
neither  the  word  victim,  sacrifice,  or 
altar  is  once  used.  The  Christian  holy 
sacrament  is  simply  selected  as  the  op¬ 
posite  image  to  the  heathen  sacrificial 
feasts,  to  present  strongly  the  contrast 
by  which  the  Christian  is  forbidden  to 
be  sharer  in  the  other. 

Doubtless  as  being  the  successor  of, 
and  substitute  for,  the  sacrifices  of  the 
old  covenant  to  figure  one  real  sacrifice, 
once  and  for  evermore  offered,  the  bro¬ 
ken  bread  may  be  viewed  as  a  symbolic 
sacrifice.  It  sustains  tne  same  relation 
that  baptism  does  to  circ  uncision,  and 


things  are  lawful  for  me,  but  all 
things  are  not  expedient :  all  things 
are  lawful  for  me,  but  all  things 
edify  not.  24  mLet  no  man  seek 
his  own,  but  every  man  another’s 
wealth.  25  "Whatsoever  is  sold 
in  the  shambles,  that  eat,  asking 

m  Rom.  15. 1,  2;  verse  33;  chap.  13.  5;  Phil.  . 
_  2.  4,  21. - n  1  Tim.  4.  4. _ 

that  our  Sunday  holy-day  does  to  the 
Jewish  sabbath.  Hence  very  beauti¬ 
fully  did  the  Council  of  Ephesus  say, 
“We  celebrate  in  the  Churches  the  un¬ 
bloody  service  of  the  sacrifice.”  And 
here,  as  the  Council  by  the  word  “un¬ 
bloody  ”  recognises  that  the  wine  is  no 
literal  blood,  so  it  follows  that  the  sac¬ 
rifice  is  of  no  literal  victim. 

22.  Frovoke  the  Lord — As  we 
have  above  intimated,  St.  Paul  has  in 
mind  Deut.  xxxii,  17-26,  and  this  is  an 
allusion  to  verse  21.  Stronger  than 
he — So  as  to  meet  all  the  threatenings 
of  Deut.  xxxii,  21-26. 

23.  All  things — All  natural  gratifi¬ 
cations  are,  in  their  proper  kind  and 
degree,  lawful.  See  note  on  vi,  12, 13. 
But — This  primitive  all  has  its  limita¬ 
tions.  Not  expedient — And  so,  be¬ 
ing  unprofitable  and  injurious,  may 
thereby  become  unlawful.  And  now 
he  proceeds  to  lay  down  some  of  the 
moral  expediences  and  prudences  by 
which  the  eating  of  meats  must  be 
regulated. 

24.  His  own — Advantage  or  grati¬ 
fication.  Another’s— Regulating  your 
practice,  not  solely  by  your  own  con¬ 
venience,  but  for  another’s  spiritual 
safety.  A  nd  he  proceeds  now  to  spec¬ 
ify  how  this  is  to  be  done. 

‘  25.  Whatsoever  is  sold — The  meats 
of  idol  sacrifices  were  often  exposed 
to  sale  in  the  shambles,  especially  by 
the  priests,  when  they  had  on  hand  a 
surplus  above  their  own  consumption. 
To  the  Christian  this  was  intrinsically 
as  lawful  as  any  other  meat.  Sham¬ 
bles— Not  markets,  nor  buildings ;  but 
meat  stalls  in  the  market.  In  view  of 
this  lawfulness,  therefore,  without  any 
questions  for  conscience’  sake,  even 
if  well  knowing  that  a  pagan  priest  had 
just  exposed  it  for  sale,  the  believer 
might  purchase  and  eat. 


A.  D.  5  7. 


CHAPTER  X. 


77 


no  question  for  conscience’  sake: 
20  For  °tlie  earth  is  the  Lord’s, 
and  the  fulness  thereof.  27  If 
any  of  them  that  believe  not 
oid  you  to  a  feast ,  and  ye  be  dis¬ 
posed  to  go;  p whatsoever  is  set 
before  you,  eat,  asking  no  ques¬ 
tion  for  conscience’  sake.  28  But 
if  any  man  say  unto  you,  This  is 

o  Exod.  19.  5;  Deut.  10.  14;  Psa.  24.  1;  50.  12; 
verse  28. - pLuke  10.  7. - q  Chap.  8.  10, 12. 


26.  The  Lord’s — This  meat  is  like 
any  thing  else  in  the  Lord’s  earth 
made  for  man’s  use  so  far  as  it  is  usa¬ 
ble.  Fulness— All  with  which  the 
earth  is  filled.  The  passage  is  quoted 
from  Psa.  xxiv,  1.  It  was  used  by  the 
J ews  in  their  thanksgiving  before  meal. 
It  probably  formed  part  of  the  eucha- 
ristic  blessing,  and  indicates  that  the 
meat  so  eaten  was  consistent  with  the 
sacramental  communion. 

2 1 .  If — St.  Paul  lias  thus  far  stated  the 
rule  for  the  market ;  now  comes  the  rule 
for  the  table.  Bid ...  feast— A  Christ¬ 
ian  is  invited  by  a  pagan  friend,  not  to 
a  temple  banquet,  but  to  a  feast  at  the 
latter’s  residence.  Disposed  to  go 
—Though  a  pagan,  he  may  still  be  a 
dear  friend,  and  Christianity  requires 
not  that  the  innocent  tie  be  broken. 

28.  Any  man— The  word  idols,  in 
the  remark  of  this  any  man,  being 
contemptuous,  shows  that  it  is  not  ut¬ 
tered  by  the  host  or  any  other  pagan. 
Nor  is  it  uttered  by  a  Jew,  since  such 
never  ate  with  Gentiles.  It  is,  there¬ 
fore,  from  some  fellow-Christian,  who 
hesitates  not  to  attend  a  pagan’s  feast, 
biit  is  scrupulous  to  pick  out  and  reject 
a!',  idolatrous  meats.  This  brother  is 
weak ;  but  your  example  of  eating  may 
either  lead  him  to  be  unscrupulous  and 
low  in  his  Christian  life,  or  to  condemn 
the  religion  that  keeps  not  (as  he  thinks) 
its  followers  unspotted  from  idolatry. 
His  sake — As  he  is  in  danger.  Con¬ 
science’  sake — Which  is  ever  a  most 
sacred  tiling. 

29.  Of  the  other— St.  Paul  is  here 
particular  to  reiterate  that  it  is  not  his 
conscience  that  weakly  objects,  but 
the  inquirer’s;  and  that  it  is  by  his 
conscience  you  must  avoid  being  con- 


offered  in  sacrifice  unto  idols,  eat 
not  q  for  his  sake  that  showed  it, 
and  for  conscience’  sake:  for  rthe 
earth  is  the  Lord’s,  and  the  ful¬ 
ness  thereof  :  29  Conscience,  I 
say,  not  thine  own,  but  of  the 
other  :  for  8  why  is  my  liberty 
judged  of  another  man's  con¬ 
science  ?  30  For  if  I  by  5grace  be 

-  rDeut.  10.  14;  Psa.  24.  1;  verse  26. - sRom. 

14.  lb. - o  Or,  thanksgiving. 


demned.  Judged — Condemned.  The 
meaning,  then,  is:  For  why  incur  by 
my  license  a  condemnation  from  my 
fellow-Christian’s  conscience  ?  It  must 
be  a  doubtful,  perhaps  a  reckless,  use 
of  my  liberty,  which  is  indulged  in 
disregard,  of  his  judgment.  Better  of¬ 
fend  against  a  man’s  tastes,  or  his 
wishes,  or  even  his  temporal  interests, 
than  so  transgress  against  his  con¬ 
science  as  to  endanger  his  soul. 
Not  thine  own  —  When  you  yield 
external  compliance  you  do  not  yield 
also  the  secret  convictions  of  your 
own  conscience.  The  conscientious 
principle  you  still  hold  in  your  own 
heart,  that  the  eating  is  not  unlaw¬ 
ful,  in  the  expectation  that  when  su¬ 
perstition  and  prejudice  have  passed 
away  the  truth  will  predominate.  Of 
the  other — Externally,  you  spare  his 
conscience ;  internally,  you  retain  your 
own.  My  liberty — Which  is  judged 
and  approved  by  my  own  conscience. 
Judged — So  as  to  displace  my  own 
decision.  Of  another  man’s  con¬ 
science —  The  unalienable  rights  of 
the  individual  conscience,  the  private 
judgment  of  every  man,  is  here  conclu¬ 
sively  maintained  against  all  usurpers, 
whether  priests,  popes,  or  potentates. 
No  other  man’s  conscience  can  be  for 
me  a  substitute  for  my  own.  St.  Paul 
would  have,  in  delicate  regard  for  his 
neighbour’s  conscience,  avoided  eating 
meat  in  his  presence,  but  nothing  could 
have  compelled  him  to  declare  that  the 
eating  of  it  was  intrinsically  a  sin. 

30.  For — In  enforcement  of  this 
view  of  the  rights  of  his  own  con¬ 
science.  By  grace — And,  therefore, 
rightfully.  Give  thanks — In  a  de¬ 
vout  and  conscientious  spirit.  Why 


78 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.D.  57 


a  partaker,  wliv  am  I  evil  spoken 
of  for  that  1  for  which  I  give 
thanks?  31  “Whether  therefore 
ye  eat,  or  drink,  or  whatsoever 
ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God. 
*32  T  Give  none  offence,  neither 
to  the  Jews,  nor  to  the  6  Gen¬ 
tiles,  nor  to  w the  church  of  God: 


t  Rom.  14.  6;  Him.  4. 3,4. - ^Col.  3. 1/ ,  1  Pet. 

4.  ii. - v  Rom.  14.  13;  chap.  8.  13;  2  Cor.  6.  3. 

— -6  Gr.  Greeks. - w  Acts  20.  28 ;  chap.  11.  22 ; 


33  Even  as  XI  please  all  men  in 
all  things,  y  not  seeking  mine  own 
profit,  but  the  profit  of  many,  that 
they  may  be  saved. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

BE  aye  followers  of  me,  even  as 
I  also  am  of  Christ. 

1  Tim.  3.  5. - x  Rom.  15.  2 ;  chap.  9.  19,  22.—— 

y  Verse  24. - a  Chap.  4.  16;  Eph.  5.  1;  Phil. 

3. 17;  1  Thess.  1.  6;  2  Thess.  3.  9. 


.  .  .evil  spoken  of — For  I  act  in  ac¬ 
cordance  with  my  own  moral  and  re¬ 
ligious  nature. 

We  have  given  what  we  think  to  be 
clearly  the  sense  of  vv.  28-30.  But 
there  are  several  other  interpretations, 
of  which  we  need  notice  but  two. 
1.  That  maintained  by  Stanley  and 
others,  which  makes  the  two  verses  to 
be  the  objection  of  others,  perhaps 
contained  in  the  Corinthian  letter,  to 
Paul’s  doctrine  of  compliance  with  the 
weak  brother’s  scruples  on  the  ground 
that  it  is  consenting  to  be  judged  by 
another’s  conscience.  The  view  is 
plausible,  but  it  is  not  easy  to  see  that 
the  following  verse  (31)  aims  to  be  any 
reply  to  such  an  objection.  On  the 
contrary,  the  therefore  seems  to  imply 
a  conclusion  drawn  in  accordance  with 
vv.  29,  30.  2.  The  view  of  Alford,  after 
Meyer,  which  makes  verse  29  mean: 
For  why  incur  by  my  license  a  condem¬ 
nation  from  my  fellow-Christian’s  con¬ 
science  ?  It  makes  verse  30  also  say  that 
I  must  not  induce  my  good  procedure 
to  be  evil  spoken  of.  Such  an  inter¬ 
pretation  accords  well  with  the  train 
of  thought.  But  it  cannot  easily  be 
forced  upon  verse  30,  for  that  verse 
is  clearly  the  utterance  of  one  who  is 
sure  he  is  right,  and  therein  ought  not 
to  be  maligned  by  another. 

31.  Therefore  —  As  a  concluding 
rule  fi  om  the  whole  of  vv.  23-30.  Eat, 
or  drink  —  At  feasts  or  elsewhere. 
Glory  of  God — As  a  servant  of  God, 
willing  ever  to  bring  honour  to  his  law 
and  name. 

This  does  not  require  that  in  every 
motion  or  deed  we  make  God’s  glory  a 
distinct  object  of  thought.  It  requires 
that  we  should  plan  and  order  our 
whole  life  in  accordance  with  God’s 


law,  and  with  the  gospel  of  his  Son. 
This  supreme  purpose  should  control 
the  whole  scheme,  and  be  so  carried 
out  that  our  life,  in  whole  and  in  all 
its  parts,  should  be  a  lesson  to  men, 
inspiring  them  to  glorify  our  Father 
which  is  in  heaven. 

32.  None  offence  —  No  scandal, 
jews  —  The  apostle  ever  avoided  of¬ 
fence  to  his  kinsmen  after  the  flesh. 
Gentiles — Crossing  none  of  their  prej¬ 
udices  where  God’s  law  does  not  re¬ 
quire  it.  Church  of  God — Endeav¬ 
ouring  to  maintain  its  purity  and  peace 
by  purity  and  peace  on  his  own  part. 

*  33.  Please  all — That  is,  in  purpose 
and  effort,  whether  with  successful  re¬ 
sult  or  not.  Be  saved — His  compli¬ 
ances  and  subserviences  were  neither 
for  flattery  nor  self-interest,  but  for  the 
eternal  good  of  his  fellow-beings.  In 
this  direction  he  was  the  most  comply¬ 
ing  of  men  ;  in  all  others  the  most  in¬ 
dependent.  In  all  these  things  he 
would  have  the  Corinthians,  according 
to  the  first  verse  of  the  next  chapter, 
(where  see  note,)  his  followers. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

1.  Followers — This  verse  belongs 
to  the  close  of  the  last  chapter,  and 
should  be  read  in  continuation.  Of 
Christ  —  He  would  have  followers, 
not  as  being  original  and  independent, 
but  as  he  was  imitator  and  follower 
of  the  divine  model. 

Paul’s  Sixth  Response  : — Regard¬ 
ing  the  Head-Costume  of  the  Dif¬ 
ferent  Sexes  in  Religious  Services, 
xi,  2-16. 

Stanley  well  describes  the  intense 
religious  significance  of  modes  of  dress 
in  ancient  times.  In  earlier  Greece  the 


A.  D.  5  7. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


2  N  >w  I  praise  you,  brethren, 
that  ye  remember  me  in  all  things, 
and  c  keep  the  1  ordinanees,  as  I 
delivered  them  to  you.  3  But 


b  Chap.  4.  17. - cChap.  7.  17. - 1  Or, 

hon ts,  2  Thess.  2.  15;  3.  6. - d  Eph.  5.  23. 


tradi- 


length  of  the  garment  decided  whether 
a  man  was  an  Ionian,  with  one  set  of 
gods  and  rites,  or  a  Dorian,  with  an¬ 
other.  But  it  was  in  the  religious  du¬ 
ties  that  the  dress  of  the  head  possessed 
a  marked  import.  The  Jews,  as  Grotius 
says,  were  accustomed  to  perform  the 
services  of  the  temple  with  the  head  cov¬ 
ered,  assigning  as  a  reason  for  the  sym¬ 
bolic  act  that  their  unworthy  eyes  might 
not  behold  the  majesty  of*  God.  This 
mode  of  reverence  they  transferred  to 
the  synagogue ;  so  that,  following  He¬ 
brew  custom,  St.  Paul  would  have  re¬ 
quired  men  as  well  as  women  to  wor¬ 
ship  with  covered  head.  The  ancient 
Greeks,  on  the  contrary,  sacrificed  with 
bared  heads.  In  ancient  Italy,  before 
the  Roman  age,  the  Greek  custom  pre¬ 
vailed:  but  JEneas,  it  is  said,  brought 
from  Troy  the  custom  of  sacrificing 
with  covered  head;  the  assigned  rea¬ 
son  being,  that  the  eyes  of  the  man 
might  not,  in  performing  the  holy  rite, 
chance  to  fall  upon  any  unholy  or  ill- 
omened  object.  This  became  the  per¬ 
manent  custom  for  all  ages  of  pagan 
Rome.  So  that  Paul,  rejecting  the 
covered  head  of  both  Jerusalem  and 
Rome,  enjoined  the  bared  head  of 
Greece  upon  the  males  of  the  Corin¬ 
thian  Church.  This  uncovered  head 
symbolized  holy  cheer  and  boldness 
before  men  in  worship  according  to 
Christ.  Hence  Tertullian  tells  the  Pa¬ 
gans,  “We  Christians  pray  with  out¬ 
spread  handsj  as  harmless ;  with  uncov¬ 
ered  heads ,  as  unashamed :  without  a 
prompter,  as  from  the  heart.”  The 
custom  prevalent  in  modern  Europe, 
derived  from  the  ancient  Germanic 
races,  of  baring  the  head  in  reverence 
to  a  superior,  though  it  is  the  idea 
most  obvious  to  an  American  Christ¬ 
ian,  has  no  actual  place  here.  That 
custom  presupposed  that  princes  and 
nobles,  wearing  a  crown  as  symbol  of 
rank,  would  retain  it  on  the  head  on  all 
occasions  of  etiquette,  and  require  an  in- 


I  would  have  you  know,  that  the 
dhead  of  every  man  is  Christ; 
and  ethe  head  of  the  woman  is 
the  man;  and  fthe  head  of  Christ 


AGuen'J-  1lTim*  2-^12;  1  Pet.  3. 1,5,6.— 
f  John  14-  28;  chap.  3.  23 ;  15.  27,  28;  Phil.  2.  7-  9 


ferior’s  head,  as  a  reverse  symbol,  to  be 
bare  of  any  cover  whatever ;  so  that  the 
bared  head  and  the  bow  of  the  head  are 
now  the  universal  symbols  of  deference 
Equally  various,  among  differem 
tribes  and  times,  was  and  is  the  mode 
of  wearing  the  hair.  The  ancien: 
Greeks  wore  the  hair  long;  and  “  flow 
ing-haired  Aelieans  ”  was  one  of  the 
customary  epithets  applied  to  them  by 
Homer.  But  in  Paul’s  time  the  hair 
was  uniformly  cut,  except  upon  relig 
ious  vows.  The  long  hair  of  a  malt, 
done  up  in  elaborate  style,  was  a  sym 
bol  of  base  effeminacy,  belonging  to 
men  of  prostituted  manhood.  The 
Burmese,  both  men  and  women,  wear 
long  hair,  and  the  Chinese  wear  long 
hair  braided  into  a  pigtail. 

It  will  be  seen,  perhaps,  in  the  course 
of  our  notes,  that  Paul’s  directions  were 
based,  partly  upon  symbolic  reasons, 
temporary  in  their  character,  partly 
upon  the  natural  sense  of  beauty,  ana 
partly  upon  fixed  divine  law.  It  is  ir 
this  last  case  only  that  the  direction  is 
specially  permanent  in  its  nature;  in 
the  other  eases  the  maxim  might  ap 
ply,  “  The  rule  ceases  when  the  reasoi 
of  the  rule  ceases.” 

2.  Now  I  praise  you — Softening 
the  warnings  of  the  previous  chapters 
That — Literally  rendered,  All  of  mint 
ye  have  remembered ,  and  all  the  deliver¬ 
ances  I  have  delivered  ye  receive.  This 
is  to  prepare  the  way  for  his  now  pre¬ 
scribing  the  methods  of  worship.  Ordi¬ 
nances  usually  imply  doctrines  handed 
down  from  generation  to  generation; 
here,  the  directions  personally  imparted 

3.  Head  of  every  man — Of  every 
Christian ,  says  Grotius.  Yet  in  the 
redemption  Christ  has  a  headship  of 
the  race.  See  notes  on  Rom.  v,  12-21. 
Here,  however,  as  a  harmonious  ruling 
and^  obeyed  headship  is  implied,  Gro¬ 
tius  s  limitation  is  correct.  Of  every 
man,  by  Paul  addressed,  the  Head 
was  Christ. 


80 


I.  CORINTHIAN S. 


A.  i j.  b  7. 


is  God.  4  Every  man  praying 

q  Chap.  12.  10,  28; 

The  headship  of  our  Lord  over  the 
Christian  man  is  a  headship  of  divine 
authority,  in  which,  however,  when 
complete  and  perfect,  the  authority 
merges  into  a  blessed  spontaneity  and 
concurrence  of  wills.  Such  is  the  apos¬ 
tle’s  view  of  marriage,  of  which  the 
union  of  Christ  and  his  Church  is  the 
type.  A  divinely-constituted  headship 
similarly  belongs  to  the  husband  in  the 
family ;  but  the  true  idea  of  the  family 
is  a  unity  of  love,  in  which  the  com¬ 
mand  is  the  expression  of  the  common 
happiness,  and  obedience  is  a  loving 
concurrence  of  wills.  If  the  realiza¬ 
tion  of  the  idea  is  seldom  complete, 
that  is  true  of  all  sublunary  constitu¬ 
tions,  arising  from  the  jars  of  sin. 
The  man — That  to  the  masculine  side 
of  humanity  (as  of  all  other  living 
races  of  beings)  belongs  the  force ,  the 
executive  endowment,  and  the  conse¬ 
quent  headship ,  is  plain  to  every  eye 
that  looks  at  male  and  female  through 
all  animated  nature  as  they  are  created. 
It  is  shown  in  every  quality  of  their 
respective  human  frames.  Size  of 
brain  and  body ;  strength  of  bone, 
libre,  and  nerve ;  tendencies  of  instinct, 
feeling,  and  will ;  all  proclaim  that  man 
should  bear  the  brunt  of  the  battle  of 
life,  and,  therefore,  must  plan  the  cam¬ 
paign  and  order  the  particular  manoeu¬ 
vres.  To  talk  of  equality  here  contra¬ 
dicts  God  and  nature.  It  is  one  of 
“the  rights  of  woman,”  as  it  is  one  of 
the  instincts,  to  retire  to  the  rear  of  the 
fight,  and  live  under  the  protection  of  a 
stronger  arm  than  her  own.  It  is  one 
of  her  “rights”  to  lean  on  that  arm 
for  aid,  and  to  look  to  that  head  to 
plan  for  her  well-being.  And  to  this 
it  is  the  noblest  instinct  of  man  that 
responds.  It  is  the  thought  of  wife 
and  children,  rather  than  thought  of 
self,  that  prompts  the  soldier  to  the 
fiercest  bravery,  or  the  labourer  to  his 
crudest  toil.  He  can  bear  any  thing ; 
but  how  subject  the  tender  ones  at 
home  to  hardship,  disgrace,  or  dis¬ 
gusts.  To  win  for  her  at  home  honour, 
ornament,  and  happiness,  is  the  crown 
ol  his  own  enjoyments.  The  whole 


or  &  prophesying,  having  Ms  head 

14.  1,  &c. 

history  of  civilization  shows  that  the 
robust  thought  and  toil  are  man’s. 
The  pyramids,  the  temples,  the  capi- 
toliums,  the  city  walls  and  towers,  the 
aqueducts  and  bridges,  the  railways 
and  telegraphs,  are  all  the  products  of 
man’s  hand  and  brain.  The  battles  by 
him  are  fought,  and  by  consequence 
to  him  belong  (save  in  exceptional  in¬ 
stances)  the  diplomacies,  the  senates, 
the  cabinets,  and  the  executive  chairs. 
In  short,  to  man  belongs,  by  nature 
and  by  God,  the  national  as  well  as 
the  domestic  rule.  If  in  a  free  gov¬ 
ernment  woman  should  ever  possess 
the  right  of  suffrage,  it  would  be  (like 
her  consent  or  her  veto  in  accepting  or 
rejecting  an  offered  husband)  rather 
the  particular  right  to  choose  her  ruler 
than  a  power  to  rule. 

4.  Every  man  praying . . .  covered 
— Either  from  the  Corinthian  letter  or 
the  messengers  that  brought  it  Paul 
learned  that  the  Christian  rule  of  wor¬ 
ship  was  unsettled.  Men  following  the 
Hebrew  or  Roman  custom  probably 
prayed  with  the  head  covered.  Wom¬ 
en,  doubling  what  under  the  Christian 
system  was  the  law  for  their  sex,  in 
what  they  perhaps  considered  Christian 
freedom  removed  the  customary  hood 
from  their  heads.  The  notion  of  Ruck- 
art  and  others,  that  the  motive  of  these 
uncovering  women  was  to  display  their 
beauty ,  has  not  one  syllable  in  the 
apostle’s  rebuke  or  argument  to  sustain 
it.  On  the  contrary,  his  whole  force 
of  reasoning  goes  to  show  that  a  proper 
subordination  truly  belongs  to  the  fe¬ 
male  sex ;  and  it  is  solely  a  questioning 
of  this  truth  which  his  argument  pre¬ 
supposes.  It  does  not  appear  that  any 
real  disorders  occurred.  They  were 
holy  women,  endowed  with  spiritual 
gifts,  who  would  need  these  directions 
from  the  higher  authority  of  their 
founder  apostle. 

Paul  gives  caution  to  the  men  first 
here  and  in  verse  7.  The  ancient  com¬ 
mentators  held  that  St.  Paul  wrote  to 
check  the  men  as  well  as  the  women  ; 
bat  later  writers,  as  Ruckart,  Alford, 
and  Stanley,  say  that  he  refers  to  the 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XL 


81 


covered,  dishonoureth  his  head. 
5  But  h  every  woman  that  prayeth 

h  Acts 

men  merely,  in  illustration  of  the  case 
of  the  women.  We  hold  that  the 
former  are  clearly  correct.  As  we  have 
shown,  different  customs  for  men  on 
this  subject  prevailed  among  the  dif¬ 
ferent  nationalities  and  religions  which 
were  now  promiscuously  crowded  into 
Corinth.  Jewish  and  Roman  converts 
would  be  predisposed  to  pray  with  heads 
covered,  while  the  Greeks  would  un¬ 
cover.  The  fact  that  Paul  treats  the 
case  of  woman  so  much  more  fully  is 
because  it  was  a  question  of  propriety ; 
and  of  the  proprieties  and  refinements 
of  life,  woman,  being  the  special  guar¬ 
dian,  needed  to  be  very  fully  set  right. 
From  all  this  it  is  clear  that  St.  Paul 
decides  for  the  covered  head,  not  from 
any  divine  command,  or  any  immutable 
propriety,  but  because,  in  the  existing 
state  of  customs,  the  covered  head  was 
the  symbol  of  modesty.  It  is  the  mod¬ 
esty  that  is  the  permanent  principle  ; 
the  covered  head  is  the  transient  ex¬ 
pression  of  the  principle.  Dishonour¬ 
eth  his  head — Stanley  makes  head, 
here,  possess  a  double  reference,  name¬ 
ly,  to  Christ  and  to  the  man’s  own 
head.  The  latter,  however,  is  doubt¬ 
less  Paul’s  real  meaning;  the  former 
can  be  brought  in  only  by  inference. 
Josephus  says,  “  Izates,  throwing  him¬ 
self  to  the  earth,  and  dishonouring  his 
•  head  ivith  ashes ,  fasted  calling  upon 
God.”  To  the  Christian  man  belonged 
a  triumphant,  unblushing  worship. 
Christ,  his  head,  not  being  visibly 
present,  there  was  no  mere  humanity 
before  which  it  became  him  to  cover. 
See  note  verse  7.  In  modern  times 
men  are  uncovered  in  Christian  worship 
in  consequence  of  Paul’s  rule,  but  not 
for  his  reason.  It  is  now  raiher  the 
uncovering  of  reverence  for  the  Divine 
presence,  or  respect  for  the  congrega¬ 
tion  or  service,  which  a  Jew  expressed 
by.  putting  off  his  sandals.  To  tne 
universal  modern  Christian  practice 
of  bared  heads  in  church,  Stanley  says 
that  “  Holland  is  the  only  exception. 
In  Dutch  congregations,  men  uncover 
their  heads  during  the  psalmodv  only.” 

Vor,  IV. — g 


or  prophesieth  with  her  head  un¬ 
covered  dishonoureth  her  head :  for 

21.  9. 

5.  Every  woman  that  prayeth.  . . 
prophesieth — Grotius  thus  comments: 
“  So  in  the  Old  Testament  women  were 
prophetesses,  as  Miriam,  sister  of  Moses, 
Exod.  xv,  20  ;  Deborah,  Judges  iv,  1,  5  ; 
the  wife  of  Isaiah,  Isa.  viii,  3  ;  Huldah, 
2  Kings  xxii,  14;  so  also  in  the  New 
Testament,  the  daughters  of  Philip, 
Acts  xxi,  9,  and  others.  Such  were 
accustomed  also  to  expound  the  sacred 
prophecies  publicly,  as  appears  from 
the  passages  above  quoted  from  the 
Old  Testament.  Wherefore  Paul’s  pro¬ 
hibition  of  women  from  performing 
the  office  of  teaching,  is  to  be  under¬ 
stood  with  this  exception,  unless  they 
have  the  special  commandment  of 
God.” 

Wetstein  says,  similarly  :  “  It  was  not 
permissible  for  women  to  teach  or  lead 
prayers  in  the  congregation,  (xiv,  34,) 
unless,  for  an  exceptional  reason  and 
in  a  special  manner,  they  were  impelled 
to  so  doing  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  Acts 
ii,  17  ;  xxi,  9 ;  Luke  i,  41,  42  ;  1  Sam. 
x,  5,  10 ;  1  Chron.  xxv,  1-3  ;  2  Cliron. 
xxix,  30 ;  xxxv,  15.”  It  is  sometimes 
denied  that  any  female  prophet  ever 
prophesied  in  public.  But  in  Judges 
iv,  4,  Deborah  is  styled  “  a  prophetess  ” 
who  “judged” — that  is,  ruled — Israel 
in  peace  and  led  her  army  in  war.  Her 
“judgment,”  (Judg.  iv,  5,)  her  general¬ 
ship,  and  her  chant  of  triumph,  were  all 
public.  Her  judging  itself  was  by  di¬ 
vine  mission  and  impulse ;  and  so  was, 
strictly,  in  the  biblical  sense,  prophecy. 
Her  chant  was  prophecy ,  for  1  Chron. 
xxv,  1-3  shows  that  music  and  psalm 
came  under  the  head  of  prophecy.  It 
is  ludicrous  to  suppose  that  it  was  in 
accordance  with  feminine  modesty  for 
Deborah  to  judge  the  people  and  com¬ 
mand  an  army  in  public,  but  a  violation 
of  that  virtue  to  utter  a  supernatural 
sentence  in  a  religious  assembly ! 
Miriam’s  rhythmical  prophecy  was  ut¬ 
tered  with  timbrel  before  Israel’s 
whole  camp.  Huldah  was  installed  in 
the  prophetic  college,  and  it  was  per¬ 
mitted  her  to  teach  a  body  of  men 
sent  to  her  by  the  king,  including  the 


82 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


that  is  even  all  one  as  if  she  were 

i  Deut. 

high  priest.  These  cases  completely 
negative  the  doctrine  that  an  inspired 
or  gifted  woman  was  unauthorized  to 
speak  in  public.  To  make  Paul  forbid  a 
woman’s  public  prophesying  is  to  make 
him  nullify  some  of  the  most  striking 
facts  of  Old  Testament  history. 

Both  the  above  eminent  commenta¬ 
tors  (with  whom  Wesley  concurs)  main¬ 
tain  that  Paul  in  this  passage  assumes 
the  right  of  women  in  the  proper  excep¬ 
tional  cases  to  pray  or  prophesy  in  the 
congregation,  and  maintain  that  in 
xiv,  34  he  forbids  the  mass  of  women 
to  interrupt  the  service  with  their 
noisy  chatter.  Alford,  Stanley,  and 
others,  maintain  that  Paul,  in  xiv,  34, 
not  only  forbids  the  uncovered  head  in 
these  services,  but  forbids  the  service 
by  women  at  all.  Thus  Calvin  is  quoted 
as  saying  :  “  In  here  disapproving  of  the 
one,  he  does  not  approve  of  the  other. 
Paul  attends  to  one  thing  at  a  time.” 
But  the  “  one  thing  ”  which  this  makes 
him  “  attend  to  ”  seems  a  very  unwise 
“  thing.”  Why  should  he  forbid  pray¬ 
ing  uncovered  when  he  condemns  and 
prohibits  their  praying  at  all  ?  Such 
a  view  vacates  this  whole  paragraph  of 
sense,  rendering  it  so  much  blank  pa¬ 
per.  The  Corinthian  query  clearly  was, 
Ought  women  to  have  the  head  uncovered 
in  their  public  prophesying?  And  St. 
Paul’s  brief,  plain  answer  should  have 
been,  There  is  to  he  no  women's  public 
praying  or  prophesying  at  all.  Pro¬ 
hibiting  the  incident  permits  the  main 
thing.  It  assumes  that  if  the  incident 
is  set  right,  the  whole  thing  is  right. 
Both  G-rotius  and  Wetstein  hold  that 
feminine  prophecy  ;s  “for  exceptional 
reason,”  and  by  divine  specialty.  Hence 
it  is  often  said  that  the  female  at  the 
present  day  must,  in  her  own  case,  in 
order  to  be  accepted,  be  able  to  show  an 
express  divine  authorization  to  proph¬ 
esy  or  preach.  To  this,  however,  it 
may  fairly  be  replied,  that  even  the 
male  prophet  must  individually  profess 
to  be  “  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,”  to 
his  office.  Such  a  “  call,”  in  either 
case,  is  not  miraculous,  but  is  super¬ 
natural  and  individual.  In  the  case  of 


‘shaven.  6  For  if  the  woman  be 

21.  12. _ 

the  man,  it  is  in  accordance  with  the 
nature  of  man,  and  with  the  ordinary 
rule  of  Providence.  In  the  case  of  the 
woman,  it  is  less  accordant  with  the 
feminine  nature,  and  is  more  extraor¬ 
dinary  and  special ;  especially  where  it 
implies  the  exercise  of  authority  over 
both  sexes. 

With  her  head  uncovered — Be¬ 
fore  the  gaze  of  masculinity  it  often 
is  at  once  the  modesty  and  the  dignity 
of  woman  to  vail  herself.  That  unre¬ 
strained  gaze  is  often  profane ;  and  it 
is  a  divine  reserve  that  shrinks  and 
conceals  from  it.  In  that  reserve  is 
contained  even  the  proudest  and  noblest 
self-respect ;  so  that  under  the  forms 
of  humiliation  resides  woman’s  exalta¬ 
tion.  Thereby  she  becomes,  to  man’s 
idea,  a  something  sacred  and  imperial. 
Let  her  forfeit  that  ideal  and  she  de¬ 
thrones  herself,  and  becomes  an  un¬ 
lovely  being.  By  most  divine  law  each 
sex  is  confined  to  its  own  nature.  It  is 
equally  shameful  for  manhood  to  be¬ 
come  effeminate,  and  for  womanhood 
to  become  masculine.  All  one  as  if 
. .  .shaven — One  in  shamefulin  is,  for 
both  are  an  unwarrantable  exposure, 
but  different  in  degree ;  for  the  former 
is  a  beginning  and  the  latter  is  the 
consummation.  The  covering  of  the 
head  as  a  sign  of  womanly  modesty 
before  man  was  a  rigid  point  with  the 
Jews.  And  noblest  was  the  woman 
that  carried  it  out  most  nobly.  “  The 
lady  Kimhith  bore  seven  sons,  of  whom 
each  one  attained  the  high  priesthood. 
They  inquired  of  her  what  she  had 
done  to  accomplish  so  great  a  felicity. 
She  replied:  “At  no  time  did  ever  the 
ceilings  of  my  house  behold  the  locks  of 
my  head.” —  Quoted  by  Wetstein.  Doubt¬ 
less  this,  however,  was  but  a  sample  of 
the  tone  of  her  character  on  all  other 
points.  This  energy  of  self-control  and 
severity  of  obedience  to  law  is  the  very 
essence  of  a  lofty  moral  nature.  No 
wonder  the  woman  of  such  a  nature 
should  give  a  line  of  high  priests  to 
the  world  ;  she  is  a  born  high  priestess. 

Of  course  the  apostle  at  the  present 
day  would  not  consider  the  hood  as 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


83 


not  covered,  let  her  also  be  shorn : 
but  if  it  be  k  a  shame  for  a  woman 
to  be  shorn  or  shaven,  let  her  be 
covered.  7  For  a  man  indeed 
ought  not  to  cover  his  head,  foras¬ 
much  as  1  he  is  the  image  and  glory 
of  God :  but  the  woman  is  the 

&Num.  5.  18;  Deut.  22.  5. - £Gen.  1.  26,27; 

6.  1 ;  9.  6. - m  Gen.  2.  21,  22. - n  Gen.  2.  18, 

21,  23. 

possessing  any  religious  significance. 
Women  now  sit  or  stand  before  men 
with  heads  uncovered,  not  only  in  the 
social  circle,  but  in  large  assemblies  ; 
nor  is  it  any  religious  obligation  that 
requires  her  to  wear  a  bonnet  in 
church,  or  forbids  her  to  speak  or  pray 
with  bonnet  off.  And  all  this,  when 
the  letter  of  the  apostle’s  language  con¬ 
demns  the  uncovered  head  in  the  most 
explicit  terms.  But  really,  Paul  con¬ 
demned  the  uncovered  female  head  of 
his  day  because  it  then  expressed  the 
moving  of  woman  from  her  sphere, 
and  suggested  a  dishonouring  associa¬ 
tion,  calculated  to  bring  the  purity  of 
the  Church  into  suspicion. 

6.  Let  her  be — Let  her  carry  out 
the  principle,  and  see  where  it  will 
land  her.  This  is,  of  course,  not  a  real 
command ;  the  imperative  being  sim¬ 
ply  a  form  of  the  argument.  Shorn — 
As  with  shears.  Shaven — As  with  a 
razor.  Be  covered  —  The  obvious 
impropriety  alike  of  either  of  the  three 
exposures  brings  to  the  conclusion  that 
she  should  be  covered.  The  shaving 
of  the  woman’s  head  assimilated  her,  in 
the  existing  state  of  customs,  to  the  dis¬ 
reputable  class.  “  The  antiquaries  and 
philologists,”  says  Bloomfield,  “have 
proved  that  all  the  ancient  nations 
agree  in  accounting  this  as  the  great¬ 
est  dishonour  and  disparagement  to 
the  person  of  a  woman.  Hence  it  was 
adopted  only  as  a  sign  of  extreme 
grief,  (see  Deut.  xxi,  12,)  or  was  im¬ 
posed  as  a  mark  of  infamy  and  dis¬ 
grace.”  Even  among  the  Germans,  as 
Tacitus  informs  us,  the  penalty  for  the 
adulteress  was  to  be  expelled  from  her 
husband’s  house  with  a  shaven  head. 
A  Jewish  commentator  on  the  words 
“uncover  the  woman’s  head,”  (Hum. 
V,  18,)  says:  “For  what  reason?  Be- 


glory  of  the  man.  §  For  mthe 
man  is  not  of  the  woman ;  but  the 
woman  of  the  man.  9  "Neither 
was  the  man  created  for  the  wom¬ 
an;  but  the  woman  for  the  man. 
10  For  this  cause  ought  the  wom¬ 
an  °to  have  2  power  on  her  head 

o  Genesis  24.  65. - 2  That  is,  a  covering*  in 

sign  that  she  is  under  the  power  of  her 
husband . 

cause  it  is  not  the  custom  of  Israelitish 
women  to  have  their  heads  uncovered. 
Wherefore  he  shaves  her  and  says, 

‘  Inasmuch  as  thou  hast  seceded  from 
the  manner  of  the  Israelite  women, 
whose  custom  it  is  to  cover  their  heads, 
and  hast  followed  the  manners  of  the 
Gentiles,  who  are  accustomed  to  go 
with  the  head  shaven,  lo  !  it  happens 
to  thee  as  thou  hast  willed.’  ” 

7.  Image  and  glory  of  God — As 
God  is  Lord  of  the  universe,  so  man  is 
authorized  lord  in  the  earth.  Gen.  i,  27. 
Hence,  as  having  no  visible  superior  in 
the  world  among  the  creatures  of  God, 
modesty  never  compels  him  to  cover 
his  head  before  any.  Woman . .  .  glory 
of  . . .  man  —  As  emanating  from  him¬ 
self,  as  he  emanates  from  God,  and  as 
a  beautiful  and  wonderful  second  self, 
just  as  he  is  God’s  representative  or 
finite  second  self  on  earth. 

8.  For — Explaining  how  woman  is 
man’s  glory.  Of,  or  literally,  from 
the  man  —  Woman  is,  according  to 
the  Genesis  history,  derived  from  man, 
as  the  glory  is  radiated  from  the  lumi¬ 
nary. 

9.  Woman  for . . .  man — The  narra¬ 
tive  of  Genesis,  which  derives  woman 
from  man,  and  makes  her  his  feeble 
and  tender  yet  necessary  and  mighty 
auxiliary,  if  it  were  not  true  in  history, 
is  true  in  philosophy  and  in  nature. 
If  man,  directty  and  solely,  accomplishes 
the  splendid  works  of  civilization  above 
described,  yet  it  is  man  with  his  help¬ 
meet  for  him.  She  is  his  complement ; 
and  both  male  and  female  form  the  one 
composite  man,  by  which  all  is  achieved. 
Woman  works  not  directly  upon  these 
products ;  but  she  works  upon  him  by 
whom  they  are  directly  wrought. 

10.  Power  on  her  head — Power 
to  which  she  is  subject,  not  power 


84 


I  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


p  because  of  the  angels.  11  Nev¬ 
ertheless  q  neither  is  the  man  with¬ 
out  the  woman,  neither  the  wom¬ 
an  without  the  man,  in  the  Lord. 
12  For  as  the  woman  is  of  the 
man,  even  so  is  the  man  also  by 

p  Ecclesiastes  5.  6. 

which  is  subjected  to  her.  And  by  this 
abstract  word  efoucr/a,  power,  Paul 
plainly  designates  the  hood  covering 
her  head.  It  may  be  that  this  Greek 
word  was  the  name  of  the  hood;  but 
there  is  no  other  instance  of  such  a 
use  of  the  term.  Olshausen  says,  that 
in  the  Middle  Ages  imperium  (a  Latin 
word  of  the  same  meaning  as  this 
Greek)  was  certainly  the  name  for  a 
woman’s  headdress.  Similarly  Diodo¬ 
rus  Siculus  says,  that  a  certain  queen 
“had  three  royalties  (crowns)  upon  her 
head,  to  signify  that  she  was  daughter, 
wife,  and  mother  of  a  king."  Be¬ 
cause  of  the  angels — In  whose  pres¬ 
ence  the  worship  of  the  Church  below 
often  is.  So  1  Tim.  v,  21,  “I  charge 
thee. .  .before  the  elect  angels;  ”  as  if 
the  angels  witnessed  the  charge  and 
would  mark  and  testify  how  it  was 
fulfilled.  So  angels  desire  to  look  into 
the  mysteries  of  redemption,  1  Pet.  i,  1 2 ; 
and  we  are  “  a  spectacle  to  angels,  and 
to  men.”  1  Cor.  iv,  9.  The  expedients 
of  commentators  to  avoid  this  beautiful 
meaning  are  many,  but  absurd  and  use¬ 
less.  They  are  completely  given  and 
disapproved  by  Stanley.  The  Jewish 
writers,  both  before  and  after  Paul, 
carried  out  a  similar  idea  to  a  puerile 
extent.  Rabbi  Simeon  ben  Jochai 
(quoted  by  Wetstein)  says:  “If  the 
hair  of  a  woman  is  uncovered,  the  evil 
spirits  will  come  and  sit  upon  her,  and 
upon  all  in  her  house.”  In  a  more 
Christian  strain,  Chrysostom  says:  “If 
you  wish  to  see  both  martyrs  and  an¬ 
gels,  open  the  eyes  of  your  faith,  and 
you  shall  behold  the  spectacle ;  for  if 
the  air  is  full  of  angels,  much  rather 
the  Church.  For  that  all  the  air  is  full 
of  angels  hear  what  the  apostle  says, 
admonishing  the  women  to  have  a  vail 
upon  their  heads,”  etc.  Again,  “If  you 
despise  men,  at  any  rate  reverence  the 
angels.”  Perfectly  accordant  with  all 


the  woman;  rbut  all  things  of 
God.  13  Judge  in  yourselves :  is 
it  comely  that  a  woman  pray  unto 
God  uncovered?  14  Doth  not 
even  nature  itself  teach  you,  that,  if 
a  man  have  long  hair,  it  is  a  shame 

q  Gal.  3.  28. - r  Rom.  11.  36. 

this  is  Bengel’s  beautiful  thought,  that 
as  angels  vail  their  faces  before  God, 
so  would  they  require  that  the  female 
face  should  vail  before  men.”  Har¬ 
mony  and  order  should  prevail  in  their 
angelic  presence. 

11.  Neither . . .  man . . .  without  the 
woman — Each  is  indispensable  to  the 
other.  Neither  can  exist  without  the 
other.  Each  possesses  what  the  other 
lacks. 

12.  Of,  rather,  from  the  man — By 
derivation  from  his  side,  according  to 
Genesis.  By  the  woman — By  natu¬ 
ral  birth.  But  all  things  of  God — • 
By  whom  the  sexes  and  their  relations 
have  been  constituted. 

13.  In  yourselves — Look  into  your 
own  breasts  and  hearken  to  the  dic¬ 
tates  of  your  intuitive  feelings.  Man’s 
true  nature  affirms  the  truths  of  God. 
Comely — Accordant  with  an  inborn 
sense  of  propriety. 

14.  Nature  itself  teach — Our  nat¬ 
ural  sense  of  beauty  affirms  that  long 
and  flowing  hair  (of  the  Caucasian  wom¬ 
an,  not  of  the  African)  is  one  of  the  per¬ 
manent  points  of  female  attraction.  To 
shear  it  diminishes  woman’s  beauty; 
to  shave  it  off  deforms  her,  for  the 
naked  scalp  is  ever  and  by  nature  a 
disagreeable  object  to  the  sight.  On 
the  other  hand,  for  a  man  to  imitate 
this  beauty  is  effeminate  and  contemp¬ 
tible.  And  this  effeminacy  was  espec¬ 
ially  exemplified  by  a  class  of  infamous 
males  guilty  of  unnatural  basenesses. 
Note  on  Rom.  i,  24-25.  Yet  if  nature 
— that  is,  the  instinct  of  propriety — did 
teach  that  long  hair  was  a  shame  to  a 
man  in  Paul’s  day,  it  equally  taught 
the  Homeric  Greeks  that  it  was  a  pride, 
and  teaches  the  Chinese  at  the  pres¬ 
ent  day  that  a  pigtail  is  a  dignity  to 
every  male  celestial.  That  is,  the  in¬ 
stinct  varies  its  decisions  according  to 
circumstances,  to  customs  and  feelings 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


85 


unto  him?  15  But  if  a  woman  have 
long  hair,  it  is  a  glory  to  her:  for 
her  hair  is  given  Tier  for  a  3  cover- 

_ 3  Or,  veil. - s  1  Tim.  6.  4. _ 

of  age  and  race,  and  to  reasons  derived 
from  symbol  and  sign.  Paul  radically 
assumes  that  Christianity  ratifies  the 
authority  of  the  instinct;  but  he  gives 
the  applications  and  decisions  of  the 
instinct  as  they  suited  his  age  and 
peoples. 

15.  A  glory  to  her— And  beauty  is 
the  rightful  prerogative  of  womanhood, 
as  force  is  that  of  manhood.  And  this 
divine  gift  of  beauty  it  is  her  right  to 
cultivate  within  the  laws  of  modesty; 
and,  united  with  cultured  gifts  of  mind 
and  character,  it  forms  a  loveliness 
which  is  the  true  source  of  her  right¬ 
ful  power.  A  covering — The  apostle 
sees,  even  in  the  glory  of  the  woman’s 
long  hair,  the  symbol  of  concealment 
and  of  modesty.  It  is  nature’s  sign, 
suggesting,  if  it  does  not  require,  that 
art  and  custom  should  follow  and  add 
a  covering  to  the  female  head. 

16.  Contentious— The  whole  ques¬ 
tion  had,  it  seems,  been  a  subject  of 
Corinthian  debate.  Men,  perhaps,  main¬ 
tained,  that  according  to  Jewish  and 
Roman  custom  their  heads  should  be 
uncovered  in  worship.  Women,  per¬ 
haps,  maintained  that  Christ  had  eman¬ 
cipated  woman  from  her  reserve  and 
subjection.  The  apostle  replaces  the 
law  of  propriety  and  of  God  in  their 
proper  authority.  Such  custom— As 
these  mistaken  reformers  would  intro¬ 
duce.  Churches— The  debate,  prob¬ 
ably,  had  scarce  extended  beyond  Cor¬ 
inth.  At  least  propriety  and  apostolic 
and  churchly  authority  had  elsewhere 
settled  the  question.  The  authority 
of  the  churches  of  G-od  in  this,  the 
age  of  the  gifted  Church,  was  co-ordi¬ 
nate  with  the  authority  of  the  inspired 
apostles. 

Paul’s  Seventh  Response  : — As  to 
Disorders  at  the  Lord’s  Supper 
17-34.  ’ 

The  supper  of  our  Lord  the  night  of 
his  betrayal  was  divisible  into  three 
parts :  First ,  the  proper  passover  service 
according  to  the  law  of  Moses;  second ’ 


ing.  16  But  3  if  any  man  seem  to 
be  contentious,  we  have  no  such  cus¬ 
tom,  *  neither  the  churches  of  God. 

_ _ t  Chap.  7.  17 ;  14.  33. _ 

an  ordinary  meal  for  the  natural  satia¬ 
tion  of  hunger,  according  to  custom; 
and,  third ,  the  eucharistic  bread  and 
wine  which  he  then  first  established 
as  a  memorial  of  his  death.  Of  course 
the  first  of  the  three  disappeared  at  the 
commencement  of  Christianity,  leaving 
the  other  two.  Of  these  two  the  first 
became  the  agape,  or  love-feast ;  the  last 
remained,  forever,  the  Lord’s  supper. 

In  Corinth  the  agape  seems  to  have 
been  slightly  modified  by  two  Grecian 
customs.  One  of  these  customs  was  the 
eranos,  or  symposium;  a  banquet  to 
which  the  guests  each  brought  a  por¬ 
tion  of  the  food  and  drink  as  in  our 
modern  picnic.  A  master  of  the  feast 
was  elected.  Of  course  the  most  gen¬ 
erous  way  was,  iov  those  best  able  to 
bring  the  most  liberal  amount,  and  then 
spread  the  whole  on  a  common  table 
for  all.  The  second  custom  was  the 
Grecian  sacrificial  feasts,  in  which  an 
ample  supply  was  furnished,  and  so 
moderately  eaten  that  a  rich  remainder 
was  left  for  the  poor.  While  Paul  re¬ 
mained  at  Corinth  the  best  qualities  of 
both  these  pagan  customs  were  exhib¬ 
ited  in  the  love-feasts  of  the  Christians, 
with  some  Christian  improvements. 

Under  the  presiding  presbyter  the 
feast  was  opened  with  the  washing 
of  hands,  and  prayer;  after  which,  the 
Scriptures  were  read  and  discussed. 

I  hen  fraternal  intelligence  was  re¬ 
ceived  and  discussed  from  brother 
Churches,  maintaining  the  mutual  sym¬ 
pathy  of  the  Christian  republic.  Here¬ 
by  wants  were  learned  and  aid  supplied 
for  distressed  Churches  and  individuals. 
Money  was  collected  for  widows,  or¬ 
phans,  and  the  poor.  The  eucharist  was 
probably  performed  at  the  last,  closing 
with  the  kiss  of  charity. 

After  Paul  left,  a  more  heathenish 
spirit  gained  ascendency.  The  meals 
were  divided  into  different  sets,  result¬ 
ing  in  quarrelsome  cliques;  the  rich, 
with  their  plentiful  furnishings,  arro¬ 
gated  the  lion’s  share,  became  glutton¬ 
ous,  and  left  nothing  for  the  poor;  so 


86 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57, 


ET  Now  in  this  that  I  declare 
unto  you  1  praise  you  not,  that  ye 
come  together  not  for  the  better, 
but  for  the  worse.  18  For  first  of 
all,  when  ye  come  together  in  the 
church, u  I  hear  that  there  be  4  divis¬ 
ions  among  you ;  and  I  partly  Le¬ 
tt  Chapter  1. 10-12;  3.  3. - 4  Or,  schisms. - 

9  Matt.  18.  7;  Luke  17. 1 ;  Acts  20.  30j  1  Tim.  4. 1 ; 

that  an  institution  intended  to  promote 
union,  equality,  and  charity,  was  per¬ 
verted  into  a  means  of  division,  caste, 
and  insult. 

Pauls  rebuke  upon  the  Church  is  di¬ 
visible  into  three  paragraphs.  In  vv. 
17-22  he  states  the  report  of  their  mis¬ 
conduct  in  regard  to  the  Lord’s  supper ; 
in  211-27  he  reproduces  to  their  recollec¬ 
tion  the  historic  foundation  and  nature 
of  the  supper;  and  in  28-34  he  recalls 
them  to  the  true  reformation  of  their 
dealings  with  so  sacred  an  institution. 

1.  The  Corinthian  abuses  of  the 
Lord’s  Supper,  17-22. 

17.  This — Refers,  we  think,  not  to 
what  precedes,  (as  Alford,)  but  to  the 
paragraph  now  commencing.  Declare 
— Rather,  enjoin.  Alford  says,  that  no 
injunction  or  command  immediately  fol¬ 
lows;  which  is  true:  but  all  preceding 
vv.  23-27,  which  is  injunction,  does  but 
suite  the  case  upon  which  the  injunc¬ 
tion  is  based.  I  praise  you  not — As 
he  did  in  verse  2.  Come  together — 
Assemble  in  congregation.  Worse — 
Result.  Your  assemblages  do  you  more 
harm  than  good, 

18.  First — But  what  is  the  second 
to  this  first  ?  Clearly,  as  Alford  shows, 
the  paragraph  upon  the  Lord’s  supper 
(1  7-34)  is  the  first,  and  the  entire  sub¬ 
ject  of  spiritual  gifts,  beginning  at  the 
next  chapter,  is  the  second  to  it.  And 
Alford’s  showing  on  this  point  shows, 
also,  that  declare  takes  in  the  com¬ 
mencing  paragraph.  Divisions — 
nara,  schisms.  In  modern  ecclesiasti¬ 
cal  phraseology  schisms  are  secessions 
from  the  Church;  and  heresies  (next 
verse)  are  doctrines  contrary  to  the  be¬ 
lief  of  the  Church.  Such  is  not  the 
apostle’s  use  of  the  words.  By  schisms 
here  he  means  the  separations  in  feel¬ 
ing  produced  by  the  sets  and  cliques  at 
the  Lord’s  supper.  Partly — He  be¬ 


lieve  it.  19  For v  there  must  be  al¬ 
so  5  heresies  among  you,  w  that  they 
which  are  approved  may  be  made 
manifest  among  vou.  29  When 
ye  come  together  therefore  into 
one  place,  6  this  is  not  to  eat  the 
Lord’s  supper.  21  For  in  eating 

2  Pet.  2.  1,  2. - 5  Or,  sects. - w  Luke  2.  35; 

1  John  2.  19;  Deut.  13. 3. - 6  Or,  ye  cannot  eat. 

lieves  some  of  the  report,  but  cannot 
quite,  in  charity,  believe  the  whole. 

19.  Must  be — Not  from  God’s  pur¬ 
pose,  but  from  man’s  perverseness.  See 
note  on  Luke  xvii,  1.  See  also  Mat¬ 
thew  xxiv,  6,  and  xxvi,  54.  Heresies 
among  you — See  note  on  last  verse. 
Heresies  is  derived  from  a  verb  sig¬ 
nifying  to  choose ,  and  refers  to  the 
wilfulness  of  Church  partisanship.  It 
now  includes  false  doctrine,  as  being 
adopted  rather  by  the  perverse  will  of 
the  heretic  than  by  any  good  reason. 
Church  factionists,  as  Grotius  remarks, 
often  concoct  some  special  dogma  in 
order  to  give  permanence  to  their  fac¬ 
tion.  Approved  —  The  divinely  ap¬ 
proved,  upon  test  and  trial.  When 
commotion  and  secession  prevail,  the 
true  sons  of  peace  reveal  themselves  in 
calmness  and  firmness.  In  doctrines, 
also,  error,  by  reaction,  draws  out  in¬ 
vestigation  and  defence  on  the  side  of 
truth,  and  renders  its  evidences  more 
clear  and  the  doctrine  ifself  more  de¬ 
fined.  The  creeds  of  the  Church  have 
tlicnce  arisen.  They  are  attempts  by 
the  Church  to  state  her  doctrines  in  de¬ 
fence  against  disputers  arid  gainsayers. 

20.  Not... supper  —  The  perform¬ 
ances  they  came  to  enact  were  truly 
no  Lord’s  supper  at  all,  but  a  bur¬ 
lesque  and  dishonour  upon  it,  being  only 
their  oTvn  supper.  The  possessive, 
Lord’s,  is  in  the  Greek  an  adjective 
for  which  we  have  no  proper  English 
word,  as  Lordic.  So  the  Lordic  supper 
and  the  Lordic  day  (Rev.  i,  10)  are  par¬ 
allel  terms.  And  the  word  Church  is 
generally  derived  from  a  similar  Greek 
phrase,  which  might  similarly  be  Lordic 
house.  The  Lord's  supper,  though 
primitively  associated  with,  was  dis¬ 
tinct  from,  the  agape.  It  usually,  but 
probably  not  always,  succeeded  the 
agape. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


87 


every  one  taketh  before  other  his 
* 

own  supper :  and  one  is  hungry,  and 
*  another  is  drunken.  22  What! 
have  ye  not  houses  to  eat  and  to 
drink  in?  or  despise  ye  y  the  church 
of  God,  and *  2 * * * *  shame  7  them  that 


r2Pet.2.13;  Jude  12. - y  Chap. 10.32. - z  James 

2.  6. 7  Or,  them  that  are  poor? 

21.  Everyone — Each  one.  Instead 
of  spreading  a  table  for  a  common 
supper,  each  one  made  an  own  sup¬ 
per,  of  his  own  food,  and  preoccupied 
it  entire.  Thereby  separate  sets  were 
established,  and  what  was  meant  for 
union  became  disunion.  Hungry — He 
whom  persecution  had  made  poor  was 
left  hungry ;  so  that  what  was  meant 
for  liberality  became  insult.  Drunken 
— At  the  symposium  (which  term  was 
compounded  of  two  Greek  words,  signi¬ 
fying  a  drink  together)  even  Socrates 
was  said  not  seldom  to  have  appeared 
too  vinous  for  a  philosopher.  The  phi¬ 
losopher,  therefore,  sadly  incurred  the 
rebuke  of  the  apostle.  Paul,  probably, 
uses  as  condemnatory  a  word  as  truth 
would  allow.  It  does  not  necessarily 
follow  from  the  word,  yet  it  may  have 
been,  as  Renan  says,  that  some  “  went 
reeling  from  the  table  of  the  Lord.” 
The  pagan  Corinthians  would  doubt¬ 
less  consider  the  apostle  as  an  extremist 
in  temperance.  Modern  temperance 
reformers  would,  perhaps,  think  that 
Paul  had  better  go  further  and  prohibit 
the  wine  from  the  agape  entirely ;  but 
the  existence  of  more  fiery  liquors,  like 
brandy  and  whisky,  had  not  suggested 
the  necessity  of  the  law  of  entire  absti¬ 
nence  for  all  persons  from  wine.  Even 
now  the  law  of  abstinence  from  wine 
should  be  based  not  upon  the  intrinsic 
wickedness  of  a  limited  drinking  of 
wine,  but  upon  the  obligation  to  ab¬ 
stain  as  part  of  a  great  reformatory 
enterprise,  and  as  a  prudential  safe¬ 
guard  from  moral  danger.  On  the 
word  drunken,  see  note  on  John  ii,  10. 
The  antithesis  to  hungry  would  sug¬ 
gest  that  the  opposite  word  would  mean 
surfeited. 

22.  Houses — Homes.  If  you  sink 
the  sacred  supper  to  a  secular  rank,  let 
the  eating  be  done  in  a  secular  place. 
Despise  ye — As  too  proud  to  eat  in 


have  not  ?  What  shall  I  say  to 
you  ?  shall  I  praise  you  in  this  ? 
I  praise  .you  not.  23  For  aI  have 
received  of  the  Lord  that  which 
also  I  delivered  unto  you,  bThat 
the  Lord  Jesus,  the  same  night  in 

a  Chap.  15.  3;  .Gal.  1.  1, 11, 12. - b  Matt.  26.  26; 

Mark  14.  22 ;  Luke  22. 19. 

common  with  the  commonalty.  The 
church  of  G-od — Said  emphatically  to 
remind  them  what  this  despised  com¬ 
monalty  truly  was.  Have  not — Al¬ 
ford  explains  it,  have  not  houses.  But 
those  who  have  not,  is  a  phrase  some¬ 
times  in  Greek  used  for  the  poor.  The 
poor  and  the  rich  are  the  have  nots  and 
the  have  alls.  Praise  you  not — And 
so  emphatic  a  withholding  of  praise 
was  a  strong  dispraise  and  rebuke. 

2.  History  and  nature  of  the 

Lord’s  Supper,  23-27. 

To  show  the  Corinthians  what  it  is 
they  are  thus  dishonouring,  Paul  now, 
with  a  formal  solemnity,  repeats  the 
well-known  origin  of  the  Lord’s  supper. 

As  the  Lord’s  supper  was  a  divine 
institute,  and  the  agape  purely  a  Christ¬ 
ian  rite,  Paul’s  history  shows  only  the 
guilt  of  desecrating  the  former.  The 
guilt  accompanying  the  latter  was  the 
schisms  and  disorders  produced,  and 
which  resulted  in  the  desecration  of  the 
supper. 

23.  Have  received  of  the  Lord — 

The  question  is  raised  whether  Paul 
received  from  the  Lord  this  narration 
by  immediate  revelation  from  Christ,  or 
only  mediately  through  the  narration 
of  eyewitnesses.  Alford  objects  that 
in  that  case  he  would  have  said  we 
rather  than  I.  But  he  uses  the  first 
person  singular  as  the  founder-apostle 
of  the  Corinthian  Church — I  received 
...  I  delivered  unt;o  you.  It  is  clear 
from  these  clauses  that  the  Corinthi¬ 
ans  knew  all  this  history,  and  that  Paul 
is  only  calling  it  impressively  to  their 
recollection.  Night — It  is  wonderful 
that  the  large  body  of  Christian  breth¬ 
ren  who  maintain  that  the  word  baptize 
signifies  solely  immersion,  and  that  the 
example  of  Christ  demands  immersion, 
do  not  also  insist  that  deipnon,  supper , 
signifies  an  evening  meal,  and  that  the 
example  of  Christ  requires  his  supper 


88 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


which  he  was  betrayed,  took  bread : 
24  And  when  he  had  given  thanks, 
he  brake  it ,  and  said,  Take,  eat ; 
this  is  my  body,  which  is  broken 
for  you:  this  do  8 in  remembrance 
of  me.  25  After  the  same  manner 


8  Or,  for  a 

to  be  taken  at  night.  And  yet  this 
Christian  body  excludes  from  that 
eucharist,  which  they  perform  in  viola¬ 
tion  of  the  meaning  of  the  word  and 
the  original  example,  all  those  whom 
they  hold  to  be  baptized  in  violation  of 
verbal  meaning  and  example.  With 
the  same  persistence,  in  the  same  logic 
in  the  former  as  in  the  latter  case,  they 
could  prove  that  a  right  supper  has  sel¬ 
dom  been  performed  since  Christ  died. 
The  same  night  —  Full  of  pathos  is 
the  thought  that  we  are  re-enacting,  the 
supper  scene  of  the  night  before  the 
crucifixion.  It  is  an  hour  for  weeping 
and  not  for  revelry.  It  demands  the 
purest,  calmest  thought,  instead  of  the 
excitement  of  intoxication.  Thought 
should  go  back  to  that  solemn  hour, 
should  picture  to  the  heart  the  agoniz¬ 
ing  scene,  and  melt  us  into  contrition 
that  our  sins  have  their  share  in  betray¬ 
ing  and  crucifying  Him. 

24.  This  and  the  following  verse 
have  so  many  phrases  identical  with 
Luke  xxii,  19  as  to  show  them  to  be  the 
same  tradition.  In  regard  to  the  pass- 
over  consult  our  note,  Matt,  xxvi,  2: 
in  regard  to  the  Lord’s  supper,  notes  on 
Matt,  xxvi,  20-30.  Yet  it  must  be  noted 
that  this  epistle  arid  this  passage  may 
have  been  written  before  the  gospel  of 
Luke.  Whether  this  is  the  earliest  ex¬ 
isting  narrative  of  the  Lord’s  supper,  as 
Stanley  says,  may  be  doubted.  At  any 
rate,  we  believe  that  the  original  He¬ 
brew  of  Matthew’s  gospel  was  written 
before  this ;  and  that  the  Greek  Mat¬ 
thew  is  a  translation  of  that  document. 
Given  thanks  —  From  this  giving 
thanks,  eucharistia,  the  Lord’s  supper 
has  been  called  the  eucharist.  Brake 
— Note  on  Matt,  xxvi,  26  Matthew 
adds  “  and  gave  it  to  the  disciples.” 
Take — This,  with  the  analogy  of  the 
head  of  the  family  at  the  passover,  im¬ 
plies  that  an  administrator  of  the  ele- 


also  he  took  the  cup,  when  he  had 
supped,  saying,  This  cup  is  the 
new  testament  in  my  blood  :  this 
do  ye,  as  oft  as  ye  drink  it ,  in  re¬ 
membrance  of  me.  26  For  as  oft¬ 
en  as  ye  eat  this  bread,  and  drink 

remembrance. 


ments,  who  would  be  an  apostle  or 
presbyter,  is  one  of  the  essentials  to  a 
proper  communion.  Body — See  note 
on  Matthew  xxvi,  26.  In  remem¬ 
brance  of  me — With  the  Christian  in¬ 
dividual  this  remembrance  appeals  to 
the  heart,  touching  his  feelings  with 
thoughts  of  Him  who  spake  these  words 
to  his  own  soul — the  dying  Jesus.  With 
the  Church  and  the  world  they  are  an 
appeal  to  the  intellect  to  demonstrate 
the  historical  truth  of  Christianity. 
There  are  several  lines  of  evidence 
that  fasten  the  belief  to  the  historical 
Christ,  the  existence  of  which  cannot 
be  accounted  for  except  upon  the  truth 
of  the  New  Testament  history.  The 
rite  of  baptism  can  be  traced  from  the 
present  time  to  John  the  Baptist.  The 
Christian  sabbath  forms  line  from  the 
present  to  the  resurrection  of  Christ. 
The  succession  of  Christian  bishops 
carries  us,  even  on  the  loosest  theory, 
through  the  great  Churches  to  the 
apostolic  age.  These  various  lines  all 
verify  each  other:  they  converge  in 
the  Christ  history;  and  no  other  origin 
can  be  assigned.  Baptism  indicates 
the  beginning  of  Christ’s  mission ;  the 
eucharist  his  death;  the  Sunday-sab- 
bath  his  resurrection;  the  line  of  bish¬ 
ops,  the  historic  Church. 

26.  As  often — In  some  periods  of 
the  Church,  daily  communion  has  been 
the  practice.  But  a  wiser  Christian 
custom  is  to  consider  it  as  more  an  ex¬ 
traordinary  event  than  the  Sabbath  ser¬ 
vice.  The  monthly  period  preserves 
the  medium  between  making  it  too  or¬ 
dinary  and  too  unfrequent.  Bread — 
As  the  bread  of  the  passover  was  ap¬ 
pointed  by  God  with  a  significant  pur¬ 
pose  to  be  unleavened,  there  was  some 
show  of  reason  for  using  such  bread 
by  the  Roman  Church,  but  no  show 
of  reason  for  the  Greek  and  Roman 
Churches  making  the  use  a  matter  of 


CHAPTER  XI. 


89 


A.  L).  57. 


this  cup,  9}Te  clo  show  the  Lord’s 
death  c  till  he  come.  27  d  Where¬ 
fore  whosoever  shall  eat  this  bread, 
mid  drink  this  cup  of  the  Lord,  un¬ 
worthily,  shall  be  guilty  of  the  body 
and  blood  of  the  Lord.  2§  But 
*let  a  man  examine  himself,  and 
so  let  him  eat  of  that,  bread,  and 

9  Or.  show  ye. - c  John  14  3;  21.  22;  Acts 

1.  11;  chap.  4.  5;  15.  23;  1  Thess.  4.  16;  2  Thess. 
1.  10;  Jude  14;  Kev.  1.  7. - rfNum.  9.  10,  13; 

fierce  contention.  As  it  is  a  matter  of 
mere  inference,  fixed  by  no  definition 
or  command,  the  Protestant  Churches 
(except  the  Lutheran)  have  considered 
it  a  matter  of  indifference.  Cup — See 
our  note  on  Matt,  xxvi,  27.  Show — 
Literally,  ye  announce ,  as  a  messen¬ 
ger  or  herald,  to  the  world.  The  act, 
with  its  surrounding  circumstances 
and  utterances,  proclaims  to  the  world 
Christ’s  atoning  death,  and  the  believ¬ 
er’s  acceptance  of  its  avails.  Till  he 
come  —  When  the  entire  system  of 
sublunary  Church  and  probation  will 
be  closed.  Thus  the  communion  is  a 
chain  whose  links  connect  the  first  and 
second  advents  of  Christ.  This  cor¬ 
rects  the  error  of  the  Quakers,  who, 
aiming  at  too  naked  a  spirituality,  have 
rejected  all  ordinances,  and  have  thus 
made  their  religion  a  soul  without  a 
body.  It  is,  doubtless,  owing  to  this 
cause  that  they  are  fading  from  exist¬ 
ence  as  a  Christian  body.  Neglecting 
the  great  injunction  to  show  forth  the 
Lord’s  death,  they  have  become  (verse 
30)  weak  and  sickly,  and  are  appa¬ 
rently  going  to  sleep. 

27.  Eat... and  drink  —  The  and, 
by  the  best  readings,  should  be  or. 
Alford  thinks,  apparently,  that  our 
translators  have  “  unfairly  ”  made  it 
and  to  evade  the  Romish  argument 
drawn  from  it  in  favour  of  withhold¬ 
ing  the  cup  from  the  laity.  But  the 
or  does  not  aid  the  Romish  practice. 
The  or  does  make  Paul  say  that  dishon¬ 
ouring  either  one — the  bread  or  the  cup 
— renders  guilty;  but  it  does  not,  there¬ 
fore,  say  that  either  one  shall  be  with¬ 
held.  G-uilty  of  the  body — That 
is,  it  is  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ 
which  he  slights  or  insults.  He  is 
guilty,  not  of  dishonouring  mere  bread 


drink  of  that  cup.  29  For  lie 
that  eateth  and  drinketh  unworthi¬ 
ly,  eateth  and  drinketh  10  damna¬ 
tion  to  himself,  not  discerning  the 
Lord’s  body.  30  For  this  cause 
many  are  weak  and  sickly  among 
you,  and  many  sleep.  31  For 
fif  we  would  judge  ourselves,  we 


John  6.  51,  63,  64 ;  13.  27 ;  chap.  10.  21. - e  2  Cor. 

13.  5;  Gal.  6.  4. - 10  Or,  judgment ,  Rom.  13.  2. 

— J  Psa.  32.  5;  1  John  1.  9. 


and  wine ;  he  is  guilty  of  dishonouring 
what  they  represent — Christ’s  body  and 
blood. 

3.  A  reform  of  treatment  of  the 
Lord’s  Supper  enjoined,  28-34. 

28.  Examine  himself — The  strict 
meaning  is,  try  himself  by  tests ;  such 
tests  as  his  rectitude  of  life,  his  purity 
of  thought,  his  zeal  for  Christ.  So — 
Either  with  the  approval  of  his  con¬ 
science  of  his  spiritual  state,  or  with 
repentance  where  wrong. 

29.  Damnation  —  Not  eternal  per¬ 
dition;  but,  literally,  judgment.  And 
that  judgment  Paul  seems  to  have  con¬ 
sidered  as  likely  to  be  inflicted  upon 
the  body  of  the  Christian  offender,  as 
intimated  in  the  next  verse.  Discern“ 
ing...body —  Treating  the  elements 
as  if  they  were  mere  bread  and  wine  in 
disregard  of  their  holy  symbolism. 

30.  Weak  and  sickly ...  sleep — 
Commentators  generally  agree  that 
Paul  here  ascribes  a  then  prevalent 
sickliness  and  mortality  in  the  Church 
to  their  desecration  of  the  holy  supper. 
That  at  a  miraculous  era  the  apostolic 
mind  was  given  to  know  such  to  be  the 
case  might  readily  be  conceded.  The 
monstrous  idea  that  disease  and  death 
were  produced  naturally  by  their  ex¬ 
cesses  would  imply  that  the  apostolic 
excommunication  was  quite  as  much 
required  as  in  the  case  of  the  fornica¬ 
tor.  But  the  word  sleep  seems  scarce 
the  term  the  apostle  would  use  of  those 
dying  by  judgment  of  God.  It  natu¬ 
rally  expresses  a  peaceful  repose.  We 
are  strongly  inclined  to  prefer  under¬ 
standing  Paul  as  declaring  the  judicial 
effect  of  their  dishonouring  the  com¬ 
munion  to  be  their  becoming  weakly, 
sickly,  sleeping  Christians. 

31.  We — Softening  his  rebukes  by 


90 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


should  not  be  judged.  32  But 
w  hen  we  are  judged,  &  we  are 
chastened  of  the  Lord,  that  we 
should  not  be  condemned  with 
the  world.  33  Wherefore,  my 
brethren,  when  ye  come  togeth- 

£7  Psa.  94.  12,  13;  Hel).  12.  5-11. - h  Verse  21. 

_ _ i  Verse  22. 

adopting  the  first  person.  J udge  our¬ 
selves — God  lias  given  us  a  judge 
within  our  breasts — our  conscience 
— before  whose  bar,  enlightened  by 
Scripture  and  quickened  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  we  may  arraign  ourselves  and 
regulate  and  shape  our  character.  By 
that  judgment  we  may  forestall  the  di¬ 
vine  judgment,  and  escape  the  divine 
condemnation. 

32.  We  —  Christians.  Are  judged 
...chastened  —  Those  divine  earthly 
judgments  which  are  wrathful  punish¬ 
ments  upon  the  wicked  are  discipline, 
severe  blessings,  to  the  righteous.  Not 
be  condemned  —  The  very  purpose 
of  these  judgments  to  the  Christian 
is  mercy  and  salvation.  With  the 
world  —  A  sad  assumption,  there¬ 
fore,  that  the  world  of  that  period 
was  lying  in  wickedness  and  sinking 
to  death. 

33.  Wherefore — In  view  of  the 
corrective  and  saving  power  of  these 
judgments.  Tarry— We  do  not  un¬ 
derstand  the  injunction  to  be  to  wait 
until  the  others  had  all  arrived  at  the 
place  of  meeting.  It  does  not  appear 
that  one  could  not  come  as  early  as 
the  other.  Nor  does  the  discourteous 
taketh  before  of  verse  21  refer  to  an 
earlier  coming  and  eating  before  the 
others  had  appeared ;  but  to  the  richer 
parties  refusing  to  wait  for  a  spread¬ 
ing  of  all  the  contributions  before  the 
whole  company,  and  their  hunying  to 
the  consumption  of  their  own  supply. 
To  tarry,  or  wait,  therefore,  would  be 
a  social,  deliberate  placing  each  share  at 
the  common  disposal,  as  if  all  were  one, 
and  had  an  equal  right,  irrespective  of 
the  amount  contributed.  But  Words¬ 
worth,  Bloomfield,  and  others  render 
the  Greek  word  for  tarry,  receive,  en¬ 
tertain  one  another ,  by  a  free  inter¬ 
change  of  provisions.  This  is  a  usual 
meaning  of  the  word,  and  is  far  to 


er  to  eat,  tarry  one  for  another. 
34  And  if  any  man  h  hunger,  let 
him  eat  at  '  home ;  that  ye  come 
not  together  unto  11  condemnation. 
And  the  rest  kwill  I  set  in  order 
when  1 1  come. 

11  Or,  judgment. - k  Chap.  7.  17;  Titus  1.  5. 

_ l  Chap.  4.  19. _ 

be  preferred,  as  accordant  with  Paul’s 
unselfish  and  whole-hearted  spirit  of 
courtesy. 

34.  Hunger — The  very  name  agape 
indicated  that  these  lov e-feasts  were  for 
the  cultivation  of  the  affections,  not  the 
gratification  of  the  appetite,  or  the  sus¬ 
tenance  of,  at  any  rate,  the  well-off 
class.  The  rest — Referring,  doubtless, 
to  other  matters  in  regard  to  the  good 
order  of  their  assemblages  contained 
in  the  letter  of  the  Corinthians.  From 
this  passage  Romanists  argue  in  favour 
of  traditional  customs  added  by  them 
to  the  institutes  of  the  Church,  and 
especially  to  the  Lord’s  supper:  such 
as  having  a  thin  wafer  for  bread,  with¬ 
holding  the  cup  from  the  laity,  and  the 
worshipping  the  wafer  as  the  body  of 
Christ.  We  may  easily  concede  that 
the  apostles  did  make  regulations  in  the 
Church.  If  any  institute  can  be  shown 
to  have  been  established  by  apostles  for 
the  universal  Church,  it  must,  doubtless, 
be  accepted  as  part  of  the  Christian 
system.  But  of  most  of  the  peculiari¬ 
ties  of  Rome  we  know  the  date  of  their 
origin,  and  reject  them  as  innovations 
and  novelties.  We  have  known  in  our 
own  day,  in  the  Romish  enactments 
of  the  immaculacy  of  the  Virgin,  and 
the  infallibility  of  the  pope,  how  dog¬ 
mas  are  manufactured.  And  in  the 
last  dogma  we  find  the  amplest  power 
provided  for  the  pope  to  enact,  with 
a  sentence  a  new  Christian  doctrine 
whenever  he  pleases. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Paul’s  Eighth  Response: — As  to 
Exercises  of  Spiritual  Gifts,  xii,  1- 
xiv,  40. 

This  triad  of  chapters  on  spiritual 
gifts  (twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  four¬ 
teenth)  must,  in  order  to  be  properly 
comprehended,  be  read  as  one  piece. 


A.  D.  51. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


91 


CHAPTER  XII. 

N"0  W a  concerning  spiritual  gifts, 
brethren,  I  would  not  have  you 
.gnorant.  2  Ye  know  b  that  ye  were 
Gentiles,  carried  away  unto  these 
'dumb  idols,  even  as  ye  were  led. 
3  Wherefore  I  give  you  to  under¬ 


stand,  dthat  no  man  speaking  by 
the  Spirit  of  God  ealleth  Jesus 
1  accursed  :  and  e  that  no  man  can 
say  that  Jesus  is  the  Lord,  but  by 
the  Holy  Ghost.  4  Now  f there 
are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  &the 
same  Spirit.  5  h  And  there  are  dif- 


<7  Chap.  14.  1,37. - &  Chap.  6.  11;  Epli.  2.  11, 

12;  1  Thess.  1.  9;  Titus  3.  3;  1  Pet.  4.3. - c  Psa. 

115.  5. - d  Mark  9.  39;  1  John  4.  2,  3. - 1  Gr. 

anathema . 

In  the  w^ole  St.  Paul  speaks  of  these 
gifts  with  reverence,  but  not  with  that 
jubilation  which  probably  many  a  Co¬ 
rinthian  would  have  expected.  It  might 
at  first  be  supposed  that  inspired  per¬ 
sons  would,  of  course,  be  right;  that 
the  divine  endowment  would  secure 
its  own  rightful  exercise.  But  if  it  is 
a  God  who  bestows,  man,  who  receives 
and  exercises,  is  a  feeble  free-agent; 
and  the  divine  wisdom  leaves  the  free¬ 
dom  undiminished.  The  danger  of  error 
was  supplemented  by  the  superinten¬ 
dence  of  a  master  apostle,  as  .shown  in 
this  triad  of  chapters.  Where  no  such 
superintendence  exists,  the  incapacity 
of  the  human  to  harmonize  with  the 
supernatural  is  likely  to  end  in  morbid 
and  ungraceful  results.  The  fulness 
of  the  Spirit  at  the  pentecost  overcame 
and  ruled  the  human.  In  the  latter 
day,  of  which  the  pentecost  may  be  a 
t\rpe,  the  harmony  between  the  divine 
Spirit  and  the  human  soul  may  be  so 
perfected,  that  the  unison  may  be  com¬ 
plete  and  completely  beautiful.  Man 
may  then  realize  his  own  highest 
earthly  ideal.  In  this  first  of  the  three 
chapters,  as  Paul  sees  that  the  Corin¬ 
thians  most  valued  the  showier  gifts,  as 
that  of  tongues ,  so  he  directs  them  to  a 
valuation  according  to  utility.  As  they 
were  liable  to  be  made  a  matter  of 
emulation,  strife,  and  of  erratic  straying 
from  the  truth  and  from  the  Church,  so 
he  struggles  to  make  them  a  means  of 
binding  the  Church  in  a  body.  And 
then  he  is  prepared  to  show,  in  the 
next  chapter,  that  there  is  one  gift 
within  the  reach  of  all,  to  which  all 
other  gifts  are  inferior  —  tfte  gift  of 
love.  The  third  chapter  is  occupied 
in  cautions  and  regulations  against  the 
disorderly  use  of  gifts. 


e  Matthew  16.  17;  John  15.  26;  2  Corinthians 
3.5. — /'Romans  12.  4,  &c. ;  Hebrews  2.  4;  1  Pe¬ 
ter  4.  10. - g  Ephesians  4.  4. - h  Romans  12L 

6-8 ;  Ephesians  4.  11. 


1.  Of  gifts — their  true  place  and 
value,  1-31. 

a.  The  source  of  these  varied  gifts  the 
One  Spirit,  1-11. 

1.  Now — As  there  is  no  reference 
in  this  triad  of  chapters  to  any  inquiries 
made  by  the  Corinthians,  it  is  probable 
that  this  piece  is  based  on  information. 
Ignorant — As  just-converted  Gentiles, 
with  their  ideas  of  Christian  morality 
but  imperfectly  shaped,  little  acquaint¬ 
ed  with  the  Old  Scriptures,  and  the 
New  not  as  yet  having  been  fully  writ¬ 
ten,  it  is  no  wonder  the  Corinthians 
were  ignorant.  Paul  seeks  here  to 
efface  from  their  minds  some  traces 
of  their  old  polytheism  by  impressing 
them  with  the  truth  that  all  their  va¬ 
riety  of  gifts  is  from  one  Spirit,  the 
Infinite  Unity.  Ten  times  in  thirteen 
verses  does  he  trace  their  varied  gifts 
to  one  Spirit. 

2.  Carried  away — Literally,  ye  were 
led  as  ye  happened,  (by  your  priests,)  to 
idols  that  were  voiceless.  They  were 
bandied  about  among  a  multitude  of 
dead  and  dumb  gods,  knowing  nothing 
of  the  living,  speaking  One. 

3.  Jesus  •  accursed  —  The  pagans 
who  blasphemed  Christ,  and  the  perse¬ 
cuting  emperors  who  required  Christ¬ 
ians  to  blaspheme  Christ,  were  under 
dumb  idols,  adverse  to  the  one  Spirit. 
Say  —  From  the  heart  and  in  truth. 

|  Holy  Ghost — Unless  the  Holy  Spirit 
give  the  power,  Christ  can  neither  be 
truly  received  nor  savingly  confessed. 

4.  Diversities  of  gifts — Which  Paul 
will  soon  enumerate.  Same  Spirit — 
Do  not,  as  of  old,  suppose  that  one  man 
is  inspired  by  Apollo  to  prophesy ;  an¬ 
other  by  Minerva  to  utter  the  word  of 
wisdom ;  another  by  the  Muses  to  give 

i  forth  a  psalm  or  pour  forth  the  utter- 


92 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  51 


fcrences  of  2  administrations,  but 
the  same  Lord.  6  And  there  are 
diversities  of  operations,  but  it  is 
the  same  God  'which  worketli  all 
in  all.  7  k  But  the  manifestation 
of  the  Spirit  is  given  to  every  man 
to  profit  withal.  8  For  to  one  is 
given  by  the  Spirit  1  the  word  of 

2  Or,  ministries. - i  Eph.  1.  23. - k  Rom.  12. 

6-8;  chap.  14.  26;  Eph.  4.  7;  1  Pet.  4.  10,  11. - 

l  Chap.  2.  6,  7. - m  Chap.  1.  5;  13.  2 ;  2  Cor.  8.  7. 

- - n  Matt.  17.  19,  20 ;  chap.  13.  2 ;  2  Cor.  4.  13. 

ances  of  tongues.  All  these,  then,  are 
the  various  breathings  from  one  Power. 

5.  Differences  of  administrations 
— Different  Church  offices,  duties,  or 
exercises,  in  which  the  gifts  were  em¬ 
ployed. 

6.  Operations — Better,  in-workings. 
Divine  operations  within  the  soul, 
whereby  the  exercises  referred  to  were 
wrought.  The  apostle  having  thus  en¬ 
forced  the  unity  of  origin,  now  (vv.7-10) 
analyzes  the  variety  of  gifts,  in  order 
still  more  emphatically  (11-13)  to  trace 
them  all  to  one  Source. 

7.  Manifestation  —  The  exhibition 
in  the  exercise.  To  profit — Utility  is 
made  the  test  of  the  rank  and  value  of 
the  gift ,  as  in  xiii,  19  more  fully. 

The  gifts  here  mentioned  have  been 
variously  classified,  but  not  in  the  or¬ 
der  of  their  mention  by  the  apostle. 
We  propose  a  classification  into  gifts  of 
mind ,  of  voice ,  and  of  action;  thought, 
word,  and  deed.  Under  mind ,  are  gifts 
of  wisdom,  knowledge,  faith,  discern¬ 
ing  of  spirits,  and  interpretation ;  un¬ 
der  gifts  of  voice  or  utterance ,  prophecy 
and  tongues ;  under  gifts  of  action,  heal¬ 
ing  and  working  of  miracles. 

8.  W ord  of  wisdom . . .  knowledge 
—  Our  knowledge  is  the  amount  we 
know ;  that  is,  the  mass  of  facts  and 
principles  embraced  in  our  memory. 
Or,  wisdom  is  the  capacity  for  apply¬ 
ing  our  knowledge  in  judgments  or 
practice.  The  word  of  knowledge 
would  draw  from  the  stores  laid  up  in 
the  mind  of  the  Christ-history  and  the 
Old  Testament  records,  with  the  whole 
mass  of  Christian  truths.  Wisdom 
would  unfold  itself  in  profound  max¬ 
ims,  and  sagacious  counsels,  plans,  and 
co’  rses  of  conduct. 


wisdom;  to  another  mthe  word 
of  knowledge  by  the  same  Spirit; 
9  nTo  another  faith  by  the  same 
Spirit ;  to  another 0  the  gifts  of  heal¬ 
ing  by  the  same  Spirit ;  10  p  To 

another  the  working  of  miracles; 
to  another  9  prophecy  ;  r  to  another 
discerning  of  spirits;  to  another 

o  Mark  16. 18;  James  5.  14. - p  Verses  28,  29; 

Mark  16.  17;  Galatians  3.  5. - q  Romans  12.  6; 

chapter  13.  2;  14.  1,  &c. - r  Chapter  14.  29; 

1  John  4.  1. 

9.  Faith — Chrysostom  and  the  cur¬ 
rent  of  modern  commentators  under¬ 
stand  the  faith  of  miracles,  which  can 
remove  mountains.  Chap,  xiii,  2.  But 
that  is  included  in  the  working  of 
miracles  itself,  in  verse  10.  Hodge 
comes  nearest  to  the  truth:  “Such  a 
faith  as  enabled  men  to  become  con¬ 
fessors  and  martyrs,  and  which  is  so 
fully  illustrated  in  Iieb.  xi,  33-40. 
This  is  something  as  truly  wonderful 
as  the  gift  of  miracles.”  Or,  as  we 
should  express  it,  that  realization  of  di¬ 
vine  realities  by  which  a  powerful  and 
heroic  Christian  character  is  formed, 
shown  in  maintaining  truth  resistless- 
ly,  and  sulfering  for  it  unshrinkingly. 
St.  Stephen,  both  in  his  contests  with 
gainsayers  and  his  martyrdom,  was  a 
striking  specimen.  Thus  there  is  the 
faith  of  miracles  and  the  faith  of  her* 
oism.  Healing — See  note  Acts  in,  4. 
Healing,  though  usually  included  un¬ 
der  miracles ,  is  placed  by  itself,  inas¬ 
much  as  there  were  those  endowed 
with  the  power  for  this  only. 

10.  Working  of  miracles — Literal¬ 
ly,  the  in-working  (by  God  in  the  man) 
of  powers,  that  is,  supernatural  or  mirac¬ 
ulous  powers.  Prophecy  —  Inspired 
preaching;  either  predicting  the  future, 
unfolding  mysterious  truth,  or  search¬ 
ing  the  secrets  of  men’s  hearts  and 
characters,  xiv,  24,  25.  Discerning 
of  spirits  —  The  power  of  detecting 
the  hypocrite,  as  Peter  did  Ananias ;  of 
distinguishing  true  and  false  gifts;  of 
recognising  genuine  inspiration.  Traces 
of  this  power,  more  or  less  active,  by 
spiritual  sympathy  with  true  inspira¬ 
tion  pervading  the  body  of  the  Church, 
enabled  it  to  select  the  right  books  for 
the  New  Testament  canon  The  pre* 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


93 


divers  kinds  of  tongues ;  to  an- 
Dtlier  the  interpretation  of  tongues: 
41  But  all  these  worketh  that  one 
and  the  self-same  Spirit, 1  dividing 
to  every  man  severally  uas  he  will. 

12  For  Tas  the  body  is  one,  and 
hath  many  members,  and  all  the 
members  of  that  one  body,  being 

s  Acts  2.  4;  10.  46;  chap.  13.  1. - 1  Rom.  12.  6; 

chap.  7.  7 ;  2  Cor.  10.  13;  Eph.  4.  7. - wJohn 

3.  8;  Heb.  2.  4. - v  Rom.  12.  4,  5;  Eph.  4.  4,  16. 

tensions  of  modern  criticism  to  decide 
whether  one  or  another  book  belongs 
to  the  canon  are  often  arrogant.  On 
the  original  pentecostal  miracle  of 
tongues,  see  our  note  Acts  ii,  4.  In 
that  primal  miracle  we  suppose  every 
individual  heard  the  self-same  word 
each  in  his  own  language.  But  later,  as 
indicated  in  that  note,  by  decline,  only 
those  understanding  the  one  language 
miraculously  spoken  took  the  meaning ; 
later  still,  a  specially  inspired  interpret¬ 
er  was  necessary ;  and  finally,  perhaps, 
the  utterance  lost  all  language  form, 
was  unintelligible  to  the  utterer  him¬ 
self,  being  only  the  emotional  vocal  out¬ 
flow  of  fervent  religious  emotion.  See 
notes  on  xiv,  1-19.  Thus  there,  were 
various  kinds  of  tongues.  Interpre¬ 
tation  of  tongues.  See  notes  xiv,  27. 

11.  One  . . .  Spirit — Let  there  be  no 
strife  or  rivalry  between  the  possessors 
of  different  gifts ;  but  let  all  in  unison 
trace  them  up  to  one  source,  and  exer¬ 
cise  them  in  harmony.  Dividing — 
It  was  not  that  these  exercises  were 
a  spontaneous  welling  up  of  religious 
excitement,  and  assuming  these  forms, 
but  a  definite,  divine  assignment  to 
each  individual  of  his  particular  cha- 
rism.  As  he  will —  Wills. 

b.  The  various  gifts  should  harmonize 
the  Church  into  one  body ,  12-26. 

The  semblance  between  the  human 
body  and  the  body  politic  or  social  is 
so  striking,  and  pregnant  with  so  many 
lessons  of  loyalty,  peace,  and  patriot¬ 
ism,  that  it  has  been  popular  in  all 
ages.  The  apologue  of  Menenius 
Agrippa,  as  given  by  Livy  in  the  early 
history  of  Rome,  is  memorable  in  liter¬ 
ature.  The  comm  >n  people,  wearied 
with  the  tyranny  >f  the  aristocracy, 
and  determined  n  )  longer  to  feed  its 


many,  are  one  body :  w  so  also  is 
Christ.  13  For  x  by  one  Spirit 
are  we  all  baptized  into  one  body, 
y  whether  we  be  Jews  or  3  Gentiles, 
whether  we  be  bond  or  free ;  and 
zhave  been  all  made  to  drink  into 
one  Spirit.  14  For  the  body  is 
not  one  member,  but  many  15  If 

w  Verse  27;  Gal.  3.  16. - x  Romans  6.  5. - 

V  Gal.  3.  28;  Eph.  2.  13,  14,  16;  Col.  3.  11.-  — 
3  Greek,  Greeks. - z  John  6.  63 ;  7.  37-39. 

greediness,  had  seceded  from  Rome 
when  Menenius  related  to  them  ho\^ 
the  limbs  of  the  human  body  rebelled 
against  the  lazy  belly,  and  refused  to 
work  for  it  any  longer  until  want  of 
nourishment  and  digestion  taught  them 
that  the  refusing  to  feed  the  centre  was 
to  starve  the  whole.  Applied  to  the 
sacred  organism,  the  Church,  Paul  here 
uses  the  same  parable  to  soothe  the 
rivalries  between  the  different  posses¬ 
sors  of  charisms. 

13.  One  Spirit — As  the  vital  prin¬ 
ciple  organizes  and  holds  in  shapely 
unity  the  various  elements  of  a  living 
body,  so  does  the  one  Spirit  organ¬ 
ize,  vivify,  and  unify  the  body  of  the 
Church.  That  same  divine  One  holds 
alike  the  various  charisms  in  harmony 
and  the  body  in  unity.  Baptized — The 
descent  of  the  pentecostal  Spirit,  like 
the  outpouring  of  baptismal  water,  con¬ 
secrated  its  subjects  into  the  living 
Church.  So  the  same  spiritual  out¬ 
pouring  sanctifies  the  members  into 
one  holy  Church.  Jews  or  Gentiles 
— Whether  formerly  worshippers  of 
Jehovah  or  of  dumb  idols.  Bond  or 
free — Irrespective  of  rank  or  condition 
of  life.  The  slave  is  enlarged  into 
spiritual  freedom ;  the  freeman  is  bound, 
and  yet  ennobled,  into  the  service  of 
Christ.  Drink  into  one  Spirit — Into 
is  omitted  by  the  best  authorities.  In 
John  vii,  37  the  Spirit  is  compared  to 
water  which  is  drank.  So  that  in  the 
first  part  of  the  verse  the  Spirit  is  ap¬ 
plied  to  us,  and  in  this  part  we  drink 
the  Spirit. 

14.  Body . . .  many  —  The  apostle 
varies  the  phases  of  the  body  to  meet 
the  complaints  of  the  different  cavillers. 
There  were  the  weaker  members  met  in 
14-20,  and  the  stronger  in  21-27.  The 


9-1 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


the  foot  shall  say,  Because  I  atn  not 
the  hand,  I  am  not  of  the  body ; 
is  it  therefore  not  of  the  body  ? 
16  And  if  the  ear  shall  say,  Be¬ 
cause  I  am  not  the  eye,  I  am  not 
of  the  body;  is  it  therefore  not  of 
the  body?  17  If  the  whole  body 
were  an  eye,  where  were  the  hear- 
ing?  If  the  whole  were  hearing, 
where  were  the  smelling?  1§  But 
now  hath  *God  set  the  members 
every  one  of  them  in  the  body,  bas 
it  hath  pleased  him.  19  And  if 
they  were  all  one  member,  where 
were  the  body  ?  20  But  now  are 

they  many  members,  yet  but  one 

a  Verse  28. - b  Romans  12.  3; 

former  would  have  all  equal  and  essen¬ 
tially  identical.  But  this  would  destroy 
the  variety  of  members  in  the  body. 
The  whole  body  cannot  be  one  limb. 

15.  No  one  must  think  he  does  not 
belong  to  the  Church  because  he  is  a 
supporter ,  and  not  an  executive ,  of  the 
Church ;  any  more  than  a  foot  shall 
claim  that  it  is  not  of  the  body  be¬ 
cause  it  is  not  the  hand. 

16.  No  one  must  claim  that  he  is 
not  sharer  of  the  Church  because  he  is 
only  a  hearer  and  not  an  overseer ,  any 
more  than  the  ear  is  excluded  from  the 
body  because  it  is  not  the  eye. 

17.  Whole  body — If  all  are  clergy 
where  are  the  laity  ?  If  all  are  captains 
where  are  the  privates  ? 

18.  Now  hath  God — This  variety 
in  unity  is  established  by  God.  Men 
are  variously  endowed  to  perform  dif¬ 
ferent  parts  in  the  social  organization ; 
and  when  any  part  refuses  its  allot¬ 
ment,  it  first  deranges  the  system  and 
then  destroys  itself.  Pleased  him — 
For  it  is  wonderful  to  observe  how  the 
whole  system  of  nature  is  an  organism 
in  which  the  unity  exists,  lives,  works, 
and  prospers,  by  the  harmonious  work¬ 
ing  of  the  individuals. 

19.  One  member — All  reduced  to 
a  monotonous  sameness.  Body — The 
entire  organism  would  lose  its  power 
of  operation. 

20-21.  Thus  far  St.  Paul  has  sought 
to  convince  the  members  envious  of 
others’  superiority.  He  now  seeks  to  j 


body.  21  And  the  eye  cannol 
say  unto  the  hand,  I  have  no  need 
of  thee:  nor  again  the  head  t<» 
the  feet,  I  have  no  need  of  you 
22  Nay,  much  more  those  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  body,  which  seem  to  be 
more  feeble, are  necessary:  23  And 
those  members  of  the  bodv,  which 
we  think  to  be  less  honourable, 
upon  these  we  4  bestow  more  abun  ¬ 
dant  honour  ;  and  our  uncomely 
parts  have  more  abundant  come 
liness.  24  For  our  comely  parts 
have  no  need :  but  God  hath  ten?  - 
pered  the  body  together,  having 
given  more  abundant  honour  to 

chap.  3.  5 ;  verse  11. - 4  Or,  put  on. 

humble  the  arrogant  in  their  dealing# 
with  the  humble  class. 

21.  The  overseer,  the  eye,  cannot 
dispense  with  the  worker,  the  hand 
The  official,  the  head,  cannot  spare 
the  membership,  the  feet. 

22.  Nay,  much  more — The  ruled 
can  do  without  the  rulers  even  better 
than  the  vice  versa.  It  is  for  the  ruled 
that  the  rulers  exist.  And  often,  ir. 
some  way  or  other,  the  ruled  are  the 
real  rulers.  Just  as  the  humblest  parts 
of  the  human  system  really  rule  the 
rest.  More  feeble — The  most  deli¬ 
cate  nerves  and  fibres  are  most  neces¬ 
sary  to  vitality. 

23.  Less  honourable — The  digestive 
and  reproductive  systems  in  the  human 
frame,  while,  strange  as  is  the  problem, 
propriety  shrinks  from  naming  them, 
are  still  the  objects  of  our  most  earnest 
care.  In  the  apologue  of  Menenius 
Agrippa  it  was  the  belly  that  was  the 
aristocracy.  The  sexual  passion,  as  a 
sentiment  or  as  an  appetite,  rules  a 
large  share  of  human  "life  Uncomely 
...comeliness — We  make  an  orna¬ 
ment  of  that  dress  which  was  originally 
a  mere  cover;  a  cover  for  comfort  or 
for  modesty.  It  is  marvellous  to  note 
how  small  a  share  of  the  human  sys¬ 
tem  propriety  allows  to  be  uncovered 

24.  Comely... no  need — The  rul¬ 
ing  parts  of  the  body  in  active  life,  the 
head,  the  hands,  and  sometimes  the 
feet,  need  no  concealments  nor  orna¬ 
mental  dress.  Tempered— Adjusted. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


95 


that  part  which  lacked :  25  That 
tli ere  should  be  no  5  schism  in  the 
body;  but  that  the  members  should 
have  the  same  care  one  for  another. 
26  And  whether  one  member  suf¬ 
fer,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it ; 
or  one  member  be  honoured,  all 
the  members  rejoice  with  it. 

27  Now  cye  are  the  body  of 
Christ,  and  d  members  in  particu¬ 
lar.  2$  And  eGod  hath  set  some 
in  the  church,  first  f  apostles,  sec- 

5  Or,  division.- - c  Rom.  12.  5;  Eph.  1.  23; 

4.  12;  5.  23,  30;  Col.  1.  24. - d  Eph.  5.  30. — 

e  Eph.  4. 11. - r/’Eph.  2.  20 ;  3.  5. - g  Acts  13. 1 ; 

Rom.  12.  6. 

25.  No  schism — Paul  suggests  here 
the  application  of  the  apologue  to  the 
schisms  between  the  rival  possessors  of 
charisms. 

26.  One  . . .  all . . .  suffer — So  won¬ 
derfully  is  our  nervous  system  diffused 
through  the  body  that  every  part  sym¬ 
pathizes  with  every  other  part,  and  the 
whole  with  any  one  part.  All.  .  .re¬ 
joice — Joy,  like  pain,  experienced  in 
one  part  becomes  the  joy  of  the  whole. 
A  striking  illustration  of  the  oneness 
of  a  true  Christian  Church. 

c.  Of  this  figurative  body  the  Church 
is  the  literal  counterpart ,  27—31. 

27.  Now  ye,  the  Corinthian  Church, 
are  the  literal  of  this  body,  being  as  ye 
are  the  body  of  Christ. 

28.  God  hath  set— As  all  are  in¬ 
spired  from  one  Spirit,  (verses  1-13,) 
so  all  are  set  by  G-od.  First — Paul 
traces  the  first  three  in  order  of  rank, 
the  remainder  miscellaneously.  Apos¬ 
tles — Men  who  had  seen  Christ,  like 
the  twelve  (note  on  Luke  i,  2)  and  like 
Paul,  who  were  personally  commis¬ 
sioned  by  him,  and  endowed  with  plen¬ 
ary  powers.  Prophets— Note  v,  10. 
Teachers — Perhaps  catechists.  Note 
Luke  i,  4.  Persons,  like  Luke  himself, 
profoundly  interested  in  the  Christian 
history,  and  qualified  to  educate  the 
young  Christian  in  its  first  principles. 
Notes  on  Luke  i,  1-4.  Miracles — Paul 
now  leaves  the  officials  and  takes  up  the 
gifts  that  were  not  confined  to  ranks 
»>ut  distributed  miscellaneously.  Heal¬ 
ings — Note  on  verse  9.  Helps — As¬ 
sistants  or  aids  to  official  men  in  the 


ondarily  z prophets,  thirdly  teach¬ 
ers,  after  that h  miracles,  then  1  gifts 
of  healings,  k  helps,  governments, 
diversities  of  tongues.  29  Are 
all  apostles  ?  are  all  prophets?  are 
all  teachers?  are  all  7 workers  of 
miracles?  30  Have  all  the  gifts 
of  healing  ?  do  all  speak  with 
tongues?  do  all  interpret?  31  But 
m covet  earnestly  the  best  gifts: 
and  yet  show  I  unto  you  a  more 
excellent  way. 

h  Verse  10. - i  Verse  9. - &Num.  11.  17. - • 

l  Rom.  12.  8;  1  Tim.  5.  17;  Heb.  13.  17,  24. - - 

6  Or,  kinds ,  verse  10. - 7  Or,  j>owers. - 

m  Chap.  14.  1,  39. 

subordinate  parts  of  their  duties;  as 
deacons  and  curates.  Something  like 
this  Mark,  Timothy,  and  Titus  were  to 
Paul  in  his  travels.  Governments — 
Superintendents  over  any  department; 
such  are  stewards  and  class  leaders  in 
John  Wesley’s  system.  Tongues  — 
Though  an  order  of  rank  is  not,  prob¬ 
ably,  extended  through  the  whole  list, 
yet  as  apostles  are  placed  first,  as  if 
in  honour,  so  tongues  are  placed  last, 
probably  as  least. 

31.  Covet — Earnestly  desire  and  aim 
at.  Best  gifts — Namely,  not  tongues , 
but  prophecy,  the  word  of  knowledge, 
of  wisdom,  and  others  that  profited  the 
Church.  Eor  though  they  be  the  gift 
of  God,  they  are  given  to  those  who 
are  qualified  by  faith,  prayer,  piety,  and 
culture.  More  excellent  way — Than 
the  attainment  of,  or  the  aiming  at,  spir¬ 
itual  gifts.  Said  comparatively ;  for  the 
main  purpose  of  Paul’s  vivid  portraiture 
of  love,  in  the  next  chapter,  is  to  show 
the  superiority  of  that  one  grace  of 
love  permanently  in  the  Church,  over 
the  transient  charisms  which  were  but 
the  temporary  stagings  while  the  struc¬ 
ture  was  being  built. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

2.  Infinite  superiority  of  Love 
over  Gifts,  1-13. 

The  central  gift  of  Christianity — not 
transient  but  permanent — the  diamond 
excellence  of  which  all  other  virtues 
are  a  phase — is  Love.  And  to  rouse 
His  Corinthians  above  their  eagerness 
after  the  transient,  the  apostle  tasks 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


93 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

HOUGH  I  speak  with  the 
tongues  of  men  and  of  angels, 

all  his  powers  to  present  the  diamond 
before  their  eyes  in  its  most  attractive 
brilliancy.  All  critics  view  this  pas¬ 
sage  as  one  of  Paul’s  genuine  gems. 
It  has  something  of  the  rhythm,  as 
well  as  the  splendour,  of  poetry.  But 
it  is  brief  and  condensed,  and  not  one 
word  is  inserted  for  mere  line  writing ; 
for  Paul  does  not  one  moment  forget  his 
argument;  the  object  of  which  is,  to  im¬ 
press  his  brethren  that  that  one  virtue 
within  the  reach  of  all,  the  permanent 
heritage  of  the  Church,  is  divine  love. 

We  might  call  it  one  of  the  misfor¬ 
tunes  of  our  English  version  that  the 
Greek  word  for  love,  dydirr],  has  been 
translated  charity.  But  it  is  rather  the 
fault  of  the  language  itself  than  of  the 
translators.  When  St,  Jerome  came  to 
translate  this  part  of  the  Xew  Testa¬ 
ment  he  could  find  no  word  in  the 
Latin  language  which  would  properly 
fit  the  true  Christian  idea  of  divine 
love.  Paganism  had  not  the  word,  be¬ 
cause  paganism  had  never  possessed 
the  idea.  The  word  amor  came  most 
near,  but  that  had  degrading  associa¬ 
tions.  He  selected  the  Latin  word 
caritas ,  signifying  dearness,  which  has 
been  used  in  most  of  the  translations 
of  modern  Europe.  But  this  word  be¬ 
coming  charity  in  English,  has  sunk 
to  mean  mere  almsgiving,  or  favourable 
construction  of  others’  actions,  as  when 
we  say  a  charitable  opinion.  Dr.  Hodge 
says,  the  Greek  word  occurs  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  sixteen  times  in  the  New  Test¬ 
ament,  and  is  translated  love  in  all  cases 
but  twenty-three,  and  its  translation  in 
those  passages  is  arbitrary. 

The  chapter  has  three  distinct  stages 
or  paragraphs.  The  first  declares,  with 
intense  hyperbole,  the  absolute  worth¬ 
lessness  of  every  virtue  if  love  be  want¬ 
ing,  (1—3  ;)  the  second  draws  a  brief 
beautiful  picture  of  love  in  actual  fife, 
(4—8  ;)  the  third  (8-13)  traces  our  prog¬ 
ress  through  transient  developments,  in 
contrast  with  the  abiding  three  graces, 
faith,  hope,  and  love.  Paul,  as  on  other 
occasions  of  depreciatory  remark,  speaks 
in  the  first  person. 


and  have  not  charity,  I  am  become 
as  sounding  brass  or  a  tinkling 
cymbal.  2  And  though  I  have  the 

a.  All  gifts  valueless  without  Love ,  1-3. 

Paul  traces  the  gifts  surpassed  by 
love  as  fourfold:  Tongues,  wheth¬ 
er  of  men  or  angels;  prophecy,  with 
all  its  included  powers  of  knowledge ; 
miracle-working  faith  j  vain-glorious 
sacrifice  of  goods  or  body.  These 
rise,  perhaps,  in  a  series  of  climax. 
Love  in  her  divine  exaltation  treads 
over  them  all. 

1.  Though  I  speak — A  case,  it  is 
said,  which  never  will  happen :  but  the 
particle  though,  or  if,  ( eav ,)  here  used, 
implies  a  case  objectively  possible,  and 
which  experience  will  decide  as  to  its 
real  occurrence. — Winer,  Grammar , 
page  291.  See  the  note  on  verse  2. 
Tongues  —  The  Corinthians’  favourite 
charism,  first  mentioned  in  order  to 
humble  it  before  love.  Of  men — 
Though  my  tongue  could  speak  every 
language  of  the  entire  human  race. 
Of  angels — Whether  the  gifted  Corin¬ 
thians  claimed  that  one  of  their  cha- 
risms  was  to  speak  in  angel  dialect  is 
more  than  we  know.  St.  Paul  him¬ 
self,  (2  Cor.  xii,  4,)  when  caught  up  into 
paradise,  “heard  unspeakable  words,’* 
apparently  the  speech  of  higher  na¬ 
tures.  The  parable  of  the  rich  man 
and  Lazarus  implies  speech  of  disem¬ 
bodied  spirits,  so  telegraphic  as  to 
reach  from  paradise  to  hades  inferior. 
I  am  become — 

To  this,  if  gifted 
yet  loveless,  I  am 
brought.  Sound¬ 
ing  brass— Corin¬ 
thian  brass  (a  met¬ 
al  formed  by  the 
mixture  of  silver 
and  gold)  was  pro- 
verbiallyfamed  for 
its  ringing  sound 
when  struck,  or 
blown  as  a  trum¬ 
pet.  Tinkling — 

Clanging  is  better, 
as  more  truly  de¬ 
noting  the  sound 
produced.  Cym- 
bal-T  wo  concave 


A.  D.  5  7. 


CHAPTER  XTII. 


97 


qift  of  a  prophecy,  and  understand 
all  mysteries,  and  all  knowledge ; 
and  though  I  have  all  faith,  bso 
that  I  could  remove  mountains, 

a  Ch.  12. 8-10, 28 ;  14. 1,  <fcc. ;  Matt. 7.22. b  Matt. 

metallic  plates  struck  against  each  oth¬ 
er,  and  giving  a  sound  varying  with  the 
size  of  the  instrument.  Possessing  no 
variation  of  tone  or  mellowness,  they 
served  as  a  lit  illustration  of  a  vain 
clatter,  while  the  richer  ring  of  the 
sounding  brass  indicated  the  vain¬ 
glory  of  the  ostentation  of  tongues. 
C}rmbals  were  used  (1  Chron.  xiii,  8) 
in  the  most  ancient  times,  with  other 
instruments,  in  religious  service.  The 
old  Egyptians  used  wooden  cjunbals, 
(crotala,)  and  the  modern  Spaniards  use 
castanets ,  so  called  because  made  of  chest¬ 
nut  wood. 

2.  All  mysteries  —  Blessed  mys¬ 
teries,  such  as  Jesus  indicated,  Mark 
iv,  1 1,  “  Unto  you  'it  is  given  to  know  the 
mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven;” 
namely,  the  revelations  unfolded  by 
Christianity  to  man.  These  mysteries 
were  for  ages  concealed.  Ephes.  iii,  9  ; 
Col.  i,  26.  There  are  also  mysteries 
of  iniquity.  2  Tliess.  ii,  7.  Faith— A 
divinely  energized  power  of  will,  so 
that  it  moves  external  nature  as  the 
ordinary  volition  moves  the  body.  See 
note  on  Matt,  xvii,  20.  Have  not 
charity  —  That  miraculous  endow¬ 
ments  are  not  confined  to  the  holy  is 
indicated  by  the  cases  of  Balaam,  Sam¬ 
son,  and  the  witch  of  Endor.  Note  on 
Acts  viii,  24.  The  apostle  only  sup¬ 
poses  a  possible  thing  in  a  most  ex¬ 
traordinary  degree.  Nothing  —  All 
these  endowments  put  together  leave 
me  a  moral  cypher. 

3.  Bestow ..  .goods — It  is  curious 
that  the  word  charity  has  come  to 
signify  just  that  alms-giving  which 
Paul  here  declares  may  be  performed 
without  it.  Churches,  colleges,  alms¬ 
houses,  asylums,  may  all  be  founded 
by  loveless  men  to  perpetuate  a  name, 
or,  vainly,  to  expiate  their  sins.  Body 
to  be  burned — Mr.  Barnes  pertinently 
remarks  that  martyrdoms  in  ancient 
times  were  not  by  burning,  but  by  axe 
or  sword,  by  stoning  or  crucifixion. 
Burning,  first  introduced  by  Nero,  was 

Vol.  IV,— 7 


and  have  not  charity,  I  am  nothing. 
3  And  c though  I  bestow  all  my 
goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  though 
I  give  my  body  to  be  burned,  and 

17.  20;  Mark  11.  23;  Luke  17.  6. - c  Matt.  0.  1,2 

adopted  by  the  Romish  Inquisition,  and 
by  Queen  Mary  in  England.  The  words 
of  the  apostle  were  almost  prophetical. 
Yet  the  fiery  furnace  was  the  penalty 
visited  on  Sliadrach  and  his  comrades 
in  Babylon. 

The  braving  certain  death  by  burn¬ 
ing  or  otherwise  is  often  displayed  by 
men  from  motives  excluding  love. 
There  are  crises  in  which  men  prefer 
death  to  life,  especially,  for  instance, 
when  stimulated  by  a  point  of  honour. 
Eor  this  the  North  American  Indian 
dares  and  defies  the  crudest  of  tor¬ 
tures  ;  the  Hindu  widow  mounts  the 
funeral  pyre  of  her  dead  husband ;  and 
the  Japanese  gentleman  executes  the 
hari-kari  by  ripping  open  his  own  body 
in  the  presence  of  a  public  assembly 
gathered  to  witness  and  honour  the 
deed.  These  actions  may  have  their 
own  proper  reward.  But  in  the  apos¬ 
tle’s  .  sense,  if  loveless,  they  profit 
nothing  so  far  as  salvation  is  con¬ 
cerned.  Our  Lord,  in  commanding  his 
disciples  to  flee  from  persecution,  di¬ 
vested  martyrdom  of  its  vainglory.  Yet 
in  times  of  bloodiest  persecution  by  pa¬ 
gan  powers  the  expectant  victim  often 
rejoiced  in  the  hope  of  the  martyr’s 
crown.  There  were  those  who  would 
have  rushed  to  that  end  by  exposing 
themselves  to  arrest,  but,  instructed 
by  our  Lord’s  words,  the  Christian  lead¬ 
ers  dissuaded  such  a  course. 

b.  Picture  of  Love  in  daily  life,  4-7. 

#  The  hyperboles  of  the  apostle  in  the 
last  paragraph  rush  like  a  cataract  ; 
the  descriptions  of  this  paragraph  flow 
like  a  gentle  and  limpid  stream.  He 
does  not  describe  love  in  its  heroic 
moods,  dying  for  its  loved  objects,  but 
in  the  aspects  of  ordinary  life,  and  par¬ 
ticularly  in  references  to  those  vain 
glories  and  bickers  among  his  Corin¬ 
thians,  of  which  love  would  be  the 
corrective.  He  gives  fifteen  traits  of 
love.  The  first  three  touch  the  patient 
kindness  of  love;  the  next  eight  are 
negatives,  describing  qualities  which 


98 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


have  not  charity,  it  profiteth  me 
nothing,  -i  d  Charity  suffereth  long, 
and  is  kind;  charity  envieth  not; 

d  Prov.  10.  12;  1  Pet.  4.  8. - 1  Or,  is  not  rash. 


love  does  not  exhibit,  but  which,  un¬ 
fortunately,  the  tempers  of  the  Corin¬ 
thians  did  ;  then  four  traits  which  our 
apostle’s  conduct  was  exhibiting  tow¬ 
ards  them.  The  passage  is  no  fancy 
piece,  but  aims  at  practical  life. 

4.  Charity — The  love  of  the  apos¬ 
tle  is  not  merely  an  emotion,  but  also 
a  principle  and  purpose.  It  is,  indeed, 
more  or  less  grounded  in  the  moral  and 
sentimental  feeling,  but  it  often  exists 
in  full  action  in  unemotional  persons. 
It  is  a  strong  wish,  desire,  and  purpose 
for  the  happiness  of  another  or  others, 
and  a  happiness  in  seeing  that  other’s 
happiness  accomplished.  It  is  verified 
by  the  blessed  Spirit ;  it  co-exists  with 
the  love  of  God.  The  two  great  com¬ 
mandments  are,  supreme  love  to  God, 
and  love  to  our  fellow  as  to  ourself. 
It  is  the  primal  virtue,  of  which  all 
other  virtues  are  but  varying  forms. 
This  love ,  though  unknown  to  heathen¬ 
dom,  was  taught  in  the  Old  Testament, 
and  appears  in  full  glory  in  the  New, 
incarnated  in  Christ  and  registered  in 
his  evangelic  law.  Suffereth  long — 
The  stronger  that  love  the  greater  the 
suffering  it  will  endure,  both  for  and 
.  from  its  object,-  and  still  remain  kind 
in  feeling  and  manner.  Love  is  the 
parent  of  patience,  forbearance,  and 
firmness.  Envieth  not — In  the  eight 
negatives  now  following  Paul  repre¬ 
hends  the  various  forms  of  selfishness 
which  lovelessness  assumes,  namely : 
envy,  braggartism,  ostentation,  offen¬ 
siveness,  self-interestj  irritability,  sus* 
picion,  injuriousness. 

This  selfishness  is  not  identical  with, 
but  is  the  exaggeration  of-,  that  self- 
love  or  desire  of  happiness  which  is 
the  right  and  duty  of  every  intelligent 
being.  The  primal  law  does  not  for- 
h*d  us  to  love  ourself,  nor  require  us 
to  love  our  neighbour  more  than  our¬ 
self.  Indeed,  duty  to  ourself,  the  obli¬ 
gation  of  self-love,  stands  first.  We 
owe  and  must  perform  duties  to  our¬ 
selves  which  we  cannot  perform  for 


charity  1  vaunteth  not  itself,  is  not 
puffed  up,  5  Doth  not  behave 
itself  unseemly,  eseeketli  not  her 


e  Chapter  10.  24;  Philippians  2. 4. 


others,  nor  others  for  us.  This  the 
law  of  love,  the  golden  rule,  presup¬ 
poses.  If  we  love  our  neighbour  as 
ourself  we  will  not  require  him  to  do 
for  us  what  we  should  do  for  ourself ; 
and  we  should  concede  to  him  the 
right  to  perform  to  himself  solely  the 
duties  each  one  owes  solely  to  himself. 
There  is  thus  an  equal  circle  of  right 
and  duty  drawn  around  every  individual 
self.  But  selfishness  undertakes  to  se¬ 
cure  one’s  own  advantage  in  disregard, 
or  at  the  expense  of,  the  rights  of 
others.  It  violates  the  law  of  equal 
love  for  every  one.  Vaunteth  not  it¬ 
self — Brags  not  of  personal  superiori¬ 
ties,  false  or  real.  Not  puffed  up — 
Imaginary  assumption  of  personal  im¬ 
portance. 

5.  Behave.  .  .unseemly  —  Love¬ 
lessness  cares  not  how  offensive  its  de¬ 
meanour  towards  others.  It  cares  not 
how  much  mortification  it  creates  in 
other  breasts  by  its  coarse,  offensive, 
or  haughty  style.  Even  religious  peo¬ 
ple  often  clothe  their  religion  in  a  hard, 
stiff,  legal  aspect,  rendering  it  unat¬ 
tractive,  and  producing  rejection  by 
those  whom  it  should  win.  On  the 
contrary,  true  love,  brought  to  the  sur¬ 
face,  seeks  to  please,  and  thereby  sheds 
a  winsomeness  over  the  manners  and 
character.  And  it  is  wonderful  how 
this  quality  does  win  its  way ;  not  by 
fighting  a  fierce  battle,  but  by  disarm¬ 
ing  beforehand,  and  rendering  the  bat¬ 
tle  unnecessary.  Worldly  self-interest, 
policy,  diplomacy,  and  courtliness  often 
put  on  this  manner.  The  gentleman 
is  a  gentle  man.  It  is  one  of  the  bene¬ 
fits,  indeed,  of  a  common  interest  that 
it  creates  a  common  desire  to  please, 
and  thus  promotes  more  or  less  courte¬ 
sy  and  cordiality  of  temper.  It  is  thus 
that  trade  and  commerce  are,  as  in¬ 
tended  by  Providence,  wonderful  pro¬ 
moters  of  peace,  civilization,  and  hu¬ 
manity.  There  is  a  contest  between 
commerce  and  war,  in  which  the  for* 
mer  is  gaining  a  gradual  and  most  liu- 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


99 


own,  is  not  easily  provoked,  think- 
eth  no  evil;  6  f  Rejoiceth  not  in 

/‘Psa.10.3;  Rom.1.32. - <72John4. - 2  Or,  with 

mane  victory.  Not .  .  .  provoked — 

Not  exasperated.  For  just  so  far  as  the 
exasperation  extends  love  is  neutral¬ 
ized.  Hence  the  easily,  inserted  by. 
the  translators,  without  Greek,  is  un¬ 
necessary.  But  the  not  being  exas¬ 
perated  now  and  then  requires  a  per¬ 
manent  and  perfected  love.  That  is 
very  necessary,  indeed,  to  soothe  by 
anticipation  the  irritability  and  prevent 
the  exasperation.  This  irritability  is 
often  a  sin  of  the  disordered  and  sen¬ 
sitive  nerves.  It  is  a  physiological 
sin.  It  requires  an  immense  deal  of 
love  to  neutralize  the  sharp  sensations 
that  sting  the  irritable  nerves  of  some 
persons  to  fretfulness  and  exasperated 
words.  This  is  the  trial  of  some  tem¬ 
peraments.  And  such  persons  should 
be  careful  how  they  excuse  themselves 
for  their  sin  on  the  ground  of  tempera¬ 
ment.  The  moment  they  do  this  they 
are  in  great  danger  of  giving  them¬ 
selves  the  privilege  of  the  sin,  and  so 
making  the  sin  of  the  nerves  the  sin  of 
the  will  and  the  consent.  We  should, 
like  a  skilful  general,  rather  concen¬ 
trate  our  strongest  force  at  our  weak¬ 
est  spot.  Seeketh  not  her  own — 
Love  may  arise  from  common  interest, 
and  even  from  self-interest.  It  is  pro¬ 
vided  by  God  that  these  should  be  pro¬ 
ductive  of  this  good  result.  But  love, 
just  so  far  as  it  is  pure  love,  thinks  not 
of  itself.  It  is  happy  in  the  happiness 
of  others,  having  no  regard  for  any 
happiness  of  its  own,  excepting  this 
very  delight  in  the  others’  well-being. 
Its  very  excellence  is,  that  it  places  its 
own  happiness  in  the  happiness  of 
others.  Thinketh  no  evil — An  un¬ 
fortunate  translation.  Literally,  im- 
puteth  not  the  evil.  Not,  as  Alford, 

“  the  evil  which  is,  but  love  does  not 
impute  it;”  but  rather  the  evil  imputa¬ 
tion  when  the  good  one  was  equally 
probable.  For  love,  as  will  soon  be 
said,  rejoices  in  the  truth.  Even  love 
prefers  the  truth  above  the  friend. 
But  U/e  imputeth  not  the  evil  con¬ 
struction  where  truth  will  permit  the 
pood. 


iniquity,  but  e  rejoiceth  2  in  the 
truth;  7  hBeareth  all  tilings,  be- 

ihe  truth. - h  Rom.  15. 1 ;  Gal.  6.  2 ;  2  Tim.  2.  24. 

6.  Rejoiceth. .  .iniquity — The  word 
rendered  iniquity,  properly  signifies 
injustice ,  wrong.  And  here,  as  in  all 
the  clauses  of  this  paragraph,  we  must 
keep  the  special  person  or  persons 
loved  in  mind,  and  not  rise  too  far  into 
generality.  Love  sympathizes  not  in 
the  wrong-doing  committed  by  its  ob¬ 
ject.  This,  the  true  and  a  most  im¬ 
portant  sense,  seems  to  have  been  lost 
sight  of  by  the  commentators.  While 
love  imputes  the  most  favourable  con¬ 
struction  possible  to  its  object,  it  does 
not  rejoice  in  his  real  wrong  doing. 
Rejoiceth  in  the  truth — Instead  of 
rejoicing  in  the  wrong,  it  sympatheti¬ 
cally  rejoices  in  the  truth  by  which 
the  wrong  is  reproved,  exposed,  and 
corrected.  It  plainly  tells  the  correc¬ 
tive  truth  to  the  loved  wrongdoer,  as 
Nathan  did  to  David. 

7.  In  rendering  the  clauses  of  this 
verse  we  must,  with  the  apostle,  keep 
the  loved  object  in  view ;  as,  for  in¬ 
stance,  his  dear  Corinthian  Church. 
The  verses  picture  to  the  life,  for  ex¬ 
ample,  the  persistent  love  of  a  mother 
for  an  erring  son— the  most  beautiful  of 
all  human  loves.  The  all  things  four 
times  said  are,  of  course,  to  be  limited 
by  the  law  of  truth  and  justice  just 
given,  and  made  appropriate  to  the 
verb  which  each  follows  in  the  clause. 
Beareth  all  things — Rather  cover eth 
all  things.  Such  is  the  strict  mean¬ 
ing  of  the  G-reek  word.  To  render  it 
beareth  gives  the  same  sense  as  en* 
dureth  in  the  last  clause.  The  word 
covereth  implies  the  idea  expressed  by 
Pope  in  his  Universal  Prayer: 

u  Teach  me  to  feel  another’s  woe, 

To  hide  the  fault  1  see; 

That  mercy  I  to  others  show, 

That  mercy  show  to  me.” 

So  does  a  mother  seek  to  cover  the 
faults  of  her  child ;  so  would  Paul 
rather  cover  than  expose  the  errors  of 
his  Corinthians.  Believeth  all  things 
— Favourable  to  the  beloved  object. 
Such  is  the  temper  of  deep  love,  lim¬ 
ited  in  action  by  the  laws  of  truth. 


100 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


lievetli  all  things,  nopeth  all  things, 
endureth  all  things. 

8  Charity  never  faileth  :  bnt 
whether  there  he  prophecies,  they 
shall  fail ;  whether  there  he  tongues, 
they  shall  cease ;  whether  there  he 
knowledge,  it  shall  vanish  away. 
9  'For  we  know  in  part,  and  we 
prophesy  in  part.  10  But  when 

i  Chap.  8.  2. 3  Or,  reasoned.  — k  2  Cor. 

3.  18;  5.  7;  Phil.  3.  12. 


Hopeth  all  things— All  future  good 
for  its  object.  Endureth  all  things — 

How  often  is  it  said  of  a  mother  in  re 
gard  to  a  son,  “  She  bears  every  thing 
from  him.”  Paul  bore  countless  things 
from  the  Corinthians,  and  sought  to 
correct  their  faults  for  their  own  sake. 

c.  The  transiency  of  all  charisms  con 
trasted  with  the  permanency  and  suprem 
acy  of  Love,  8-13. 

8.  Never  faileth — From  divine  love 
in  its  daily  life,  Paul  now  springs  at 
once  into  its  transcendent  and  eternal 
nature.  The  charisms — prophecies, 
tongues,  knowledge  —  are  all  provi¬ 
sional  and  partial ;  soon  to  be  merged 
in  the  perfect  and  the  universal. 

9.  In  part — Our  knowledge  and  our 
prophecies,  based  upon  our  knowledge, 
are  alike  limited  and  temporary. 

10.  The  perfect  will  in  due  time 
supersede  these  partial  gifts  and  per¬ 
formances.  This  does  not  mean  that 
the  gifts  shall  cease  in  the  Church  on 
earth  in  process  of  time,  though  that 
may  be  implied  ;  but  that  they  will  be 
outgrown  in  eternity.  Nor  does  it 
mean  that  our  knowledge  as  a  faculty 
will  disappear ;  or  that  we  shall  cease 
to  know  any  thing  we  now  know  in 
the  future  ;  but  that  our  knowledge  as 
a  special  gift,  supernaturally  bestowed 
over  others,  of  which  some  Corinthi¬ 
ans  were  so  proud,  should  disappear. 
These,  like  glittering  but  needless  or¬ 
naments,  would  drop  otf  in  our  advanc¬ 
ing  stages  of  existence. 

11.  When — The  specialties  will  all 
be  superseded  by  eternal  things,  as 
childhood  toys  are  superseded  by  man¬ 
hood.  Was — Whately  says  the  em¬ 
phasis  should  be  placed  in  reading  on 
was,  to  imply  that  the  playthings  of 


that  which  is  perfect  is  come,  then 
that  which  is  in  part  shall  be  done 
away.  11  When  I  was  a  child,  I 
spake  as  a  child,  I  understood  as  a 
child,  I  3 thought  as  a  child:  but 
when  I  became  a  man,  I  put  away 
childish  things.  12  For  know  we 
see  through  a  glass,  4  darkly ;  but 
then  1  face  to  face :  now  I  know  in 

4  Greek,  in  a  riddle. 1  Matthew  18. 10; 

1  John  3.  2. 

childhood  are  suitable  and  right  for 
childhood.  As  Pope  says, 

“  Behold  the  child,  by  nature's  kindly  law , 
Pleased  with  a  rattle,  tickled  with  a  straw.” 

It  was  said  by  Lord  Brougham  that 
the  human  being  learns  more  during 
his  ten  first  years  than  in  all  his  life 
afterwards.  Ilis  infantile  and  puerile 
sports  are  but  experiments  of  things 
by  which  he  gains  his  first  amount  of 
knowledge. 

12.  Through  a  glass — Not  through 
a  transparent  glass,  as  window  gla^s, 


but  through  or  in  a  mirror.  The  word 
through  is  used  because  the  objects 
seen  in  a  mirror  seem  to  be  back  of  it, 
and  we  to  look  through  the  glass. 
The  mirrors  of  antiquity  were  made 


A.  I).  57. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


101 


part ;  but  then  shall  I  know  even  as 
also  I  am  known.  13  And  now  abid- 


not  of  glass,  but  of  polished  metal; 
and  hence  the  image  was  seen  dark- 
1  /.  Darkly  —  Literally,  in  enigma. 
Wq  can  no  more  clearly  understand 
the  realities  of  eternity  than  child¬ 
hood  can  understand  the  experiences 
of  manhood.  No  words,  however  plain, 
can  make  him  realize  them  as  they 
really  are.  And  so,  to  us,  heaven 
and  eternity  are  problems  and  mys¬ 
teries,  illustrated  only  by  analogies 
.which  after  all  are  enigmas.  Pace 
to  face  —  By  direct,  clear  sight;  not 
in  mirror  and  enigma.  As . . .  known 
— As  I  was  known  by  God  in  my 
earthly  existence,  just  so  in  eternity 
shall  I,  with  perfect  exactness,  know 
the  realities. 

13.  And  now — As  the  net  result 
from  all  these  premises.  Abideth — 
In  endless  permanence.  Faith —  Not 
the  transient  charism  of  ver.  1 2,  (where 
see  note,)  but  the  sure  reliance  on  God 
that  will  be  ever  sure  in  heaven. 
Hope  —  That  even  amid  the  highest 
good  looks  for  a  still  higher.  We  can¬ 
not  remember  any  other  passage  in  the 
Bible  that  indicates  the  existence  of 
progress  for  the  soul  in  heaven  than 
this  word  in  this  place.  These  three 
— In  view  of  the  many  passages  of 
Paul  in  which  the  trinity  is  shadowed 
without  being  fully  expressed,  we  can¬ 
not  quite  reject  the  opinion  of  Grotius, 
that  Paul  means  a  trinity  of  graces. 
Greatest.  .  .Is  charity — Love  is  not 
only  an  eternal  grace,  but  the  highest 
among  the  eternal.  Faith  is  indeed 
the  condition  to  our  Christian  life,  but 
love  is  its  completion.  Faith  but  un¬ 
locks  the  door  by  which  we  enter 
into  the  blessedness  of  its  superior, 
love.  Other  graces  contribute  to 
heaven  ;  love  constitutes  heaven :  for 
a  heart  of  love  in  a  world  of  love  is 
heaven.  If  love  is  a  happiness  derived 
from  the  happiness  of  others,  how  rich 
must  be  that  happiness  where  countless 
millions  are  as  happy  as  the  boundaries 
of  their  finite  natures  permit!  And 
this  love  is  but  a  continuance  and  en¬ 
largement  of  a  grace  here  possessed. 

If  a  spark  of  God’s  love  beams  now  in 


eth  faith,  hope,  charity,  these  three; 
but  the  greatest  of  these  is  charity. 

our  heart,  it  is  of  the  nature  of  heaven. 
If  not,  then  we  have  no  true  faith,  no 
well-grounded  hope,  no  godlike  love. 
These  three  go  hand  in  hand,  and 
never  can  be  separated ;  nor  can  one 
exist  without  the  others. 

CHAPTER  XIY. 

3.  Management  in  the  use  of 
Gifts,  1-40. 

This  chapter  closes  the  triad  upon 
spiritual  gifts.  See  Introductory  Note 
to  chaps,  xii  and  xiii.  Paul,  in  exercise 
of  apostolic  authority,  now  pronounces 
the  relative  rank  of  the  charismatic  ex¬ 
ercises,  and  gives  rules  for  their  regu¬ 
lation.  1.  On  the  principle  of  utility , 
tongues  are  inferior  to  prophecy,  as  less 
building-up  the  Church,  1-21.  2.  This 

illustrated  by  a  picture  of  the  compara¬ 
tive  effects  of  the  two,  22-25.  3.  Di¬ 

rections  for  the  most  orderly  and  ef¬ 
fective  exercise  of  both  gifts,  26-33. 

4.  And  this  order  must  not  be  disturbed 
by  the  garrulity  of  the  women,  34,  35. 

5.  A  silencing  conclusion  pronounced 
on  all  who  gainsay  these  apostolic  di¬ 
rections,  36-40. 

There  belongs  to  man’s  nature  a  side 
by  which  he  stands  in  relation  to  the 
supernatural  world.  In  different  ages 
and  countries,  and  under  various  relig¬ 
ions,  the  preternatural  dream,  trance, 
ecstasy,  revery,  clairvoyance,  and  pre¬ 
sentiment,  have  appeared,  especially  in 
seasons  of  excitement.  These  indicate 
the  elements  in  man  preparing  him  for 
a  future  state.  Even  in  ages  of  pure 
Theism,  as  in  Judea,  and  also  among 
Mohammedans;  or  Polytheism,  as  in 
Greece ;  or  Pantheism,  as  in  the  Neo- 
Platonists  ;  men  self-consecrated  to  the 
contemplation  of  the  supernal  have 
found  themselves  wrapped  into  preter¬ 
natural  frames,  in  which  they  exhibited 
phenomena  impossible  to  the  ordinary 
human  conditions.  Socrates  not  only 
had  his  demon,  but,  as  Plato  informs  us, 
was  subject  to  the  contemplative  trance. 
The  Protestants  of  France,  under  the 
bloody  persecutions  of  Louis  XIY., 
abounded  in  prophetic  gifts.  Nor  is  it 
any  wonder  that  in  the  powerful  excite- 


102 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

OLLOW  after  charity,  and  ‘de¬ 
sire  spiritual  gifts ,  b'but  rather 
that  ye  may  prophesy.  2  For  he 

a  Chap.  12.  31. - b  Num.  11.  25,  29. - c  Acts 

merits  that  aroused  these  gifts  unseem¬ 
ly  events  should  take  place.  Such  took 
place  in  Corinth,  where  the  divine  Spir¬ 
it  had  to  struggle  with  the  lower  nature 
of  man.  That  the  phenomena  here  were 
not  merely  preternatural  but  supernat¬ 
ural — that  they  were  not  merely  the  ex¬ 
citement  of  the  human  susceptibilities 
but  the  touch  of  the  blessed  Spirit  upon 
those  susceptibilities,  inspiring  them  in¬ 
to  action,  we  know,  because  we  know 
that  the  Head  of  the  Church  after  his 
resurrection  promised  such  gifts,  and 
declared  that  he  was  on  high  dispens¬ 
ing  them  to  his  followers.  The  suscep¬ 
tibility  and  the  inspiration  are  correla¬ 
tives  of  each  other.  Man  is  thereby 
capable  of  communion  and  cooperation 
with  God. 

a.  Tongues  inferior  to  prophecy ,  as 
less  building-up  the  Church ,  1-21. 

1.  Follow  after  love — Which  all 
are  able  to  attain,  and  which  is  the  or¬ 
dinary,  central,  permanent  grace  of  the 
Church.  Desire  —  Be  emulous  for. 
Spiritual  gifts  —  Which  are  for  the 
few,  and  are  transient. 

2.  Unknown  tongue  —  The  word 
unknown,  though  interpolated  by  the 
translator,  expresses  the  truth.  The 
“  tongues  ”  were  unintelligible  to  the 
congregation  unless  interpreted.  And 
herein  they  were  far  inferior  to  the 
Pentecostal  tongues,  which  spoke  to 
every  man  in  his  native  dialect.  Per¬ 
haps  we  may  say  that  the  difference 
was,  that  the  pentecostal  Spirit  brought 
all  (save  the  mockers)  into  full  spiritual 
communication  with  the  speakers,  so 
that  they  were  all  charismatic  inter¬ 
preters. 

Dr.  Poor,  in  Schaff’s  Lange,  takes 
the  ground  that  the  Corinthian  charis¬ 
matic  language  consisted  not  in  speak¬ 
ing  foreign  languages,  but  in  speaking 
a  speech,  “new  and  clean,”  formed  by 
the  Spirit  himself,  inasmuch  as  the  for¬ 
eign  tongues  of  that  day  were  defiled 
with  paganism.  But  we  reply,  by  the 
ordinary  view  the  pentecostal  tongues 


that  c  speak etli  m  an  unknown 
tongue  speaketh  not  unto  men,  but 
unto  God:  for  no  man  Hinderstand- 
etli  him;  howbeit  in  the  Spirit  he 

2.  4;  10.  46. - 1  Greek,  heareth.  Acts  22.  9. 

were  foreign  and  pagan.  Yet  may  we 
not  unite  his  view  with  our  own  ?  Let 
us  suppose  that  the  true  new  tongue 
was  the  Spirit  language  heard  by  St 
Paul  near  the  third  heaven.  This  lan 
guage  can  be  received  only  by  those 
like  St.  John,  (Rev.  i,  10,)  more  or  less 
“in  the  Spirit.”  Yet  the  converse  of 
pure  spirits  is  not  through  the  medium 
of  sound,  but  is  the  pure  and  perfect 
impartation  of  the  thought  itself.  When 
man  receives  it  into  his  spirit  it  tends 
to  take  the  form  of  language — some¬ 
times  of  his  own  native  language; 
sometimes,  by  diffusive  sympathy,  of 
foreign  human  dialects ;  sometimes  of 
vocalities  belonging  to  no  known  lan- 
guage,  yet  inherently  expressive  of  the 
thought.  In  the  latter  case  the  man 
may  lack  the  power  of  interpreting  the 
thought  into  ordinary  language,  and 
yet  the  hearer,  brought  into  sympathy, 
may  perform  the  office  of  interpreter, 
as  explained  in  our  note  on  verse  5. 
Unto  God — As  his  oilly  real  hearer. 
In  the  Spirit  —  In  his  own  spirit. 
Mysteries  —  The  mysteries  of  the 
gospel  previously  unknown  to  men. 

A  modern  resemblance  to  the  gift 
of  tongues  was  that  in  the  church  of 
the  celebrated  Edward  Irving.  W e  give 
the  following  passage  from  a  witness 
of  the  phenomena,  which  we  take  from 
Stanley,  p.  252  : — 

“As  an  instance  of  the  extraordinary 
change  in  the  powers  of  the  human 
voice  when  under  inspiration,  I  may 
here  mention  the  case  of  an  individual 
whose  natural  voice  was  inharmonious, 
and  who,  besides,  had  no  ear  for  keep¬ 
ing  time.  Yet  even  the  voice  of  this 
person,  when  singing  in  the  spirit, 
could  pour  forth  a  rich  strain  of  mel¬ 
ody  of  which  each  note  was  musical, 
and  uttered  with  a  sweetness  and 
power  of  expression  that  was  truly 
astonishing ;  and,  what  is  still  more 
singular,  with  a  gradually  increasing 
velocity  into  a  rapidity,  yet  distinct¬ 
ness,  o*  utterance  which  is  inconceiv- 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


103 


able  by  those  who  have  never  wit¬ 
nessed  the  like:  and  yet,  with  all  his 
apparently  breathless  haste,  there  was 
not  in  reality  the  slightest  agitation  of 
body  or  of  mind.  In  other  instances 
the  voice  is  deep  and  powerfully  im¬ 
pressive.  I-  cannot  describe  it  better 
than  by  saying  that  it  approaches 
nearly  to  what  might  be  considered  a 
perfect  state  of  the  voice,  passing  far 
beyond  the  energies  of  its  natural 
strength,  and  at  times  so  loud  as  not 
only  to  fill  the  whole  house,  but  to  be 
heard  at  a  considerable  distance ;  and 
though  often  accompanied  by  an  ap¬ 
parently  great  mental  energy  and  mus¬ 
cular  exertion  of  the  whole  body,  yet 
in  truth  there  was  not  the  slightest 
disturbance  of  either;  on  the  contrary, 
there  was  present  a  tranquillity  and 
composure  both  of  body  and  of  mind 
the  very  opposite  to  any,  even  the  least 
degree  of,  excitement. 

“  The  consciousness  of  the  presence  of 
God  in  these  manifestations  is  fraught 
with  such  a  holy  solemnity  of  thought 
and  feeling  as  leave  neither  leisure  nor 
inclination  for  curious  observation.  In 
a  person  alive  to  the  presence  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  overwhelmed  by  his 
manifestations  beside  and  around  him, 
and  deeply  conscious  that  upon  his 
heart,  naked  and  exposed,  rests  the  eye 
of  God,  one  thought  alone  fills  his  soul, 
one  wail  of  utterance  is  heard,  1  God  be 
merciful  to  me  a  sinner.’  Nor  can  the 
eye  be  diverted  from  the  only  sight 
that  is  precious  to  it,  far  more  precious 
than  life  itself,  4  The  Lamb  of  God,  that 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world.’  ” 
The  following  is  from  a  subject  of 
the  influence:  “I  read  the  fourth  chap¬ 
ter  of  Malachi;  as  I  read  the  power 
came  upon  me,  and  I  was  made  to  read 
with  power.  My  voice  was  raised  far 
beyond  its  natural  pitch  with  a  con¬ 
strained  repetition  of  parts,  and  with 
the  same  inward  uplifting,  which  at  the 
presence  of  the  power  I  had  always 
experienced.  Whilst  sitting  at  home  it 
came  upon  me,  but  for  a  considerable 
time  no  impulse  to  utterance ;  pres- 
ently  a  sentence  in  French  was  viv¬ 
idly  set  before  my  mind,  and  under 
the  impulse  to  utterance  was  spoken. 
Then,  in  a  little  time,  sentences  in 


Latin  were  in  a  like  manner  uttered ; 
and,  with  short  intervals,  sentences  in 
many  other  languages.  Judging  from 
the  sound  and  the  different  exercise 
of  the  enunciating  organs,  my  wife, 
who  was  with  me,  thought  some  of 
them  to  be  Italian  or  Spanish ;  the  first 
she  can  read  and  translate,  the  second 
she  knows  but  little  of.  Sometimes 
single  words  were  given  me,  and  some¬ 
times  sentences,  though  I  could  neither 
recognise  the  words  nor  sentences  as 
any  language  I  knew,  except  those 
which  were  French  or  Latin.  .  .  .  My 
persuasion  concerning  the  unknown 
tongue,  as  it  is  called,  (in  which  I  my¬ 
self  was  very  little  exercised,)  is,  that 
it  is  no  language  whatever,  but  a  mere 
collection  of  words  and  sentences ;  and 
in  the  lengthened  discourses  is,  most 
of  it,  a  jargon  of  sounds ;  though  I  can 
conceive,  when  the  power  is  very  great, 
that  it  will  assume  much  of  the  form 
of  a  connected  oration.” — P.  254. 

Dr.  Bushnell  has,  in  his  “Natural 
and  Supernatural,”  a  suggestive  chap¬ 
ter  on  gifts.  He  relates  that  in  New 
England,  at  a  place  designated  as  II., 
at  a  religious  meeting,  “After  one  of 
the  brethren  had  been  speaking  in  a 
strain  of  discouraging  self-accusation, 
another  present  shortly  rose  with  a 
strange,  beaming  look,  and,  fixing  his 
eye  on  the  confessing  brother,  broke 
out  in  a  discourse  of  sounds  wholly 
unintelligible  though  apparently  a  true 
language,  accompanying  the  utterances 
with  strange  and  peculiarly  impressive 
gestures,  such  as  he  never  made  at  any 
other  time;  coming  finally  to  a  kind  of 
pause,  and  commencing  again  as  if  at 
the  same  point,  to  go  over  in  English, 
with  exactly  the  same  gestures,  what 
had  just  been  said.  It  appeared  to  be 
an  interpretation,  and  the  matter  of  it 
was  a  beautifully  emphatic  utterance 
of  the  great  principle  of  self-renuncia¬ 
tion,  by  which  the  desired  victory  over 
self  is  to  be  obtained.  The  circle  were 
astounded  by  the  demonstration,  not 
knowing  what  to  make  of  it.  The  in¬ 
stinct  of  prudence  threw  them  in  an 
observing,  a  general,  silence;  and  it  is 
a  curious  fact  that  the  public  in  II. 
have  never  to  this  hour  been  startled 
by  so  much  as  a  rumour  of  a  gift  of 


104 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


speaketh  mysteries.  3  But  lie  that 
prophesietk  speaketh  unto  men  to 
d  edification,  and  exhortation,  and 
comfort.  4  He  that  speaketh  in  an 
unknown  tongue  edifietli  himself; 
hut  he  that  prophesieth  edifietli 
the  church.  5  I  would  that  ye  all 
spake  with  tongues,  but  rather  that 
ye  prophesied :  for  greater  is  he  that 
prophesieth  than  he  that  speaketh 
with  tongues,  except  he  interpret, 
that  the  church  may  receive  edify- 

d  1  Tim.  1.  4. - e  Verse  26;  Eph.  1.  17. 

tongues,  neither  has  the  name  of  the 
speaker  been  associated  with  so  much 
as  a  surmise  of  the  real  or  supposed 
fact,  by  which  he  would  be,  perhaps, 
unen viably  distinguished.  It  has  been 
to  him  a  great  trial,  it  is  said,  to  sub¬ 
mit  himself  to  this  demonstration, 
which  has  recurred  several  times.” — 
P.  479. 

3.  Prophesieth — As  the  Spirit  se¬ 
lects  for  its  instruments  the  persons 
most  qualified  by  nature  for  its  special 
work,  so  the  individual  naturally  sus- 
ceptible  to  presentiment  would  be  gifted 
with  the  prophetic  charism. 

4.  Edifieth  himself — The  very  in¬ 
spiration  elevates  and  delights  his  spir¬ 
it,  while  his  own  utterance  of  divine 
mysteries  reacts  upon  and  edifieth 
himself.  Though  he  keep  silence, 
(verse  28,)  he  goes  not  unblest.  Edi¬ 
fieth  the  Church — By  clear  and  in¬ 
structive  thought,  and,  perhaps,  super¬ 
natural  prediction. 

5.  I  would... all  spake  with 
tongues — Xot  a  mere  concession  to 
the  prejudices  of  the  Corinthians,  but  a 
hearty  endorsement  of  the  gift  as  good 
in  its  place.  But  rather ...  prophe¬ 
sied — The  apostle  is  wisely  utilitarian. 
He  adjudges  the  palm  of  superiority  to 
the  more  useful  gift.  Catalepsies  and 
trances  are  viewed  with  wonder;  but 
that  very  wonder  is  not  religious  or 
sanctifying,  and  may  take  the  place  of 
holier  thought.  Nor  has  it  been  found 
that  the  subjects  of  them  are  the  holi¬ 
est  persons  in  the  Church;  just  as  the 
Corinthian  Church,  though  most  exer¬ 
cised  by  these  gifts,  was  by  no  means 
eminent  among  the  Churches  for  its 


ing.  6  Now,  brethren,  if  1  come 
unto  you  speaking  with  tongues, 
what  shall  I  profit  you,  except  I 
shall  speak  to  you  either  by e  revela¬ 
tion,  or  by  knowledge,  or  by  proph¬ 
esying,  or  by  doctrine?  7  And  even 
things  without  life  giving  sound, 
whether  pipe  or  harp,  except  they 
give  a  distinction  in  the *  2 * * * 6 7 8  sounds, 
how  shall  it  be  known  what  is  piped 
or  harped  ?  §  For  f  if  the  trumpet 
give  an  uncertain  sound,  who  shall 

2  Or,  tunes. - /Num.  10.  9;  Josh.  6.  4,  20. 

holiness.  And  so  the  existence  of  this 

phenomenon  in  the  Irvingite  assem¬ 

blies  was  no  proof  of  superior  holiness. 

Except  he  interpret — For  either  the 

charismatic  speaker  may  follow  his  ut¬ 
terance  with  an  interpretation,  (as  in 
the  case  adduced  by  Dr.  Bushnell,)  or 
another  person  gifted  with  interpreta¬ 
tion  might  interpret.  This  clause  seems 
to  imply  that  the  utterer  with  tongues 
could  not  always  explain  his  own  ut¬ 
terance.  The  inspiration  reached  the 
spirit,  and  wakened  powerful  emo¬ 
tions,  but  did  not  quicken  the  under¬ 
standing  ;  so  that  the  vocality,  though 
expressive,  was  not  understood  as  words 
by  the  subject  himself. 

6.  If  I — St.  Paul  states,  as  often,  the 
disparaging  supposition  as  of  himself. 
He  makes  this  supposition  in  order  at 
some  length  to  unfold  the  lesser  utility 
of  tongues.  Either  by — Some  proc¬ 
ess  by  which  intelligent  thought  is 
conveyed.  Of  the  four,  revelation 
means  some  vision  or  announcement 
from  the  spiritual  world ;  knowledge, 
some  perception  by  the  discerner  of 
spirits ;  prophesying,  some  prediction 
or  supernaturally  heart-searching  dis¬ 
course;  doctrine,  or  teaching,  some 
exposition  of  the  established  truths  of 
Christianity  or  of  the  Old  Testament. 

7-9.  Paul  illustrates  the  inutility  of 
uninterpreted  tongues  by  the  worthless¬ 
ness  of  a  signal  instrument — as  a  trum¬ 
pet  signaling  the  commencement  of 
battle — which  has  no  significant  notes. 

7.  Distinction — Into  high  or  low, 
sharp  or  obtuse,  etc. 

8.  Trumpet — By  different  notes,  or 
even  tunes,  upon  the  military  trumpet 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


105 


\.  D.  b 7. 


prepare  himself  to  the  battle?  9  So 
likewise  ye,  except  ye  utter  by  the 
tongue  words  3  easy  to  be  under¬ 
stood,  how  shall  it  be  known  what 
is  spoken  ?  for  ye  shall  speak  into 
the  air.  10  There  are,  it  may  be, 
so  many  kinds  of  voices  in  the 
world,  and  none  of  them  is  with¬ 
out  signification.  11  Therefore 
if  I  know  not  the  meaning  of  the 
voice,  I  shall  be  unto  him  that 

3  Greek,  significant. 

the  army  was  signaled  either  to  ad¬ 
vance,  retreat,  prepare  for  battle,  go 
into  quarters,  etc.  Sometimes  the  op¬ 
posite  army  learned  the  signals  and 
were  able  to  use  them  by  stratagem. 
Sometimes  by  counter  stratagem  the 
enemy  was  made  to  believe  the  sig¬ 
nals,  and  was  deceived  to  his  own  dam¬ 
age.  Prepare . . .  battle— If  the  signal 
should  be  uncertain  the  army  would  be 
in  confusion,  not  knowing  what  move¬ 
ment  to  make. 

9.  Words  easy  to  be  understood 

• — The  unexplained  tongue  is  like  the 
uncertain  trumpet ;  it  communicates  no 
idea,  and  leaves  the  hearer  no  wiser 
than  it  found  him.  Speak  into  the 
air  —  Just  as  the  unaiming^  athlete 
beateth  the  air.  If  your  speech  be  a 
nothing,  your  proper  hearer  is  empty 
space. 

10.  So  many.  .  .voices — So  many 
speeches ,  dialects,  or  languages.  The 
Jews  customarily  reckoned  human  lan¬ 
guages  to  be  seventy  in  number. 
Without  signification  —  Literally, 
none  of  them  (speeches)  is  speechless. 
They  all  say  something  ;  express  a 
signification. 

11.  Meaning  of  the  voice— Liter¬ 
ally,  the  force  of  the  speech.  A  barba¬ 
rian — The  Greeks  were  proud  of  their 
own  race  and  of  their  own  language, 
and  the  talk  of  a  foreigner  was  a  mere 
bar  bar ,  and  so  they  called  the  foreigner 
a  barbaros ,  or  babbler.  Hence  Greek 
and  barbarian,  in  Romans  i,  14,  is  an 
antithesis  for  all  the  world,  like  Jew 
and  Gentile.  The  antithesis  was  first 
founded,  as  here,  on  language ;  but 
La?  barian  has  finally  come  to  signify 
uncivilized. 


speaketli  a  barbarian,  and  he  that 
speak eth  shall  be  a  barbarian  unto 
me.  12  Even  so  ye,  forasmuch 
as  ye  are  zealous  4  of  spiritual  gifts , 
seek  that  ye  may  excel  to  the  edi¬ 
fying  of  the  church.  13  Where¬ 
fore  let  him  that  speaketli  in  an 
unknown  tongue  pray  that  he  may 
interpret.  1 4  For  if  I  pray  in  an 
unknown  tongue,  my  spirit  prayeth, 
but  my  understanding  is  unfruitful. 

4  Greek,  of  spirits. 

12.  Edifying — Be  not  by  your  tongue 
a  barbarian  to  the  Church,  but  an  ed- 
ifier,  an  upbuilder  of  it. 

13.  Pray. .  .may  interpret  —  This 
has  been  construed  by  many  commen¬ 
tators  to  mean  pray  in  order  that,  or 
with  the  purpose  to,  interpret,  This 
must  not  imply  that  the  speaking  with 
a  tongue  was  always  prayer.  For, 
1.  The  pentecostal  tongues  were  rather 
praise  than  prayer,  and  apparently  ad¬ 
dressed  to  the  people.  2.  An  inter¬ 
preter  would  usually  be  more  suitable 
for  a  discourse  than  for  prayer.  3.  It 
is  not  unworthy  of  consideration  that 
in  Mr.  Buslinell’s  narrative  the  tongue 
was  hortatory;  and,  4.  We  can  see 
nothing  in  the  nature  of  the  “tongue” 
prohibiting  the  idea  of  its  being  used 
for  every  mode  of  exercise.  We  ren¬ 
der  it,  Let  him  so  pray  that  he  may 
be  enabled  afterwards  to  interpret  his 
prayer.  By  that  means,  as  in  Mr.  Bush- 
nell’s  instance,  he  may  follow  the  dis¬ 
course  with  an  interpretation,  and  the 
divine  charism  gives  the  discourse  a 
divine  authority. 

14.  If  I  pray— And  do  not  follow 
with  an  interpretation.  Spirit . . .  un¬ 
derstanding  —  The  former  is  the  re¬ 
ligious  faculty  by  which  we  commune 
with  God  ;  the  inner  and  higher  man ; 
the  seat  of  sacred  emotions :  the  latter 
is  the  intelligence  by  which  we  know 
and  reason  about  matters  presented  to 
our  thought.  Prayer  in  an  unknown 
tongue  may  stir  the  man’s  own  holy 
emotions,  but  no  definite  ideas  are  con¬ 
veyed  to  the  understanding  of  the 
hearers.  Perhaps  his  own  understand¬ 
ing  does  not  form  any  distinct  and  ex¬ 
pressible  ideas,  so  that  he  does  not,  in 


106 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  5‘» 


15  What  is  it  then  ?  I  will  pray 
with  the  spirit,  and  I  will  pray 
with  the  understanding  also:  &I 
will  sing  with  the  spirit,  and  I 
will  sing  hwith  the  understanding 

g  Eph.  5.  19;  Col.  3.  16. 


fact,  take  the  precise  meaning  of  the 
words  he  utters.  Unfruitful — Produc¬ 
tive  of  no  distinct  ideas  which  can  be 
remembered  and  carried  away  by  my¬ 
self  and  others. 

15.  What  is  it  then  —  Compare 
notes  on  Rom.  iii,  9;  vi,  15.  This  is  a 
question  by  which  the  general  result 
of  the  argument  is  asked.  What  is  the 
conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  ?  W ith 
the  spirit — My  higher  spiritual  emo¬ 
tional  nature.  Understanding  also 
— With  my  intellect,  so  that  complete, 
active  thought  may  be  exercised  and 
retained  both  by  myself  and  others. 
Sing  — Paul  had  no  Quaker  hostility  to 
sacred  music.  Very  early  must  the 
Church  have  formed  some  sort  of  a 
limnology.  One  is,  indeed,  inclined  to 
wonder  why  no  psalms  or  hymns  have 
formed  a  part  of  the  Xew  Testament 
canon.  But  this  word  does  not  neces¬ 
sarily  imply  the  regularly  formed  hymn 
in  all  cases,  but  the  lofty  chant  of  the 
charismatic  tongue. 

16.  Bless — The  explanation  given 
by  Stanley  is  here  apposite :  “  The 
‘thanksgiving’  or  ‘blessing’  of  which 
Paul  speaks  seems  to  be  that  which 
accompanied  the  Lord’s  supper,  and 
whence  it  derived  its  name  of  the  ‘  eu- 
charist.’  In  answer  to  this  thanksgiving 
the  congregation  utter  their  ‘amen.’ 
‘After  the  prayers,’  says  Justin,  (Ajp.,  c. 
65,  67,)  ‘bread  is  offered,  and  wine  and 
water,  and  the  president  offers,  accord¬ 
ing  to  his  power,  prayers  and  thanks¬ 
givings  at  once,  and  the  people  shout 
the  amen.  The  president  offers  praise 
and  glory  to  the  Father  of  all,  through 
the  name  of  his  Son  and  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  at  length  returns  thanks  to 
Hod  for  having  vouchsafed  us  to  partake 
of  these  things.  When  he  has  finished 
the  prayers  and  thanksgivings,  all  the 
people  present  shout,  saying,  ‘Amen,’ 
which  is  the  Hebrew  for  ‘  So  be  it.’  ” 
The  unlearned — The  Greek  word  here 


also.  10  Else,  when  thou  slialt 
bless  with  the  spirit,  how  shall  he 
that  occupieth  the  room  of  the  un¬ 
learned  say  Amen  ‘at  thy  giving 
of  thanks,  seeing  he  understandeth 

h  Psa.  47.  7. - i  Chap.  11.  24. 


(same  as  in  Acts  iv,  1 3,  where  see  note) 
signifies  an  unofficial  or  non-profession¬ 
al  man,  in  antithesis  with  the  official 
officiating,  or  professional  man.  In  ref¬ 
erence  to  a  priest  or  clergyman,  it  signi¬ 
fies  a  layman ;  a  private  man  instead  of 
a  public  man,  or  a  philosopher.  Here 
it  signifies  the  ungifted,  in  opposition  to 
the  gifted.  But  even  the  gifted  might, 
while  listening  to  another's  charismatic 
performance,  be  said  to  occupy  the 
room  of  the  ungifted.  Amen — In 
the  Greek  with  an  article,  the  Amen. 
“  The  ‘  amen  ’  thus  used  was  borrowed 
from  the  worship  of  the  synagogue,  and 
hence,  probably,  the  article  is  prefixed 
as  to  a  well-known  form.  It  was  then 
regarded  as  the  necessary  ratification  of 
the  prayer  or  blessing.  ‘  He  who  says 
amen  is  greater  than  he  that  blesses,’ 
( Barashoth ,  viii,  8.)  ‘  Whoever  says 

amen,  to  him  the  gates  of  paradise  are 
open,’  according  to  Isa.  xxvi,  2,  whence 
they  read,  ‘  Open  ye  the  gates,  that  the 
righteous  nation  which  keepeth  the 
amen  may  enter  in.’ — Wetstein,  adloc. 
An  ‘  amen  ’  if  not  well  considered  was 
called  an  ‘orphan  amen.’ — (Lightfoot, 
ad  loc.)  ‘  Whoever  says  an  orphan 
amen,  his  children  shall  be  orphans ; 
whoever  answers  amen  hastily  or  short¬ 
ly,  his  days  shall  be  shortened ;  who¬ 
ever  answers  amen  distinctly  and  at 
length,  his  days  shall  be  lengthened.’ — 
( Barashoth ,  xlvii,  1 ;  Schottgen,  ad  be.) 
Compare  the  use  of  the  word  as  uttered 
by  the  vast  assembly  of  pilgrims  at 
Mecca,  to  express  their  assent  to  the 
great  sermon  at  the  Kaaba. — (Burton’s 
Pilgrimage ,  iii,  p.  314.) 

“  So  in  the  early  Christian  liturgies,  it 
was  regarded  as  a  marked  point  in  the 
service,  and  with  this  agrees  the  great 
solemnity  with  which  Justin  speaks  of 
it,  as  though  it  were  on  a  level  with 
the  thanksgiving  ;  ‘  the  president  hav¬ 
ing  given  thanks,  and  the  whole  people 
having  shouted  their  approbation.’  And 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


107 


not  what  ;hou  sayest?  17  For  thou 
verily  givest  thanks  well,  but  the 
other  is  not  edified.  18  I  thank 
my  God,  I  speak  with  tongues 
more  than  ye  all :  19  Yet  in  the 

church  I  had  rather  speak  five 
words  with  my  understanding,  that 
by  my  voice  I  might  teach  others 
also,  than  ten  thousand  words  in 
an  unknown  tongue.  20  Brethren, 

h  Psalm  131.  2;  Rom.  16.  19;  chap.  3.  1;  Eph. 
4.  14;  Heb.  5.  12,  13. - 1  Matt.  18.  3;  1  Pet.  2.  2. 

in  later  times,  the  amen  was  only  re¬ 
peated  once  by  the  congregation,  and 
always  after  the  great  thanksgiving, 
and  with  a  shout  like  a  peal  of  thun¬ 
der.” — Stanley ,  p.  263. 

17.  Not  edified  —  Completely  and 
conclusively  does  Paul’s  language  and 
reasoning  forbid  the  Romish  use  of  the 
Latin  language  in  divine  service  all 
over  the  world.  It  is  an  unknown 
tongue,  and,  therefore,  the  people  are 
not  edified.  It  is  useless  for  Rome  to 
reply  that  it  was  only  unknown  charis¬ 
matic  tongues  that  were  forbidden.  For 
if  even  an  inspired  person  might  not 
speak  Latin  without  a  translation,  much 
more  the  uninspired.  This  was  often 
done  in  former  times  by  priests  who  did 
not  themselves  understand  Latin ;  and 
Fulke,  in  his  “  Confutation  of  the  Rhe- 
mish  Testament,”  gives  some  amusing 
specimens  of  murdered  Latin  current  in 
the  Romish  utterance  of  the  ritual. 

18.  Thank.  .  .God  —  Paul  here  in¬ 
dicates,  1.  That  the  charism  of  tongues 
was  a  gift  to  be  thankful  for ;  2.  Calls 
to  mind,  in  a  manner  implying  that  the 
Corinthians  would  not  deny,  the  afflu¬ 
ence  of  his  gifts;  3.  Implies  that  he 
not  only  possessed,  but  used,  the  power 
in  actual  exercise ;  4.  That,  therefore, 
he  assigned  tongues  a  subordinate  place 
from  no  envy  to  those  displaying  them ; 
and,  5.  Prepares  by  all  this  for  his  deci¬ 
sive  sentence  next  to  be  uttered  against 
the  use  of  tongues  uninterpreted. 

19.  In  the  church — In  the  Christ¬ 
ian  assembly  gathered  for  religious  ex¬ 
ercises,  as  prayer,  praise,  (singing,) 
prophecy,  (preaching,)  and  other  modes 
suggested  by  the  Spirit.  Five  words 
— A  delinite  small  number  designed  to 


k be  not  children  in  understanding: 
howbeit  in  malice  1  be  ye  chil¬ 
dren,  but  in  understanding  be  5 men. 
21  mIn  the  law  it  is  n  written,  With 
men  of  other  tongues  and  other  lips 
will  I  speak  unto  this  people ;  and 
yet  for  all  that  will  they  not  heai 
me,  saith  the  Lord. 

22  Wherefore  tongues  are  for 
a  sign,  not  to  them  that  believe, 

- 5  Greek,  perfect ,  or,  of  a  ripe  aae,  chap. 

2.  6. - m  John  10.  34. - n  Isa.  28.  11,  12. 

give  sharpness  to  his  sentence.  Ten 
thousand — Besser,  quoted  by  Kling, 
says  “  rather  half  of  ten,  if  of  the  edi¬ 
fying  sort,  than  a  thousand  times  ten  of 
the  other.”  So  that  “  the  edifying  sort  ” 
was  twenty  thousand  times  the  better. 

20.  Brethren — Beginning  on  anoth¬ 
er  key,  with  an  affectionate  confidential 
undertone,  yet  of  reproof.  Children 
— They  were  like  children  preferring 
profitless  sound  to  profitable  thought. 
Howbeit — As  if  suddenly  recollecting 
that  there  was  a  point,  namely,  malice, 
in  which  they  might  well  resemble  in¬ 
fants,  which  the  Greek  for  this  second 
word  children  really  signifies.  Men 
— Perfect,  grown  up  persons. 

21.  The  law  —  The  Old  Testament 
as  a  whole  ;  as  in  John  x,  34  ;  xii,  34 ; 
xv,  25.  The  passage  alluded  to  by 
Paul  is  Isaiah  xxviii,  13.  The  Israel¬ 
ites  had  complained  that  Jehovah  had 
drilled  them  like  children,  with  precept 
upon  precept  and  line  upon  line  ;  and 
J ehovah  retorts,  with  terrible  sarcasm, 
that  he  would  give  them  instructors 
with  another  tongue,  namely,  the  As¬ 
syrian  armies,  and  yet  they  will  not 
hear.  St.  Paul  quotes  this  as  an  im¬ 
pressive  type,  indicating  that  foreign 
tongues  spoken  in  the  Church,  though 
intended  for  the  conversion  of  unbe¬ 
lievers,  had  a  fearful  precedent  of  fail¬ 
ing  of  the  effect.  Other  tongues — 
Gentile  tongues,  like  those  of  the  cha¬ 
rismatic  Corinthians ;  not  miraculous 
tongues,  however,  yet  brought  by  God’s 
overruling  providence  upon  Israel. 

b.  Illustration  of  the  inferiority  of 
tongues  to  prophecy ,  22-25. 

22.  Wherefore — In  peculiar  con¬ 
formity  with  this  type.  Tongues. .  .a 


108 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


but  to  them  that  believe  not:  but 
prophesying  seweth  not  for  them 
that  believe  not,  but  for  them 
which  believe.  23  If  therefore 
the  whole  church  be  come  togeth¬ 
er  into  one  place,  and  all  speak 

o  Acts 

sign ...  to  them  that  believe  not — 

Their  miraculous  and  startling  charac¬ 
ter  rendered  them  a  sign  for  the  con- 
virtion  of  unbelievers  ;  just  as  the  As¬ 
syrian  tongues  were  for  the  bringing 
Israel  to  repentance.  For  the  convic¬ 
tion  of  unbelievers  were  the  charis¬ 
matic  tongues  intended,  and  this  they 
would  often  effect  if  rightly  exercised. 
The  notion  of  some  commentators,  that 
Paul  teaches  that  tongues  are  a  sign  of 
.judgment  upon  incorrigible  unbeliev¬ 
ers,  is  contrary  to  the  whole  history  and 
character  of  that  charism  and  entire¬ 
ly  unsustained  by  Paul’s  words.  The 
Pentecostal  tongues,  though  rejected 
by  the  mockers,  were  intended  to  con¬ 
vert  all  who  heard  them,  and  did  effect 
the  object  to  a  glorious  extent.  The 
charism,  by  its  very  nature,  points  to  a 
reception  of  the  gospel  by  the  nations. 
If  they  are  an  adumbration  of  the  one 
tongue  of  Paradise,  they  are  a  cheerful 
and  glorious  image.  By  their  appealing 
to  the  ear  of  the  foreigner  in  his  own 
home  dialect,  as  well  as  by  tlieir  thrill¬ 
ing,  supernatural  impressiveness,  they 
were  a  sign  most  convincing  to  the 
unbeliever  ;  just  as  Paul  says  the  signs 
of  an  apostle  were  wrought  by  him  for 
the  conversion  of  the  Corinthians  them¬ 
selves.  Y et  all  happy  results  depended 
upon  their  proper  use ;  otherwise  urn 
believers  would  reject  those  displaying 
them  as  mad  ;  as  in  next  verse. 

23.  If  therefore — Paul  now  shows 
how  a  mismanagement  of  tongues  will 
verify  the  prediction,  (Isa.  xxviii,  12,) 
they  would  not  hear ;  and  in  so  doing 
furnishes  in  these  two  verses  one  of  the 
most  vivid  and  interesting  pictures  of  the 
process  of  conversion  in  a  live  Church 
of  the  apostolic  age.  We  learn  how  im¬ 
proper  management  aggravated  unbe¬ 
lief  and  brought  obloquy  upon  religion: 
and  how  the  vivid  presentation  of  truth 
searched  the  life  and  soul  of  the  hearer 
through  and  through,  pierced  him  with 


with  tongues,  and  there  come  in 
those  that  are  unlearned,  or  un¬ 
believers,  °will  they  not  say  that 
ye  are  mad  ?  24  But  if  all  proph¬ 
esy,  and  there  come  in  one  that 
believeth  not,  or  one  unlearned,  he 

2.  13. _ 

conviction,  and  brought  him  down  in 
prayer  and  complete  self-surrender  on 
the  spot.  Paul,  no  doubt,  was  familiar 
with  such  events,  and  many  a  powerful 
preacher  since  his  day  has  witnessed 
the  power  of  truth  to  convert  the  soul. 
All  speak  with  tongues — Not  all  at 
once ;  (just  as  all  prophesy,  in  the 
next  verse,  does  not  mean  all  prophesy 
at  once ;)  but  no  performer  does  any 
thing  else  but  speak  with  tongues. 
There  is  no  prophesying,  or  teaching, 
or  interpreting ;  nothing  but  one  lofty 
chant  of  tongues  from  different  per¬ 
formers  through  the  whole  meeting. 
It  is  all  vox  et  pr outer ea  nihil.  Not  one 
distinct  idea  for  the  stranger  through 
the  whole.  Unlearned— Same  word 
as  in  verse  16 — ungifted  persons;  who 
neither  speak,  nor  interpret,  nor  un¬ 
derstand  charismatically.  Their  want 
of  share  in  the  gift  results  in  want  of 
sympathy  and  in  unbelief.  Unbeliev¬ 
ers — Pagans  or  Jews.  Ye  are  mad 
—  They  will  pronounce  you  at  once 
unintelligent  fanatics.  From  all  this 
it  would  seem  to  follow  that  these 
Corinthian  tongues  did  not  express  to 
the  unsympathizing  foreigner  any  con¬ 
nected  discourse;  and  this  sinking  be¬ 
low  the  pentecostal  standard  was  the 
reason  of  Paul’s  just  disparagement  of 
them.  From  the  Greek  word  for  mad, 
yaiveoOe,  come  our  words  mania ,  mani¬ 
ac.  The  Greek  word  yavrit,  a  prophet, 
belongs  to  the  same  root,  because  the 
sacred  mania  by  which  the  prophet 
was  possessed  was  considered  as  a 
prophetic  influence. 

24.  If  all  prophesy  —  If  a  strain 
of  inspired  preaching  continue  through 
the  whole  meeting,  then  intelligent 
thought  is  produced  and  conviction  of 
sinners  follows.  Convinced— Literal¬ 
ly,  detected ,  or  convicted.  That  is,  he  is 
detected  to  himself  as  a  transgressor, 
a  sinner  beneath  the  eye  of  God.  His 
sins  are  brought  before  his  own  view. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


109 


A.  "P.  5  7. 


-s  convinced  of  all,  lie  is  judged  of 
nil :  25  And  thus  are  the  secrets 

of  his  heart  made  manifest ;  and 
so  falling  down  on  his  face  he  will 
worship  God,  and  report  Pthat  God 
is  in  you  of  a  truth. 

26  How  is  it  then,  brethren?  when 
ye  come  together,  every  one  of  you 
hath  a  psalm,  Uiatli  a  doctrine,  hath  1 
a  tongue,  hath  a  revelation,  hath  an 

v  Isa.  45  14;  Zech.  8.  23. - q  Verse  6;  chap.  12. 


interpretation.  rLet  all  things  be 
done  unto  edifying.  27  If  any  man 
speak  in  an  unknown  tongue,  let  it 
be  by  two,  or  at  the  most  by  three, 
and  that  by  course ;  and  let  one  in¬ 
terpret.  2§  But  if  there  be  no  in¬ 
terpreter,  let  him  keep  silence  in  tha 
church  ;  ana  let  him  speak  to  him¬ 
self,  and  to  God.  29  Let  the  proph¬ 
ets  speak  two  or  three,  and  let  the 

8,10. - rChap.  12.  7;  2  Cor.  12.  19;  Eph.  4.  12. 


The  word  for  judged  signifies  to  cross- 
examine,  as  a  judge  or  lawyer,  with 
probing  questions.  The  truth  search- 
ingly  questions  the  man  as  to  his  char¬ 
acter  before  God.  He  is  like  a  culprit 
under  the  inquisition  of  his  judge.  Of 
all — Of  or  by  all  the  prophecies.  Hot 
that  they  directly  question  him  in  per¬ 
son  ;  but  the  truths  they  deliver  do  com¬ 
pel  his  conscience  to  question  himself. 

25.  Secrets  of  his  heart — The  man 
(as  has  often  been  the  case  under  a 
searching  ministry)  feels  as  if  the 
speaker  knew  him  through  and  through, 
and  was  preaching  at,  and  to,  and 
through  him  alone.  Falling. .  .face — 
In  complete  submission,  self-surrender, 
and  worship.  Report— As  Dr.  Hodge 
says,  “  The  man  who  has  had  such  an 
experience  cannot  keep  it  to  himself.” 
He  will  joyfully  declare,  in  substance, 
that  he  “has  experienced  religion;” 
or.  if  witlings  will  so  have  it,  he  “  has 
got  religion.”  That  God — Ho  longer 
identified  with  the  deities  of  heathen 
mythology.  Is  in  you— Both  among 
you  as  a  Church,  and  in  your  hearts 
individually  by  his  Spirit. 

c.  Rules  for  the  most  orderly  and 
effective  exercise  of  both  tongues  and 
prophecy ,  26-33. 

26.  Every  one — Rather,  each  one. 
Used  not  to  indicate  that  all  of  them 
had  an  exercise  to  offer,  but  to  sig¬ 
nify  that  the  gifts  were  distributed  one 
to  an  individual,  and  not  all  to  one 
or  all  to  all.  Hath  a  psalm — Some 
train  of  Christian  thought  expressed  in 
rhythmical  language,  to  be  chanted  or 
sung.  Hath  a  doctrine . . .  revela¬ 
tion —  See  note  on  verse  6.  Edify- 

—  St.  Paul  would  again  test  the 
,  or  the  exercise  by  its  results — does 


it  profit,  convert  sinners,  build  up  the 
Church  ? 

27.  By  two. .  .three— That  is,  let 
but  two  or  three  exercise  the  unknown 
tongue  at  a  single  meeting ;  and  not 
even  that  unless  one,  either  the  speak¬ 
er  himself  or  another,  interpret.  By 
course — One  at  a  time ;  neither  two 
together,  nor  one  eagerly  interrupting 
the  other. 

28.  No  interpreter — If  there  were 
no  interpreter,  neither  the  charismatic 
speaker  himself,  nor  any  other  person, 
then  the  charismatic  must  keep  silence. 
If  the  power  of  the  Spirit  was  so  great 
as  not  only  to  fill  his  human  spirit  and 
prompt  vocal  utterances,  but  without 
so  pervading  his  understanding  that  he 
could  interpret  the  words,  it  might 
nevertheless  bring  into  communication 
with  itself  the  understanding  of  some 
susceptible  person  present,  so  that  he 
could  interpret.  The  divine  thought 
would  then  be  given  to  the  supernatural 
vocality,  and  both  together  would  com¬ 
bine  to  fulfil  the  purpose  of  being  a  sign 
to  them  that  believe  not.  It  would  then 
be  felt  by  the  consciences  of  men  that 
the  tongues  were  not  only  supernat¬ 
ural,  but  that  they  were  holy  and  di¬ 
vine.  Speak  to  himself— The  divine 
thoughts  wrought  in  the  man’s  spirit 
refused  to  be  shaped  into  words  of  his 
own  vernacular;  and  his  only  resources, 
if  silenced,  was  to  yield  a  mental  utter¬ 
ance  of  the  charismatic  words  to  him¬ 
self,  and  thus  experience  the  blessed 
reaction  described  in  our  note  on  v.  2. 
To  God — Since  ‘often  the  utterance 
would  be  prayer  or  praise. 

29.  Two  or  three —At  a  single 
meeting,  in  order  to  secure  variet}r. 
He  does  not  add  at  the  most ,  as  in  re- 


110 


I.  CO  Li  IIS  TUI  AN  S. 


A.  D.  57. 


others  judge.8  30  If  any  thing  be 
revealed  to  another  that  sittetli 
by,  Met  the  first  hold  his  peace. 
31  F  or  ye  may  all  prophesy  one  by 
one,  that  all  may  learn,  and  all  may 

*  Chap.  12.10. - 1\  Thess.5.19,20. - u\ John 4.1. 

gard  to  tongues,  because  he  would  not 
make  the  limitation  so  positive. 

30.  Revealed  .  .  .  sitteth  by  —  If 
while  one  charismatic  is  speaking  a 
special  revelation  is  made  to  another, 
let  the  first  stop  and  allow  the  latter 
to  utter  it,  and  not  discourteously  keep 
on  talking  and  so  create  disorder.  The 
reason  why  the  first  should  prompt¬ 
ly  be  silent  is,  that  a  revelation ,  just 
made,  if  genuine,  is  supposably  not 
only  more  authoritative,  but  is  given 
for  immediate  use,  and  should  suspend, 
if  not  entirely  supersede,  the  ordinary 
current  of  prophetic  discourse. 

31.  Ye  may — Rather,  ye  are  able. 
St.  Paul  has  given  the  above  directions 
for  preserving  order,  for  they  thereby 
vjere  able ,  if  they  took  proper  care,  ail 
to  prophesy,  who  had  the  gift,  not 
simultaneously,  but  one  by  one,  and 
so  all  the  congregation  may,  by  hear¬ 
ing  a  variety  of  discourse,  learn  and 
be  comforted,  or  instructed. 

32.  And — Additional  to  the  above 
ability  of  self-control,  is  the  fact  that 
the  human  spirits  of  the  inspired 
prophets  are  not,  from  their  inspira¬ 
tion,  irrepressible  and  disorderly,  but 
are  subject  to  the  prophets,  exercis¬ 
ing  their  rational  powers.  This  means, 
not  that  the  divine  Spirit  should  be 
overruled ;  but  that  the  disorder  of  the 
human  spirit,  under  divine  influence, 
should  be  steadied  and  ruled  by  the 
rational  faculty,  in  accord  with  the 
principles  of  order  and  becomingness. 
This  is  true  of  each  individual  prophet. 
It  is  possible  to  be  true  of  the  collec¬ 
tive  body.  So  that  let  no  one  claim 
that  he  is  obliged  by  the  powerful  and 
uncontrollable  impulses  of  the  Spirit  to 
overbear  reason,  order,  or  decency. 

33.  And  that  such  claims  of  being 
moved  by  the  divine  Spirit  to  disorder 
arc  false,  is  clear  from  this  solemn 
fact,  that  God  is  not  the  author  of 
confusion.  The  Greek  word  for  con¬ 
fusion  ofJen  signifies  the  political  tu¬ 


be  comforted.  32  And  u  the  spirits 
of  the  prophets  are  subject  to  the 
prophets.  33  For  God  is  not  the 
author  of  6  confusion,  but  of  peace, 
vas  in  all  churches  of  the  saints. 

6Gr.  tumuli ,  or  unquietness. rChap.  11. 16. 

mults  of  cities,  and  here  indicates  that 
there  had  been  very  decided  disorders 
in  Corinthian  assemblies.  As  in  all 
Churches  —  Here,  as  in  xi,  16,  Paul 
finishes  by  nailing  fast  his  directions 
with  the  authority  of  the  Churches 
of  the  then  small  Christendom.  This 
precedent  shows  the  incorrectness  of 
later  scholars,  who,  in  opposition  to  all 
ancient  authority,  bring  this  clause  to 
begin  the  following  paragraph,  making 
it  read:  “As  in  all  the  Churches  of  the 
saints  let  your  women  keep  silence 
in  the  Churches.”  The  jingle  of  the 
double  use  of  Churches,  here,  is  of¬ 
fensive  ;  which  Dr.  Hodge  covers  up, 
but  does  not  remove,  bjr  illegitimately 
translating :  “  As  is  the  case  in  all 
other  Christian  Churches,  let  your 
women  keep  silence  in  the  public  as¬ 
semblies.”  Some  of  the  old  commen¬ 
tators  have  thought  necessary  to  insert 
“  I  teach  ”  after  as,  but  it  is  the  au¬ 
thority  of  the  Churches,  not  his  own 
teaching  in  them,  that  Paul  intends 
to  adduce.  Xo  additional  words  are 
needed  to  be  understood.  The  as,  tak¬ 
ing  into  its  grasp  verse  33,  necessarily 
includes  under  one  glance  all  the  laws 
laid  down  by  Paul  for  the  Corinthian 
Church,  under  the  great  maxim  that 
God  is  author  of  order  alone,  and 
places  them  under  the  sanction  of  the 
then  Catholic  Church.  It  unquestion¬ 
ably  so  lay  in  the  apostle’s  own  mind. 

d.  This  Church  order  must  not  be 
disturbed  by  the  garrulity  of  their  women , 
34,  35. 

“  Paul,”  says  Calvin,  (note  xi,  5,) 
“  attends  to  ,one  thing  at  a  time.” 
Truly  said;  for  as  in  xi,  3-16  he  regu¬ 
lated  the  praying  and  prophesying  of 
the  gifted  women,  so  here  he  prohibits 
the  garrulity  of  the  ungifted  common¬ 
alty  of  the  sex.  It  was  not  given  to 
Orientalism,  but  to  our  Teutonic  races, 
to  assign  to  woman  her  higher  place. 
The  Indian  brahmin,  the  Jewish  rabbi, 
the  Greek  poet,  and  the  Roman  senator. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


Ill 


alike  spoke  of  her  with  contempt,  and 
prescribed  silence  as  her  cardinal  virtue. 
Their  penalty  was  to  lose  the  blessings 
that  cultured  womanhood  does  now, 
and  can  still  more  abundantly,  con- 
fer  upon  man.  St.  Paul  treats  the  sex 
with  the  severity  accordant  with  its 
then  character ;  but  no  vision  is  vouch¬ 
safed  him  of  woman’s  better  future. 
The  Spirit,  however,  in  persistently  be¬ 
stowing  upon  woman  the  gift  of  proph¬ 
ecy,  clearly  indicated  a  gracious  hope. 
Acts  ii,  18. 

How  the  rabbins  crushed  woman 
with  false  exegeses  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  let  the  following  quotation  show, 
given  by  Wetstein  from  Kidduschim, 
folio  29,  2  :  “Whence  is  it  proved  to  us 
that  a  mother  may  not  be  held  to  teach 
her  own  son?  Because  it  is  written 
in  Deuteronomy  v,  1,  ‘Ye  shall  teach, 
and  ye  shall  learn,’  the  verbs  being 
in  the  'masculine.  Whoever  are  com¬ 
manded  to  learn  are  commanded  to 
teach :  whoever  are  not  commanded  to 
learn  are  not  commanded  to  teach. 
That  a  woman  is  not  commanded  to 
teach  herself,  whence  is  it  proved  ? 
From  Dent,  xi,  19,  where  it  is  said: 
‘And  ye  shall  teach  them  your  children, 
speaking  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in 
thine  house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by 
the  way,  when  thou  liest  down,  and 
when  thou  risest  up.’  Whence,  also, 
is  it  proved  that  others  should  not  teach 
a.  woman?  Because  it  is  said,  Deut. 
xi,  19,  ‘Ye  shall  teach  them  to  your 
sons;  it  is  not  said,  also  your  daugh¬ 
ters:  Megilla,  fol.  23,  1.  The  wise  men 
say:  ‘Women  should  not  read  in  the 
law  for  the  sake  of  the  honour  of  the 
synagogue.’  Bloomfield  quotes  Bam- 
midhar  rabba,  sec.  9,  fol.  204,  4,  “A 
certain  matron  asked  Rabbi  Eleazar, 
‘Wherefore  were  the  Israelites,  who 
committed  but  one  crime  about  the 
golden  calf,  punished  with  a  threefold 
penalty?’  Rabbi  responded:  ‘Women 
ought  to  know  nothing  but  the  distaff,’ 
as  in  Prov.  xxxi,  19.  The  same  rabbi 
also  spake  thus :  ‘  May  the  words  of  the 
law  rather  be  burned  than  placed  in 
the  hands  of  women!  ’  ” 

So  the  old  Roman  in  Valerius  Maxi¬ 
mus,  iii,  8  :  “  What  has  a  woman  to  do 
with  public  haranguing?  If  our  an¬ 


cient  customs  prevail,  nothing.”  So 
the  Greek  Euripides:  “For  a'  woman 
silence,  sobriety,  and  in-doors,  are  a 
beauty.”  Callistratus  says,  “The  or¬ 
nament  of  trees  is  foliage;  of  sheep, 
wool;  of  horses,  the  mane;  of  men, 
the  beard ;  of  women,  silence .”  A  very 
extended  anthology  of  such  admoni¬ 
tions  to  women  can  be  quoted  from 
old  eastern  literature.  The  philosophy 
was  the  same  as  slavery  taught  in  re¬ 
gard  to  negroes:  keep  them  in  igno¬ 
rance  and  degradation,  and  then  make 
that  ignorance  and  degradation  a  ground 
of  reproach,  and  a  reason  for  still-con¬ 
tinued  ignorance  and  degradation. 

The  character  of  the  women  of 
Christian  congregations  in  eastern  Eu¬ 
rope  in  the  fourth  century,  under  such 
a  regimen,  -may  be  estimated  by  the 
following  passages  from  Chrysostom: 
“  Then,  indeed,  the  women,  from  such 
teaching,  kept  silence ;  but  now  there 
is  apt  to  be  great  noise  among  them, 
much  clamour  and  talking,  and  no¬ 
where  so  much  as  in  this  place.  They 
may  all  be  seen  here  talking  more  than 
in  the  market  or  at  the  bath.  For,  as 
if  they  came  hither  for  recreation,  they 
are  all  engaged  in  conversing  upon  un¬ 
profitable  subjects.  Thus  all  is  confu¬ 
sion,  and  they  seem  not  to  understand 
that  unless  they  are  quiet  they  cannot 
learn  any  thing  that  is  useful.  For 
when  our  discourse  strains  against  the 
talking,  and  no  one  minds  what  is  said, 
what  good  can  it  do  them  ?  ”  Of  pres¬ 
ent  eastern  women  Dr.  Anderson,  on 
Oriental  Churches,  gives  (vol.  ii,  p.  277) 
the  following  specimen  describing  an 
American  missionary  lady’s  meeting 
with  seventy  or  eighty  females  :  “  The 
chapel  was  nearly  full  of  women,  all  sit¬ 
ting  on  the  floor,  and  each  one  crowding 
up  to  get  as  near  her  as  possible.  They 
were  very  much  like  a  hive  of  bees.  The 
slightest  thing  would  set  them  all  in 
commotion,  and  they  resembled  a  town¬ 
meeting  more  than  a  religious  gather¬ 
ing.  When  a  child  cried  it  would  en¬ 
list  the  energies  of  half  a  dozen  women, 
with  voice  and  gesture,  to  quiet  it. 
When  some  striking  thought  of  some 
speaker  flashed  upon  the  mind  of  some 
woman,  she  would  begin  to  explain  it 
in  no  moderate  tones  to  those  about 


112 


1.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  I).  51. 


34  wLet  your  women  keep  si¬ 
lence  in  the  churches:  for  it  is  not 


w  \  Tim.  2.  11, 12. - a?  Chap.  11.  B;  Kph. 


her,  and  this  would  set  the  whole  off 
into  a  bedlam  of  talk,  which  it  would 
require  two  or  three  minutes  to  quell.” 

Of  the  Palestinian  women  of  the 
present  day  Mr.  Thomson  says :  “Ori¬ 
ental  women  are  never  regarded  or 
treated  as  equals  by  the  men.  This  is 
seen  on  all  occasions ;  and  it  requires 
some  firmness  to  secure  to  our  own 
ladies  proper  respect,  especially  from 
menservants.  They  pronounce  wom¬ 
en  to  be  weak  and  inferior  in  the  most 
absolute  terms,  and  in  accordance  with 
this  idea  is  their  deportment  toward 
them.  Even  in  polite  company  the 
gentlemen  must  be  served  first.  So 
the  husband  and  brothers  sit  down  and 
eat,  and  the  wife,  mother,  and  sisters 
wait  and  take  what  is  left.  If  the 
husband  or  the  brothers  accompany 
their  female  relatives  anywhere,  they 
walk  before,  and  the  women  follow  at 
a  respectful  distance.  It  is  very  com¬ 
mon  to  see  small  boys  lord  it  over  both 
mother  and  sisters  in  a  most  insolent 
mariner,  and  they  are  encouraged  to 
do  so  by  the  father.  The  evils  result¬ 
ing  from  this  are  incalculable.  The 
men,  however,  attempt  to  justify  their 
treatment  of  the  women  by  the  tyrant’s 
plea  of  necessity.  They  are  obliged 
to  govern  the  wives  with  the  utmost 
strictness,  or  they  would  not  only  ruin 
their  husbands,  but  themselves  also. 
Hence,  they  literally’'  use  the  rod  upon 
them,  especially  when  they  have,  or 
imagine  they  have,  cause  to  doubt  the 
wife’s  fidelity.  Instances  are  not  rare 
in  which  the  husband  kills  the  wife 
outright  for  this  cause,  and  no  legal 
notice  is  taken  of  the  murder ;  and, 
in  general,  the  man  relies  on  fear  to 
keep  the  wife  in  subjection,  and  to  re¬ 
strain  her  from  vice.  She  is  confined 
closely,  watched  with  jealousy,  and 
every  thing  valuable  is  kept  under 
lock  and  key;  necessarily  so,  they  say, 
for  the  wife  will  not  hesitate  to  rob 
her  husband  if  she  gets  an  opportu¬ 
nity.  There  are  many  pleasing  ex¬ 
ceptions,  especially  among  the  younger 


permitted  unto  them  to  speak  ;  but 
x  they  are  commanded  to  be  under 

5.  22;  Col.  3.  18;  Titus  2.  5;  1  Peter  3.  1. 


Christian  families.  But.  on  the  whole, 
the  cases  are  rare  where  the  husband 
has  not,  at  some  time  or  other,  resorted 
to  the  lash  to  enforce  obedience  in  his 
rebellious  household.  Most  sensible 
men  readity  admit  that  this  whole  sys¬ 
tem  is  a  miserable  compensation  to 
mitigate  evils  flowing  from  the  very 
great  crime  of  neglecting  the  educa¬ 
tion  of  females  ;  and,  during  the  last 
few  years,  a  change  has  taken  place  in 
public  sentiment  on  this  subject  among 
the  intelligent  Christians  in  Lebanon 
and  the  cities  along  the  coast,  and  a 
strong  desire  to  educate  the  females 
is  fast  spreading  among  them.” — The 
Land,  and  the  Book ,  vol.  i,  p.  187. 

What  Teutonic  Christianity  will  do 
for  woman  we  do  not  predict.  It  will 
never  cause  her  to  cease  to  be  woman  ; 
but  as  her  sphere  enlarges  she  may 
very  possibly  bring  some  things  within 
the  circle  of  gracefulness  and  modesty 
which  were  once  rightly  held  a  shame 
for  women  (verse  35)  to  attempt. 
Even  now  women  in  the  Lyceum  are 
able  to  address  an  admiring  audience 
in  full  accordance  with  the  sense  of  a 
most  fastidious  propriety.  And  no 
women  in  modern  times  present  more 
perfectly  the  ideal  of  female  modesty 
than  the  women  of  that  sect  which 
has  always  had  its  female  preachers — 
the  Friends. 

34.  Your  women — If  we  suppose 
the  mind’s  eye  of  the  apostle  to  be 
“isolated”  upon  such  a  set  of  women  as 
Chr}rsostom,  Dr.  Anderson,  and  Thom¬ 
son  describe,  we  should  utter  a  hearty 
amen  to  his  keep  silence !  That  he 
does  not  expressly  except  cases  like 
Phoebe,  whom  he  commended  to  a  whole 
Church,  or  the  daughters  of  Philip,  is 
explicable  on  the  ground  that  such  a 
class  have  already  been  provided  for 
in  chapter  xi.  The  Hew  Testament 
contains  no  case  of  public  preaching 
more  unequivocal,  and  scarce  an\r  more 
successful,  than  that  of  the  woman  of 
Samaria  to  tier  townsmen.  Not  per¬ 
mitted — Either  by  custom,  propriety, 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


113 


obedience,  as  also  saith  the  Haw. 
35  And  if  they  will  learn  any  thing, 
.et  them  ask  their  husbands  at  home: 
for  it  is  a  shame  for  women  to  speak 
in  the  church. 

36  What !  came  the  word  of  God 
out  from  you  ?  or  came  it  unto  you 
only?  37  zIf  any  man  think  him- 

V  Genesis  3. 16. - z  2  Corinthians  10.  7 ; 

1  John  4.  6. 


or  divine  law.  Speak— The  verb  a'k- 
civ ,  the  root  of  which  is  ?ia A,  led,  is  a 
word  like  prattle ,  chatter ,  and  jabber , 
formed  from  imitation  of  senseless  or 
childish  utterances.  In  the  classic 
Greek  it  usually  retains  that  import, 
but  in  New  Testament  Greek  it  signi¬ 
fies,  as  here,  to  talk  or  discourse  in  any 
mode,  usually  with  the  idea  of  contin¬ 
uance.  No  argument  can  be  drawn 
from  the  word  in  regard  to  the  nature 
of  the  utterances  which  St.  Paul  for¬ 
bids.  Under  obedience — Under  con¬ 
trol  both  of  the  proper  decorum  of  the 
meeting  and  of  the  regulative  author¬ 
ity  of  the  other  sex.  Saith  the  law 
— “  Thy  desire  [or  request]  shall  be  to 
thy  husband,  and  lie  shall  rule  over 
thee.”  Gen.  iii,  16.  See  note,  xi,  3-16. 
The  law  is  permanent,  but  the  applica¬ 
tion  of  the  law  may  vary  from  age  to 
age.  When  obedience  to,  or  concur¬ 
rence  with,  the  will  of  the  other  sex 
requires  a  lady  of  talent  to  lecture  be¬ 
fore  an  audience  or  preach  before  a 
congregation,  it  may  be  as  proper  as  it 
was  for  Miriam,  in  obedience  to  Moses, 
to  prophesy  upon  the  timbrel  before 
the  camp  of  Israel. 

35.  Ask  their  husbands  —  With 
whom,  according  to  the  Jewish  custom, 
all  the  education  was.  According  to 
Schoettgen,  women  were  allowed  in  the 
rabbinical  schools ;  but  only  to  hear, 
and  never  to  speak,  or  ask  a  question. 
Shame — Contrary  to  the  existing  views 
of  propriety.  Just  as  in  xi,  14,  (where 
see  note,)  it  is  a  shame  for  a  man  to 
wear  long  hair  When  women  are  so 
cultured  that  it  is  not  a  shame,  but  a 
beauty,  for  a  woman  to  speak,  then  the 
prohibition  ceases  because  the  reason 
for  it  ceases,  just  as  the  prohibition  of 
long  hair  to  a  man  ceases. 

Vol.  IV.— s 


self  to  be  a  prophet,  or  spiritual,  let 
him  acknowledge  that  the  things 
that  I  write  unto  you  are  the  com¬ 
mandments  of  the  Lord.  3§  But 
if  any  man  be  ignorant,  let  him  be 
ignorant.  39  Wherefore,  brethren, 
a covet  to  prophesy,  and  forbid  not 
to  speak  with  tongues.  40  bLet. 


a  Chap.  12.  31 ;  1  Thess.  5.  20. - b  Verse  33 ; 

Col.  2.  5. 


e.  A  silencer  upon  all  rebellion  against 
the  apostolic  directions  in  these  three  chap¬ 
ters,  36-40. 

36.  What — The  abrupt  exclamation 
seems  to  aim  at  some  surprising  revolt 
heard  of  by  Paul,  as  coming  from  some 
rebellious  Corinthians  against  his  author¬ 
itative  regulations.  From  you ...  or 
.  .  .unto  you — Did  you  originate  Christ¬ 
ianity,  or  are  you  only  its  receivers  from 
Jerusalem,  from  the  universal  Churches 
and  from  your  founder-apostle  ? 

37.  A  prophet,  or  spiritual — En¬ 
dowed  in  either  case  with  inspiration. 
Let  him  acknowledge — As  he  can 
if  his  inspiration  is  true.  That  I  write 
— In  this  whole  section  of  three  chap¬ 
ters,  in  which  spiritual  gifts  according 
to  Church  order  are  discussed.  The 
commandments  of  the  Lord — De¬ 
livered  not  to  you  in  his  own  person,  but 
through  his  commissioned  and  inspired 
apostle.  This  is  a  very  peremptory 
claim  to  divine  inspiration.  This  pas¬ 
sage  confirms  our  view,  that  the  canon 
is  sustained  by  the  double  authority  of 
the  inspired  apostle  and  the  charis¬ 
matic  Church.  See  note,  iv,  21. 

38.  If — A  second  if  antithetic  to  the 
first  if  of  verse  37.  If  any  man  be  spir¬ 
itual,  let  him  acknowledge  my  words  ; 
if,  on  the  other  hand,  lie  be  not  spiritual, 
but  so  refractory  as  to  ignore  what  I 
say,  let  him  be  left  to  his  ignoring  as  in¬ 
corrigible  and  unworthy  further  labour. 
Here  the  ignorance  is  held  to  lie  in  the 
will,  and  is,  therefore,  impervious  to  ar¬ 
gument.  Another,  but  not  well-author¬ 
ized  reading  would  be,  let  him  be  ignored. 

39.  Wherefore — The  net  conclusion 
of  the  entire  section.  Covet. .  .forbid 
not — The  settled  rank  of  these  two 
gifts ;  one  to  be  a  chief  aim,  the  other 
to  be  regulated  and  allowed. 


114 


1.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57 


<ill  things  be  done  decently  and  in 
order. 


40.  Decently — Seemlily ;  the  re¬ 
verse  Greek  word  to  unseemly  in 
xiii,  5.  That  which  accords  with  the 
sense  of  the  becoming.  .  Order — Each 
exercise  single  and  in  due  succession. 
So  Josephus  is  quoted  by  Alford  as  say¬ 
ing  of  the  Essenes,  “  Neither  loud  voice 
nor  tumult  ever  dishonours  their  house, 
but  their  discourses  they  yield  to  each 
other  in  order.’’ 

CHAPTER  XY. 

St.  Paul’s  Ninth  Response: — In 
Reply  to  the  Denial  of  the  Resur¬ 
rection,  1-58. 

This  chapter  crowns  the  climax  of 
the  epist  le  with  the  fullest  defence  and 
sublimest  description  of  the  resurrec¬ 
tion  contained  in  revelation.  It  forms 
a  response,  not  to  any  letter  of  inquiry 
of  the  Corinthians,  but  to  an  intelli¬ 
gence  received  that  there  were  among 
the  Corinthians  deniers  of  the  resur¬ 
rection. 

St.  Paul  answers  them  by  showing 
that  such  a  denial  is  a  contradiction, 
and  destruction  of  the  very  foundations 
of , the  Christian  system  as  unanimously 
stated  by  the  apostles  of  Christ,  and  as 
received  by  the  then  Catholic  Church : 
1.  He  states  the  historical  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  as  narrated  by  the  apostles, 
of  Christ’s  atoning  death,  burial,  and  es¬ 
pecially  the  six  resurrection  appearances 
of  the  risen  Christ,  as  reported  by  verita¬ 
ble  apostolic  witnesses,  (1-10.)  2.  The 
object  of  this  firm  and  formal  statement 
is  covered,  until  suddenly  (11-19)  he 
arraigns  the  deniers  of  the  resurrection , 
and  places  them  at  once  in  uncompro¬ 
mising  issue  with  fundamental  histori¬ 
cal  Christianity,  of  which  the  resurrec¬ 
tion  of  Christ  is  the  basis.  It  is  main¬ 
tained  and  shown  to  be  a  life  and  death 
contest.  3.  He  then  eloquently  reaf¬ 
firms  Christ’s  resurrection,  and,  by  sub¬ 
lime  apostolic  apocalypse,  states  the  or¬ 
ganic  position  of  the  universal  resurrec¬ 
tion  and  its  sequents  in  God’s  sj^stem 
of  human  destiny,  (20-28.)  4.  He  then 
retraces,  as  if  in  continuance  of  1-10, 
the  devastating  consequences  of  dcny- 


1\/T  CHAPTER  XY. 
i-VJL  OREOYER,  brethren,  I  de* 

ing  the  resurrection  upon  all  their  hopes, 
and  all  the  motives  for  their  heroic 
Christianity,  (29-35.) 

So  far  the  positive  argument.  It  is 
not  “a  demonstration  of  the  resurrec¬ 
tion  ”  as  based  upon  nature,  philoso¬ 
phy,  or  logic,  but  a  showing  that  its 
denial  is  a  deadly  contradiction  to  the 
very  foundations  of  the  Christian  sys¬ 
tem.  Christianity  or  that  denial  must 
die. 

The  second  part  meets  a  Gnostic  ob¬ 
jection  based  on  the  inherent  evil  of 
matter,  and  the  consequent  baseness  of 
our  present  material  body  as  unworthy 
of  resurrection  in  anv  form.  To  this 
Paul  gives  a  reply  based  on  nature, 
showing  that  matter  is  not  necessarily 
degraded;  but  that,  composed  of  the 
same  matter,  there  may  be  glorious  as 
well  as  inglorious  bodies,  (35-41.)  He 
draws  a  brilliant  contrast,  in  a  series  of 
antitheses,  between  the  body  corruptible 
and  the  body  glorified,  admitting  in  con¬ 
clusion  that  it  is  only  by  a  change  in 
the  properties  of  our  present  body,  from 
inglorious  to  glorious,  that  a  resurrec¬ 
tion  can  take  place,  (42-49.) 

The  third  part  is  another  apocalypse, 
revealing  prophetically  the  glories  of 
the  Christian  resurrection,  and  inferring 
a  closing  lesson  of  firmness  and  energy 
for  his  Corinthian  brethren,  (50-58  ) 

1.  The  Christ-history,  especial¬ 
ly  Christ’s  Resurrection,  as  re¬ 
ceived  from  apostolic  witness,  ful¬ 
ly  and  firmly  stated,  1-11. 

We  have  here  the  historical  argu¬ 
ment  for  Christ’s  resurrection,  and  so 
for  the  truth  of  Christianity,  which  was 
fully  expanded  into  full  and  unanswer¬ 
able  volume  by  Paley.  It  is  not  the 
sole  argument,  but  it  is  the  ground  argu¬ 
ment,  for  our  faith.  By  it  Christianity 
is  not  a  philosophy,  like  the  teachings 
of  Socrates,  but  a  religion  like  noth¬ 
ing  else  in  the  world.  A  philosophy 
springs  up  from  the  human  mind’s  own 
powers ;  a  religion  comes  down  from 
above  to  man,  revealing  truths  above 
man’s  human  powers. 

1.  I  declare — T  now  here  state,  I  re¬ 
capitulate,  spread  out  before  your  view. 


A.  D.  57, 


CHAPTER  XV. 


115 


clare  unto  you  the  gospel  a  which 
I  preached  unto  you,  which  also 
ye  have  received,  and  b wherein  ye 
stand;  2  cBy  which  also  ye  are 
saved,  if  ye  1  keep  in  memory 2 what 
I  preached  unto  you,  unless  dye 
have  believed  in  vain.  3  For  eI 
delivered  unto  you  first  of  all  that 
f  which  I  also  received,  how  that 


Christ  died  for  our  sins,  £  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  Scriptures:  4  And  that 
he  was  buried,  and  that  he  rose 
again  the  third  day  b  according  to 
the  Scriptures:  5  *And  that  he 
was  seen  of  Cephas,  then  kof  the 
twelve  :  6  After  that,  he  was  seen 
of  above  five  hundred  brethren  at 
once ;  of  whom  the  greater  part 


a  Gal.  1.  11. - b  Rom.  5.  2. - c  Rom.  1. 16. - 

1  Or,  hold  fast.  - — 2  Gr.  by  what  sveecli. - 

d  Gal.  3.  4. - e  Chap.  11.  2,  23. - /  Gal.  1. 

— rtfPsa.  22.  15,  &c. ;  Isa.  53.  5,  6:  Dan.  9.  26; 


Luke  24.  46 ;  Acts  3.  18 ;  26.  23 ;  1  Pet.  1. 11 ;  2.  24. 
—h  Psa.  16.  10 ;  Luke  24.  46 ;  Acts  2.  31 ;  13.  33 ; 

?3.— ^Luke  24.  34. - Tc  Matt.  28.  17;  Mark 

16.  14;  Luke  24.  36;  John  20.  19,  26;  Acts  10.  41. 


The  gospel  — The  joyful  Christ-his- 
tory,  with  its  doctrines  embodied  in  the 
history.  Note  on  Matthew’s  title,  be¬ 
fore  Matt,  i,  1. 

2.  Saved — It  is  by  holy'  truth,  re¬ 
ceived  and  kept  in  memory,  that  we 
are  saved. 

3.  I  delivered  . . .  received  —  St. 

Paul  rigidly  expresses  the  fact  that  his 
message  was  given,  as  received,  with 
perfect  exactness.  In  this  Christ-nar¬ 
rative  every  item  has  been  carefully 
guarded.  He  repeats  it  with  all  the 
formality  of  a  profession  of  faith.  For 
our  sins — T7rfp,  on  behalf  of  our  sins. 
So  says  Alford,  and  he  very  strikingly 
adds,  “It  may  be  noticed  that  in  1  Kings 
xvi,  19,  where  it  is  said  that  Zimri 
‘  died  for  (vntp)  his  sins  which  he  had 
done,’  it  is  for  his  own  sins,  as  their 
punishment,  that  he  died.  So  that 
VTTf'p  may  bear  the  meaning,  that  Christ’s 
punishment  was  of  the  sins  of  our  na¬ 
ture  which  he  took  upon  him.  But  its 
undoubtedly  inclusive  vicarious  import 
in  other  passages  where  vn ep  ypCn>  and 
the  like  occur,  seems  to  rule  it  to  have 
that  sense  here  also.”  According  to 
the  Scriptures— See  note  on  Luke 
xxiv,  26.  The  fifty- third  chapter  of 
Isaiah,  and  the  whole  system  of  Jew¬ 
ish  sacrifices,  were  predictive  of  the 
one  real  sacrifice.  The  Scriptures, 
here,  mean  the  Old  Testament,  for  the 
New  was  but  yet  partially  written. 

4.  Buried — Entombed.  According 
to  the  Scriptures — Christ’s  resurrec¬ 
tion  was  not  an  isolated  event,  like  a 
resuscitation  from  catalepsy  or  drown¬ 
ing  of  some  apparent  corpse.  See  note 
on  Acts  xvii,  31,  and  ii,  24.  It  is  the 
crowning  fact  of  a  great  organic  sys¬ 


tem  of -facts,  binding  each  other  into 
one  common  solidity. 

5-8.  From  among  the  appearances 
of  our  Saviour  after  his  resurrection, 
Paul  ‘selects  six  as  amply  sufficient. 
Renan  says  in  his  “Apostles,”  that  the 
nervous  imagination  of  one  woman, 

J  Mary  Magdalene,  at  the  sepulchre,  has 
changed  the  state  of  the  world.  But 
as  if  to  refute  so  sweeping  a  statement 
by  anticipation,  Paul  entirely  omits  the 
testimony  of  Mary ,  and  also  of  the 
other  females.  He  adduces  mostly  the 
apostles ;  especially  the  two  most  emi¬ 
nent,  Peter  and  James,  a  company  of 
five  hundred,  and  last  of  all,  himself. 

5.  The  twelve — Though  Judas  was 
dead  and  Thomas  absent,  so  that  they 
were  but  eleven,  Paul  calls  the  apostolic 
college  by  its  habitual  numerical  title, 
the  twelve.  See  our  vol.  ii,  p.  81. 

6.  Five  hundred— An  appearance 
not  elsewhere  mentioned ;  nor  do  the 
conjectures  of  commentators  much  il¬ 
lustrate  the  time  or  place.  But  most 
probably,  as  indicated  in  Matt,  xxviii, 
16,  17,  in  a  mountain  or  highland 
of .  Galilee.  (On  the  phrase  a  moun¬ 
tain,  see  our  note  on  Luke  vi,  12.)  As 
this  was  an  appointment  in  Galilee, 
where  so  much  of  the  ministry  of  Christ 
was  spent,  it  were  no  wonder  if  there 
Jesus  met  a  full  assembly.  Great¬ 
er  part— A  majority ;  more  than  two 
hundred  and  fifty.  This  event  was 
between  twenty  and  thirty  years  ago  ; 
but  plenty  of  eyewitnesses  still  live! 
It  was  no  myth  formed  by  popular 
imagination.  Asleep  —  A  beautiful 
image  of  death,  implying  the  hope  of 
an  awakening  to  future  life.  See  note 
on  Luke  viii,  52.  It  conclusively  im- 


116 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


remain  unto  this  present,  but  some 
are  fallen  asleep.  7  After  that,  he 
was  seen  of  James;  then  1  of  all  the 
apostles.  8  mAnd  last  of  all  he 


l  Luke  24. 50 ;  Acts  1. 3, 4. - m  Acts  9.  4, 17 ;  22. 14, 


plies  that  the  same  body  that  dies  is 
raised,  and  not  another  substituted. 

The  epitaphs  inscribed  by  the  primi¬ 
tive  Christians  upon  their  tombs  as 
found  in  the  Roman  catacombs  abound 
in  this  cheerful  image  of  repose  and 
sleep.  The  following  specimens  are 
given  by  Mr.  Withrow  in  his  very  in¬ 
teresting  book  on  the  Catacombs:  “We 
find  also  such  expressions  as  follow : 
DEPOSTVS  (sic)  IN  PACE  FIDEI  CATHO- 
lice,  (sic) — ‘Buried  in  the  peace  of  the 
Catholic  faith,’  A.  D.  462  ;  hic.  req.  in 
pace  devs,  (sic)  —  ‘  Here  rests  in  the 
peace  of  God,’  A.  D.  500;  in  pace  ec- 
clesiae — ‘In  the  peace  of  the  Church,’ 
A.  D.  523;  in  pace  et  benedictione 
— ‘In  peace  and  benediction;’  semper 
FIDELIS  MANEBIT  APVD  DEYM  —  ‘  Ever 
faithful,  he  shall  remain  with  God,’ 
(circ.  590);  zoticvs  hic  ad  dormien- 
dvm  —  ‘  Zoticus  here  laid  to  sleep  ;  ’ 
dormitio  elpidis  —  ‘  The  sleeping- 
place  of  Elpis;’  dormivit  et  reqvies- 
cit  —  ‘  He  has  slept  and  is  at  rest ;  ’ 
dormit  sed  viyit — ‘He  sleeps  but 
lives;’  qviescit  in  domino  iesv — ‘He 
reposes  in  the  Lord  Jesus;’  iyit  ad 
devm — ‘He  went  to  God;’  eyocatys 
a  domino — ‘Called  by  God;’  accepta 
apyd  deym — ‘Accepted  with  God;’ 
ETEAE1120H — ‘He  finished  his  life;’ 
EKO1MH0H — ‘He fell  asleep;’  damilis 
hic  sic  •  y  •  d — ‘  Here  lies  Damalis,  for 
so  God  wills.’  ” — Pp.  429,  430. 

The  following  epitaphs  given  by  Mr. 
Withrow  show  that  the  image  of  sleep 
was  limited  to  the  body.  While  the 
eyes  are  closed  in  sleep,  the  soul  is 
awake,  and  living  in  “  The  Celestial 
realms :  ”  “Of  similar  character  are 
also  the  following :  salonice  ispiritvs 
tyys  in  bonis — ‘  Salonice,  thy  spirit  is 
among  the  good ;’  refrigeras  spiritys 
tyys  in  bonis — ‘  Thou  refreshest  thy 
spirit  among  the  good;’  11PS2TOC  EN 
Arii2  nNETMATI  0EOT  ENOAAE 
KEITAI  —  ‘Here  in  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  God  lieth  Protus ;  ’  corpvs  habet 


was  seen  of  me  also,  as  of  3  one 
born  out  of  due  time.  9  For  I  am 
n  the  least  of  the  apostles,  that  am 
not  meet  to  be  called  an  apostle, 

18;  chap. 9.1 3  Or,  an  abortive. n  Eph.3.8. 


tellys  animam  caelestia  regna  — 
‘The  earth  has  the  body,  celestial 
realms  the  soul;’  TATKEPON  4>AOC 
OT  KATEAETA2  (sic)  E2XE2  TAP 
META  COT  I1ANA0ANATON — ‘  Thou 
didst  not  leave  the  sweet  light,  for 
thou  hadst  with  thee  Him  who  knows 
not  death,’  literally,  ‘  the  all-deathless 
One;’  agape  yibis  in  eternvm  — 
‘  Agape,  thou  livest  forever ;  ’  dormit 
et  yiyit  in  pace  xo,  (sic) — ‘  He  sleeps 
and  lives  in  the  peace  of  Christ ;’  mens 

NESCIA  MORTIS  VI7IT  ET  ASPECTY 
FRYITVR  BENE  CONSCIA  CHRISTI — ‘  The 
soul  lives  unknowing  of  death,  and 
consciously  rejoices  in  the  vision  of 
Christ;’  prima  yiyis  in  gloria  dei  et 

IN  PACE  DOMINI  NOSTRI  XR. — ‘  Prima, 

thou  livest  in  the  glory  of  God,  and 
in  the  peace  of  Chnst,  our  Lord.’  ” — 
Pp.  430,  431. 

These  epitaphs  show  the  primitive 
Christian  doctrines  to  have  been : 
1.  That  the  self-same  body  that  sleeps 
in  death  shall  awake  to  the  resurrec¬ 
tion.  2.  That  between  death  and  the 
resurrection  the  soul  is  in  an  inter¬ 
mediate  state  of  blessed  consciousness, 
awaiting  the  resurrection  of  its  sleep¬ 
ing  body. 

7.  James — Half  brother  of  the  Lord, 
bishop  of  J erusalem,  author  of  the 
Epistle  of  James.  See  notes  on  Matt, 
x,  3 ;  and  Acts  xii,  2.  All  the  apos¬ 
tles — Probably  the  same  as  mentioned 
in  Acts  i,  4. 

8.  One  born  out  of  due  time — 

Born,  not  after,  but  before,  the  time; 
and  consequently  immature  and  un¬ 
shapely. 

9.  For — While  the  other  apostles 
were  following  Jesus  and  hearing  his 
divine  wisdom,  Paul  was  sitting  at 
the  feet  of  the  rabbins  and  hearing 
their  traditions.  While  the  other  apos¬ 
tles  were  preaching  the  crucified  and 
arisen  Saviour,  he  persecuted  the 
Church  of  God.  He  was,  therefore, 
a  crude  material  to  make  into  an  apostle. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


117 


because  °I  persecuted  the  church 
of  God.  10  But  Pby  the  grace  of 
God  T  am  what  I  am :  and  his  grace 
which  was  bestowed  upon  me  was 
not  in  vain ;  but  I  laboured  more 
abundantly  than  they  all :  r  yet  not 
I,  but  the  grace  of  God  which  was 


with  me.  11  Therefore  whether 
it  were  I  or  they,  so  we  preach,  and 
so  ye  believed. 

12  Now  if  Christ  be  preached 
that  he  rose  from  the  dead,  how  say 
some  among  you  that  there  is  no 
resurrection  of  the  dead  ?  13  But 


o  Acts  8.  3 ;  9.  1 ;  Gal.  1.  13 ;  Phil.  3.  6 ;  1  Tim. 
1.  13. - v  Eph.  3.  7,  8. - q  2  Cor.  11.  23;  12.  11. 


2 


r  Matt.  10.  20 ;  Rom.  15. 18, 19 ;  2  Cor.  3.  5 ;  Gal. 
:  8;  Eph.  3.  7;  Phil.  2. 13. 


And  he  still  feels  the  terrible  dwarfing 
and  deforming  effect  of  that  crime  of 
persecuting  the  Church  resting  upon 
his  being.  It  was  from  this  distorted 
history  that  he  was  the  last  of  all  to 
see  the  risen  Saviour.  Had  he  been 
in  timely  and  regular  manner  chosen 
by  Jesus  with  the  twelve  he  would 
have  seen  him  with  them  at  his  resur¬ 
rection.  Not  meet — Viewing  himself 
in  that  light,  he  felt  as  fully  as  his  as¬ 
sailants  could  wish  that  he  was  unfit  to 
be  an  apostle.  Of  this  fact  they  fully 
availed  themselves  to  the  last.  But 
there  was  another  side  to  the  matter 
which  he  will  next  give. 

10.  Whatever  I  was  as  a  persecutor, 
yet  by  the  grace  cf  God  I  am  what 
I  am — Ah  apostle !  Not  in  vain — 
He  was,  he  says,  (Acts  xxvi,  19,)  “not 
disobedient  unto  the  heavenly  vision.” 
More  abundantly  than  they  all — 
Than  any  one  of  them  all.  Not  I — 
Spoken  comparatively.  Yet  while  he 
would  claim  much  in  comparison  with 
other  apostles,  he  has  no  claim  to  make 
in  competition  with  God’s  grace. 

11.  Therefore  —  In  view  of  this 
profession  of  faith.  Or  they — The 
other  apostles.  So  we  preach — Ours 
is  a  common  and  unanimous  apostolic 
doctrine ;  including  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead.  This  is  a  very  positive  dec¬ 
laration  of  Paul  that  he  and  the  other 
apostles  preached  one  faith  and  dogma. 
So  ye  believed — As  I  have  preached, 
so  have  ye  believed,  the  one  common 
catholic  apostolic  faith.  The  concealed 
object  of  this  covered  approach  is  re¬ 
vealed  in  the  next  paragraph. 

2.  A  denial  of  the  resurrection 
is  a  denial  of  the  resurrection  of 
Christ,  and  so  a  repudiation  of  the 
Christian  faith,  12-19. 

12.  If. .  .how  say — This  draws  out 
the  issue.  Some — Who  or  what  were 


these  some?  Though  with  the  Sad- 
ducees  they  denied  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead,  and  probably  also  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  spirit,  the  opposition  between 
Sadducees  and  Christians  renders  it  im¬ 
probable  that  these  deniers  belonged 
to  that  sect.  They  may  have  been 
converts  from  among  the  followers  of 
the  Athenian  philosophers,  especially 
the  Epicureans,  who  dismissed  Paul  so 
promptly  for  preaching  Jesus  and  the 
resurrection.  Indeed,  the  summit  of  the 
Acrocorinthus  was  almost  in  sight  of 
Athens  ;  and  this  epistle  addressed  not 
only  to  Corinth  but  to  the  Churches 
of  Achaia,  doubtless  included  Athens. 
Nevertheless  the  some  appear,  from 
the  objections  of  theirs  answered  by 
St.  Paul,  to  have  rejected  the  resur¬ 
rection  on  account  of  their  holding 
the  oriental  Gnostic  doctrine  of  the  es¬ 
sential  impurity  of  matter.  See  note 
on  Acts  viii,  9.  Resurrection — The 
resurrection  is,  in  the  New  Testament, 
designated  by  two  words ,  each  designat¬ 
ing  precisely  the  same  event,  but  from 
a  different  standpoint;  1.  ’E yeipo,  to 
raise ,  transitively;  where  the  divine 
power  is  the  agent ;  2.  A viorypi,  (noun 
avaaramg,)  to  rise  up  ;  where  the  per¬ 
son  rising  is  the  agent.  In  this  chapter 
the  former  word  is  used  at  verses  4, 
12,  13,  14,  15,  15,  15,  16,  16,  17,  20, 
29,  32,  35,  42,  43,  43,  44;  the  latter  at 
verses  12,  13,  20,  42,  52.  Both  words 
are  applied  to  the  resurrection  of  Christ, 
and  to  the  resurrection  of  the  general 
dead  indiscriminately.  The  former  is 
uniformly  held  as  the  essential  model  of 
the  other.  He  rose  from  the  dead 
— Literally,  that  he  has  been  raised  from, 
deads.  See  our  note  on  Luke  xx,  35, 
where  the  difference  between  a  resur¬ 
rection  of  the  dead,  a  resurrection  from 
the  dead ,  and  a  resurrection  from  deads , 

( dead  being  Greek  plural  and  without 


118 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


if  there  be  no  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  5 then  is  Christ  not  risen: 
14  And  if  Christ  be  not  risen,  then 
is  our  preaching  vain,  and  your 

_ _ si  Thess.  4.  14. _ 

the  article,)  is  shown.  This  is  a  very 
important  distinction,  which  no  com¬ 
mentator  has  clearly  noticed.  Here  it 
is  a  resurrection  from  deads  or  dead  ones , 
Christ  himself  being  included  in  the 
dead  ones  from  whom  he  is  raised ;  the 
being  raised  from  one’s  own  dead  self 
being^ncluded  in  the  word. 

13.  If . . .  no  resurrection — If  res¬ 
urrection  of  deads  there  is  not  If 
(such  is  the  supposition)  no  resurrec¬ 
tion  of  any  dead  persons  takes  place : 
if  a  resurrection  is  excluded  from  na¬ 
ture  and  thought.  So  thought  the 
Epicureans  and  Stoics  at  Athens,  (Acts 
xvip  32,)  flouting  or  politely  dismissing 
the  idea  of  a  resurrection  from  consid¬ 
eration.  Christ  not  risen — Literally, 
Christ  has  not  been  raised.  He  is  still 
dead.  The  reasoning  is  decisive  as  a 
syllogism,  from  the  universal  to  the 
particular.  So  the  Athenians  reasoned, 
from  universal  to  individual. 

14.  Our  preaching ...  your  faith 
— Our  preaching  and  your  faith  are 
alike  a  vanity.  St.  Paul  does  not  sup¬ 
pose  that  any  one  will  reply,  But  even 
without  a  resurrection,  is  not  the  soul 
immortal,  and  may  not  its  immor¬ 
tality  be  blissful  through  Christ?  He 
does  not  anticipate  this  reply,  because 
those  deniers  did  not  admit  any  such 
immortality.  Nor,  to  all  appearance, 
does  Paul  himself  base  our  Christian 
hopes  upon  an  immortality  of  soul  that 
is  not  based  on  Christ,  that  is,  of  which 
our  resurrection  is  not  the  base,  and 
that  based  on  his  resurrection.  He 
preached  not  Jesus  and  the  immortal¬ 
ity  of  the  soul,  but  Jesus  and  the  res¬ 
urrection.  That  he  believed  in  the 
separate  existence  and  immortality  of 
the  soul  appears  from  Phil,  i,  23,  24. 
But  man  is  an  immortal  being,  not  be¬ 
cause  he  is  a  thinking  substance,  for 
brutes  think ;  but  because  he  is  by  God 
placed  in  the  conditions  for  immortality. 
A  lamp  will  burn  forever  if  the  condi¬ 
tions  of  carbon  and  ox}rgen  are  properly 
supplied.  An  animal  would  be  immor- 


faith  is  also  vain.  15  Yea,  and  we 
are  found  false  witnesses  of  God ; 
because  1  we  have  testified  of  God 
that  he  raised  up  Christ :  whom 

_ t  Acts  2.  24,  32  14.  10,  33;  13.  30. 

tal  if  placed  by  God  in  the  conditions 
for  its  immortality.  Now  man  is  an 
immortal  being  because  he  is  placed  by 
God  in  a  probationary  system,  the  basis 
of  which  is  the  resurrection,  the  ac¬ 
companiment  of  which  resurrection  is 
the  perpetuation  of  the  existence  of  the 
soul  through  the  intermediate  state  un¬ 
til  its  reunion  with  the  body.  Of  this 
destiny  for  immortality,  the  proofs 
drawn  from  the  high  intuitive  charac¬ 
ter  of  the  spirit  of  man  are  valid  and 
powerful.  Animals  fear  death,  and 
avoid  localities  of  danger.  But  animals 
are  below  the  conception  of  immortal¬ 
ity,  which  is  a  form  of  the  idea  of  the 
Infinite. 

From  this  view  it  is  clear  that  no 
argument  can  be  drawn  against  the 
immortality  of  man  from  the  high  in¬ 
tellective  character  of  some  animals. 
We  are  not,  indeed,  obliged  by  Chris¬ 
tianity  to  deny  the  immortality  of 
brutes,  or  insects.  We  are  perfectly 
free  to  believe  even  that  every  case  of 
individualized  perceptive  life ,  (that  is, 
every  intellective  entity  individualized 
by  being  once  united  to  a  material  or¬ 
ganism,)  remains  a  thinking  individual 
forever.  But  the  Pauline  ground  for 
man’s  immortality  is  the  assumed  fact 
of  man’s  probationary  condition  under 
the  headship  of  Christ,  as  heir  of  the 
resurrection. 

15.  False  witnesses — The  suppo¬ 
sition  not  only  empties  our  faith  of  all 
value,  but  it  makes  all  of  us  apostles 
perjurers.  Paul  admits  no  excuse  on 
grounds  of  the  apostles  being  mistaken, 
deceived  by  false  perceptions  or  excited 
imaginations.  It  is  an  issue  of  per¬ 
sonal  veracity.  Of  God  —  False  re¬ 
porters  of,  or  in  regard  to,  God.  Of 
God — The  Greek  (in  spite  of  Alford) 
can  hardly  be  otherwise  rendered  than 
against  God.  The  charge  is,  that  we 
have  testified  against  God  what  he 
never  did and  what  either  the  laws 
of  nature  or  the  corruptness  of  matter 
forbids  him  to  do.  And,  says  Grotius 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XY. 


119 


he  raised  not  up,  if  so  be  that  the 
dead  rise  not.  16  For  if  the  dead 
vise  not,  then  is  not  Christ  raised : 
17  And  if  Christ  be  not  raised, 
your  faith  is  vain;  uye  are  yet  in 

_ u  Rom.  4.  25. _ 

ingeniously:  “If  any  one  adulterates 
the  coin  of  the  king,  he  is  most  severe¬ 
ly  punished.  Miracles  are  the  coin  of 
God.” 

16-19.  Paul  now  commences  a  new 
series  of  ifs,  supposing  Christ  not  risen, 
and  ending  with  the  ‘perdition  of  the 
dead  saints,  and  utter  misery  of  the 
living. 

17.  In  your  sins — If  Christ  is  still 
dead,  and  Christianity  is  nothing,  we 
are  in  a  pagan  or  Jewish  condition. 
We  have  no  deliverance  from  sin ;  nei¬ 
ther  by  Christ,  nor  from  the  expiations 
that  J udaism  or  paganism  professes  to 
offer.  Both  these  systems  had  their 
sense  of  sin,  and  their  sacrifices  and 
lustrations  for  it.  But  if  Christ  rose 
not,  ye  Christians,  wholly  without 
expiation,  are  yet  in  your  sins. 

18.  Fallen  asleep — Ruckert  quotes 
an  elegant  sentence  from  Photius :  “In 
regard  to  Christ,  Paul  uses  the  term 
death  in  order  that  his  dying  should 
be  clearly  affirmed;  when  he  speaks  of 
us,  he  uses  the  cheerful  word  sleep, 
that  he  may  yield  us  consolation. 
When  resurrection  is  the  subject  he 
frankly  says  death ;  but  when  he  dwells 
upon  our  hopes  he  calls  it  sleep.”  Are 
perished  —  Literally,  They  that  fell 
asleep  in  Christ  perished ;  that  is,  aoristi- 
cally,  they  perished  in  the  act  of  fall¬ 
ing  asleep.  They  fell  asleep  in  Christ, 
according  to  the  Christian  and  Pauline 
view;  they  perished  upon  the  non¬ 
resurrection  and  non-Christian  view. 
What,  then,  is  the  meaning  of  per¬ 
ished  ?  And  it  seems  not  pertinent 
here  to  say,  with  Kling:  “Perdition, 
according  to  Scripture,  is  not  annihila¬ 
tion,  but  the  state  of  damnation — re¬ 
maining  in  gehenna ;  ”  for  Paul  is 
writing  for,  and  probably  arguing  with, 
those  who  ignore  Gehenna,  and  even 
the  future  existence  of  the  soul.  Nor 
does  it  seem  pertinent  to  say,  with  Al¬ 
ford,  that  perished  means  “  passed  into 
misery  in  hades.”  Both  these  views 


your  sins.  1§  Then  they  also 
which  are  fallen  asleep  in  Christ 
are  perished.  19  vIf  in  this  life 
only  we  have  hope  in  Christ,  we 
are  of  all  men  most  miserable. 

v  2  Tim.  3.  12.  ' 

Paul  seems  carefully  to  avoid  express¬ 
ing,  and  uses  the  generic  term  per¬ 
ished,  which  was  in  use  among  Gentiles 
on  this  very  point,  and  which  does  not 
define  the  nature  of  the  ruin.  Besides, 
his  statement  that  the  falling  asleep 
and  the  perishing  is  one  and  the  same 
thing,  forbids  this  applying  the  word 
perishing  to  an  after  state.  Those 
with  whom  he  argues  confine  the  hope 
in  Christ  to  this  life,  verse  19  ;  and 
their  view  yields  the  Epicurean  maxim 
of  verse  32,  both  of  which  passages 
suggest  that  these  heretics  denied  the 
future  of  the  soul. 

The  philosophers  who  mocked  Paul 

at  Athens  denied  alike  the  resurrection, 

and  the  immortalitv  of  the  soul.  A 

•/ 

short  time  before  Christ,  Cesar,  in  the 
Roman  senate,  argued  against  execut¬ 
ing  the  followers  of  Cataline  under  the 
assumption,  fully  expressed,  that  death 
is  the  last  of  man;  and  of  the  entire 
senate  not  one  dissented  from  that  be¬ 
lief.  This  was  the  settled  view  of  the 
civilized  paganism  of  the  age.  Even 
the  poets,  who  playfully  prattled  of 
manes ,  hades ,  and  shadowy  Plutonian 
domes ,  did,  as  prosaic  thinkers,  reject 
and  laugh  at  such  myths.  And  these 
Corinthian  deniers  of  the  resurrection 
clearly  held  the  view  that  Christianity 
only  presented  a  resurrection  of  the  soul 
from  sin,  and  was,  therefore,  a  good 
thing  for  this  life,  but  nothing  for  the 
life  to  come. 

19.  In  this  life— The  Sadducees, 
Stoics,  and  Epicureans  held  to  rewards 
of  virtue  in  this  fife.  Paul  could  con¬ 
cede  that ;  but  when  they  proceeded  to 
add  in  this  life  only,  he  objected. 
Most  miserable  —  Rather,  most  piti¬ 
able.  They  were  more  pitiable  than 
either  of  the  above  three  sects,  be¬ 
cause  they  underwent  persecution,  pri¬ 
vation,  and  martyrdom  ;  but  still  more 
because,  on  the  supposition  stated,  they 
did  all  this  inflated  with  false  visions 
of  eternal  glory  hereafter.  And  so 


120 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


20  But  now  wis  Christ  risen 
from  the  dead,  and  become  *  the 
first  fruits  of  them  that  slept. 
21  For  y  since  by  man  came  death, 

1  by  man  came  also  the  resurrection 

w  1  Pet.  1.  3. x  Acts  26.  23 ;  verse  23 ;  Col. 

*  1. 18 ;  Rev.  1.  5. 

pagan  authors  held  the  Christian  readi¬ 
ness  for  suffering  and  death  an  infatua¬ 
tion.  Said  the  philosopher  Epictetus, 
“Is  it  possible  that  a  man  may  arrive 
at  this  temper  and  become  indifferent 
to  those  things,  from  madness  or  from 
habit,  like  the  Galileans  ?”  And  the 
Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius  said,  “  Let 
this  preparedness  of  mind  (for  death) 
arise  from  its  own  judgment,  and  not 
from  obstinacy,  like  the  Christians .” 

3.  Reaffirmation  of  Christ’s  res¬ 
urrection,  and  statement  of  the 
place  of  the  resurrection  in  the 
divine  system,  20-28. 

This  sublime  passage,  preceded  by 

2  Thess.  i,  10,  and  followed  by  vv.  51-57 
of  this  chapter,  forms  a  part  of  what 
we  may  call  the  Apocalypse  of  St.  Paul. 
It  differs  from  that  of  St.  John  as  being 
briefer  and  more  literal ;  and,  because 
it  is  more  literal,  John  is  to  be  ex¬ 
plained  by  Paul  rather  than  Paul  by 
John. 

20.  But  now — After  all  these  de¬ 
nials.  Is  Christ  risen — Reaffirmed 
with  sublime  emphasis.  Firstfruits 
— According  to  the  Mosaic  ritual  the 
first  product  of  the  year  from  field, 
vineyard,  etc.,  was  sacred,  and  offered 
unto  God.  So  Christ,  as  the  first 
raised  from  the  dead  to  die  no  more, 
was  the  firstfruits  of  the  universal 
resurrection.  Others,  like  Lazarus  and 
the  son  of  the  widow  of  Nain,  were 
raised  from  death  ;  and  that  raising  is 
called,  in  verb  form,  a  resurrection; 
but  they  were  raised  in  mortal  body 
to  die  again.  Their  raising  was  no 
part  of  the  organic  universal  resurrec¬ 
tion.  Christ  was  the  first  who  went 
from  the  tomb  to  heaven. 

21,  22.  Compare  this  parallelism  be¬ 
tween  Adam  and  Christ  with  that  in 
Rom.  v,  12-21. 

21.  For — Just  as  the  afterfruits  are 
of  the  same  nature  with  the  firstfruits, 
io  the  human  race  is  after  the  nature 


of  the  dead.  22  For  as  in  Adam 
all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all 
lie  made  alive.  23  But  a every 
man  in  his  own  order:  Christ  the 
firstfruits ;  afterward  they  that  are 

1/Rom.  5.  12, 17. - z  John  11.  25;  Rom.  6.  23. 

aVerse  20;  1  Thess.  4.  15-17. 

of  its  heads.  By  man — It  pleased 
God  that  in  some  way  humanity  should 
within  itself,  however  aided  by  divin¬ 
ity,  work  out  its  own  destiny,  both  for 
death  and  life  ;  within  itself,  in  Adair 
and  in  Christ. 

22.  In  Adam... in  Christ — Liter¬ 
ally  in  the  Adam,  in  the  Christ.  That 
all  the  race  was  done  up  in  Adam  and 
drawn  out  from  him,  (just  as  the  suc¬ 
cessive  lengths  of  a  spyglass  are  dono 
up  in  and  drawn  out  from  the  first 
length,)  is  not  a  literal  fact.  It  is  an 
imaginative  conception,  which,  prop¬ 
erly  guarded,  gives  a  powerful  impres¬ 
sion  of  the  truth.  St.  Augustine,  by 
perverting  the  conception,  did  almost 
as  much  to  corrupt  Christian  theology 
as  he  did,  in  other  respects,  to  defend 
it.  See  note  on  Rom.  v,  12.  The 
being  made  alive  here,  is  simply  the 
same  as  the  resurrection  in  the 
previous  verse,  and  affirms,  merely,  a 
universal  bodily  resurrection.  The  be¬ 
ing  in  Christ  refers  not  to  the  incor¬ 
poration  into  Christ’s  mystical  body 
of  believers  by  faith,  but  to  their  be¬ 
ing  taken  in  under  his  headship  of  the 
race,  as  they  were  previously  in  under 
the  headship  of  Adam  by  descent. 

23.  Every  man — Shall  be  made 
alive,  in  his  own  order.  Order  is 
in  the  Greek  a  military  term,  signifying 
a  hand  or  battalion.  The  three  battalions 
are  Christ,  his  own,  and  the  wicked. 
As  the  apostle,  however,  is  writing 
for  Christians,  and  for  Christian  con¬ 
solation,  he  here  skips  the  wicked  and 
pictures  the  resurrection  of  the  right¬ 
eous  solely.  He  paints  the  glorious 
resurrection ,  or,  in  other  words,  the 
glorious  side  of  the  resurrection,  alone. 
That  he  believed  in  the  resurrection 
of  the  wicked  is  shown  by  his  words, 
Acts  xxiv,  15,  where  see  note.  At 
his  coming— His  parousia;  a  Greek 
word  which,  in  reference  to  Christ,  al¬ 
ways  denotes  his  personal  presence  at 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XY. 


121 


Christ’s  at  his  coming.  24  Then 
tometh  the  end,  when  he  shall 
have  delivered  up  bthe  kingdom 
to  God,  even  the  Father ;  when  he 

b  Dan. 7.14, 27. c  Psa.110.1 ;  Acts  2.34,35 ;  Eph.  1. 


the  second  advent  to  judge  the  world. 
Of  this  event  the  Apostles’  Creed 
says  :  “  He  ascended  into  heaven, . . . 
from  thence  he  shall  come  to  judge 
the  quick,”  (living)  “and  the  dead.” 
The  passages  containing  the  word  pa- 
rousia,  in  application  to  Christ,  and  al¬ 
ways  translated  coming,  are  the  follow¬ 
ing:  Matt,  xxiv,  3,  37,  39 ;  1  Cor.  xv,  23 ; 
1  Thess.  ii,  19 ;  iii,  13  ;  iv,  15  ;  2  Thess. 

ii,  1,  8,  9;  James  v,  7,  8;  2  Pet.  i,  16; 

iii,  4, 12  ;  1  Johnii,  28.  Other  comings 
of  God  or  Christ  are  mentioned  in  the 
Old  Testament  and  New,  both  in  verb 
and  noun  forms,  which  may  designate 
any  of  the  providential  interpositions 
of  God  in  great  events,  and  which  are 
not  to  be  identified  with  this  parousia. 

24.  Then  cometh  the  end — The 
end  of  the  mediatorial  and  probation¬ 
ary  kingdom  of  the  Messiah;  that  is, 
its  restoring  by  Christ  to  the  Father. 
This  is  the  result  of  the  completed 
judgment  of  both  the  righteous  and 
the  unrighteous.  The  words  after¬ 
ward  and  then,  which  mark  the  sec¬ 
ond  and  third  of  the  points  of  suc¬ 
cession,  are  in  Greek  erreLra  and  elra , 
which  furnish  no  indication  of  the 
length  of  interval  between  the  points. 
As  the  apostle  was  not  given  to  know 
the  length  of  time  between  Christ’s 
resurrection  and  second  advent,  nor 
between  that  advent  and  the  end,  he 
gives  no  measurement.  Personally,  he 
may  have  believed  it  possible  that  the 
three  events  were  with  little  or  no  in¬ 
terval  ;  and  the  revelation  vouchsafed 
here  to  him,  affirms  nothing  as  to  time. 
Put  many  commentators  hold  that  there 
are  two  bodily  resurrections ;  one  of  the' 
righteous  and  the  other  of  the  wicked, 
a  thousand  years  apart;  so  that  the 
end,  the  third  point,  is  at  least  that 
length  of  period  from  the  parousia. 
The  only  authority  for  this  opinion  is 
Rev.  xx,  5,  which,  however,  describes 
u  resurrection  of  “  souls,”  not  of  bodies, 
lhe  same  two  resurrections  arc  sliad- 


shall  have  put  down  all  rule,  and 
all  authority  and  power.  25  For 
he  must  reign,  c  till  he  hath  put  all 
enemies  under  his  feet.  26  d  The 


22 ;  Heb.  1.13 ;  10. 13. - d  2  Tim.  1. 10 :  Rev.  20. 14. 


owed  by  John  in  his  gospel,  v.  25-29. 
There  is  nothing  here  to  show  any 
length  of  interval  between  the  advent 
and  the  end,  or  to  show  that  there  is 
more  than  a  one  twofold  resurrection 
at  that  advent.  And  such  is  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  Matt,  xxiv  and  xxv,  and  of 
John  v,  28,  29,  as  well  as  of  the  Apos¬ 
tles’  Creed  just  quoted,  and,  we  may 
add,  of  all  the  confessions  of  faith 
of  the  great  Churches  of  Christendom. 
The  parousia  or  advent  of  this  verse 
is  identical  with  the  “  great  white 
throne”  of  Rev.  xx,  11.  The  king¬ 
dom — The  rule  of  the  Son,  as  bringing 
to  order  the  rebellion  of  the  world,  is 
well  compared  by  Grotius  to  the  vice¬ 
royalty  of  a  king’s  son,  sent  forth  to 
subdue  an  insurgent  province.  When 
every  enemy  is  subdued,  he  returns  to 
the  capital,  gives  up  his  commission, 
resigns  his  foreign  viceroyalty,  and  re¬ 
sumes  his  royal  place  at  the  royal  right 
hand  ;  and  the  king  is  all-ruling  in  all 
things,  owing  to  the  harmony  restored. 
To  God,  even  the  Father— Literally, 
to  the  God  and  Father.  Put  down — 
A  bad  rendering  for  Karapygoy,  which 
means  nullify ,  abolish ,  or  put  out  of 
existence,  not  the  persons  of  his  ene¬ 
mies,  but  their  organic  rule,  authority, 
and  power. 

25.  For — Assigns  Scripture  proof 
of .  this  abolition.  He,  Christ,  must 
reign  from  his  accession  to  the  end 
above  mentioned.  The  quotation  is 
from  Psa.  ex,  1,  in  which  “Jehovah 
says  to  my  Jehovah,  Sit  thou  at  my 
right  hand,  until  I  make  thine  enemies 
thy  footstool.”  With  this  compare  our 
notes  on  Matt,  xxviii,  18,  and  Acts  i,  1, 
showing  Christ’s  investiture  with  this 
kingdom  at  his  ascension  in  accordance 
with  Dan.  vii,  13.  Put  all  enemies 
under  his  feet — As  their  organisms  in 
the  last  verse  were  to  be  abolished ,  so 
their  persons  it  is  that  are  put  down. 
The  figure  is  taken  from  the  custom  of 
ancient  conquerors  placing  their  feet 


122 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A  D.  57. 


last  enemy  that  shall  be  destroyed 
is  death.  27  For  he  e  hath  put  all 
things  under  his  feet.  But  when 
he  saith,  All  things  are  put  under 
him ,  it  is  manifest  that  he  is  ex¬ 
cepted,  which  did  put  all  things 

ePsa.  8.  6;  Matt.  28.  18;  Heb.  2.  8;  1  Pet.  3.  22. 

upon  the  head  of  the  conquered.  See 
note  on  Acts  ii,  35.  It  indicates  not 
the  conversion ,  but  the  powerful  subjec¬ 
tion,  of  incorrigible  enemies. 

26.  The  last  enemy — Literally,  the 
last  enemy  shall  be  abolished ,  death. 
The  word  for  abolished  is  the  same  as 
we  have  so  rendered  in  verse  24.  This 
is  annihilation  of  death  by  the  universal 
resurrection.  So  Rev.  xx,  14,  “  Death 
and  hades  were  cast  into  the  lake  of 
fire;  ”  xxi,  4,  “and  there  shall  be  no 
more  death.”  Death  is  an  enemy  to 
man,  brought  in  by  sin ;  an  enemy  to 
Christ,  to  whom  Christ  had  first  to 
submit,  in  order  last  to  conquer  and 
destroy. 

27.  He  (God)  hath  put  all  things 
under  his  (Christ’s)  feet — This  is  a 
quotation  from  Psalm  viii,  6 ;  words 
which  are  spoken  by  the  psalmist  of 
man  as  in  the  earthly  image  of  God ; 
and  are  applied  here,  as  in  Hebrews 
ii,  8,  to  Jesus  as  the  representative 
man  in  his  highest  state.  But  — 
These  words  may  be  thus  paraphrased : 
When,  at  the  consummation,  God  shall 
have  pronounced  that  all  things  have 
actually  become  subjected  to  Christ,  (in 
accordance  with  Psa.  viii,  6,)  it  is  clear 
that  he  (God)  who  so  put  all  things 
under  Christ  is  excepted;  so  that  he 
puts  not  himself  under  Christ.  As 
Grotius  says,  this  is  that  figure  of  ex¬ 
ception  mentioned  by  Greek  rhetori¬ 
cians  as  necessary  in  some  instances, 
and  is  exemplified  by  the  sentence,  the 
sky  covers  all  things ,  of  course  excepting 
the  sky  itself.  This  exception,  Words¬ 
worth  thinks,  Paul  expressly  makes 
in  order  to  guard  his  Greek  readers 
against  the  error  of  their  own  mythol¬ 
ogy,  which  makes  Jupiter  subject  his 
own  father,  Saturn,  to  himself.  Let 
the  reader  mark,  that  at  the  comple¬ 
tion  of  this  verse  all  things  are  under 
Christ,  and  Christ  under  the  Father. 


under  him.  28  fAnd  when  all 
things  shaii  be  subdued  unto  him, 
then  s  shall  the  Son  also  himself 
be  subject  unto  him  that  put  all 
things  under  him,  that  God  may 
be  all  in  all. 


/Phil.  3.  21. - O  Chap.  3.  23;  11.  3. 

The  restoration  of  the  mediatorial  king¬ 
dom  takes  not  all  things  from  under 
Christ,  as  the  coming  home  of  the 
king’s  eldest  son,  and  the  surrendry  of 
his  special  temporal  viceroyalty,  does 
not  diminish  his  perpetual  rank  and  su¬ 
premacy  over  all  others,  his  father  ex¬ 
cepted.  Rather  is  he  higher,  in  the 
peaceful  order  and  harmony  of  the  home 
kingdom,  for  his  temporary  absence  and 
victorious  expedition.  Christ’s  king¬ 
dom  is,  therefore,  “  without  end.” 

28.  God... all  in  all  —  The  first 
all  of  the  two  here,  which  God  may 
be,  is  an  all  of  absolute  power ,  per¬ 
vading  the  second  all  things,  imme¬ 
diate  and  without  a  mediator.  For 
it  is  power,  kingdom,  authority,  aboli¬ 
tion,  and  subjection,  which  are  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  the  whole  passage ;  not  one 
word  being  spoken  of  reconciliation, 
communion,  or  love.  This  we  think 
entirely  decisive  against  all  theories  of 
Restorationism  founded  on  this  pas¬ 
sage.  God  is  finally  all  things — in  su¬ 
premacy  over  and  in  all  things.  As 
the  light  perfectly  pervades  the  per¬ 
fectly  transparent  diamond,  so  that  the 
diamond  itself  becomes  invisible,  be¬ 
ing  visually  dissolved  in  light,  so  God, 
the  omnipotent  all,  is  omnipresent  in 
all  things.  From  the  very  nature  of 
things,  that  omnipresence  is  perfectly 
blissful  to  every  conscious  nature  ac¬ 
cordant  with  it ;  but  perfectly  woful  to 
every  conscious  nature  discordant  with 
it,  though  perfectly  subjected  by  it. 
And  between  the  idea  of  this  subjec¬ 
tion  under  power,  and  this  discordance 
of  nature,  there  is  no  contradiction. 

4.  The  devastating  result  of  a  no¬ 
resurrection  upon  all  our  Christian 
hopes  and  activities,  29-34. 

Paul  resumes  suddenly,  and  contin¬ 
ues,  the  train  of  thought  interrupted  at 
verse  19  by  the  apocalypse  of  20-28. 
In  12-19  he  had  argued  that  the  no- 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XY. 


123 


29  Else  what  shall  they  do  which  dead  rise  not  at  all?  why  are 
are  baptized  for  the  dead,  if  the  they  then  baptized  for  the  dead  ? 


resurrection  doctrine  contradicts  Chris¬ 
tianity  ;  he  now  (29-34)  shows  how  it 
blights  all  Christian  hope  and  destroys 
all  Christian  heroism. 

29.  Else — If  this  apocalypse  of  the 
resurrection  be  not  true.  What  shall 
they  do  —  Or  say  for  themselves. 
Baptized  for  the  dead — Over  this 
passage  an  interminable  battle  of  com¬ 
mentary  is  waged.  It  is  admitted  by 
all  that  the  Greek  vnep.  for,  signifies 
either,  (1)  over ,  in  local  position  ;  or, 
(2)  instead  of]  as  a  substitute,  but  rarely; 
or,  (3)  in  behalf  of  as  favourer,  sponsor, 
advocate,  or  other  benefactor.  Of  the 
many  interpretations  fully  given  by 
Stanley  but  two  are  worth  a  discussion. 
1.  The  supposed  custom  of  substitutive 
baptism,  by  which  a  living  person  was 
baptized  in  place  of  a  dead  person,  one 
or  more.  2.  The  baptism  in  behalf  of 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead. 

By  the  substitutive  interpretation 
(as  Tertullian,  Grotius,  Alford,  Hodge) 
it  is  maintained  that  when  a  catechu¬ 
men  died  before  baptism,  a  friend  was 
baptized  in  his  stead,  and  so  was  sub- 
stitutively  baptized  for  the  dead. 
But,  1.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe, 
outside  of  the  passage  itself  that  any 
such  practice  existed  in  the  apostolic 
Church.  It  seems  illegitimate  to  cre¬ 
ate,  for  an  exegetical  purpose,  a  class 
of  heretics  practising  a  particular  su¬ 
perstitious  rite,  when  any  other  natu¬ 
ral  meaning  exists.  There  is  not  the 
slightest  reason  to  doubt  that  the  prac¬ 
tises  of  substitutive  baptism  mentioned 
by  Tertullian  and  ridiculed  by  Chry¬ 
sostom  were  later  than  Paul’s  day, 
and  based  their  practice  on  their  in¬ 
terpretation  of  this  verse,  as  do  the 
modern  Mormons.  2.  It  could  hardly 
be  said  that  such  substitutes  were  bap¬ 
tized  universally  for  the  dead ;  dead 
being  a  Greek  plural  with  the  article, 
and  so  signifying  all  the  dead.  Note, 
ver.  12.  The  phrase  to  express  this  sub¬ 
stitutive  meaning  should  be  Vizep  venpov , 
for  a  dead  person,  or  veuptiv,  without  the 
article,  for  dead  persons.  3.  Quoting 
the  condemnable  practice  of  heretics 
is  out  of  the  analogy  and  line  of  the 


argument.  Paul  has  argued  that  a  de¬ 
nial  of  the  resurrection  impugns  Christ, 
Christians,  and  sufferers  of  persecution, 
like  himself;  and  then  a  sudden  and 
transient  interpolation  of  heretical  per¬ 
formers  of  a  superstitious  rite  is  incred¬ 
ible.  4.  The  argument  would  be  with¬ 
out  value.  It  would  subject  Paul  to  the 
reply,  What  authority  for  us  is  an  exam¬ 
ple  of  a  set  of  heretics  practising  a  false 
superstition?  And  this  worthlessness 
would  be  aggravated  if  it  were  true  that 
Paul’s  words  intimate  a  disapproval  of 
the  practice.  Such  disapproval,  how¬ 
ever,  does  not  appear  from  the  proofs 
Alford  furnishes.  His  first  proof  is, 
that  baptized  is  in  the  present,  (3aK- 
TL&vraL,  are  being  baptized ,  instead  of 
/ SaTCTLGdevreg ,  were  baptized.  The  pres¬ 
ent  is  used,  we  think,  as  in  the  case  of 
stand  we  in  jeopardy ,  as  a  matter  of 
vividness.  The  third  person  is  used 
because,  for  the  sake  of  that  vividness, 
Paul  speaks  of  converts  being  baptized 
now ,  rather  than  of  persons,  like  him¬ 
self,  baptized  twenty  years  ago.  In 
fact,  the  they  of  this  verse  refers  to 
the  catechumens,  and  the  we  of  the 
next  verse  to  the  apostles.  5.  For  sub¬ 
stitution  the  proper  Greek  preposition 
is  not  vnEp ,  but  uvtl.  The  ordinary 
sense  of  in  behalf  of  is  the  true  intrin¬ 
sic  meaning,  and  should  not  be  sur¬ 
rendered  for  any  reasons  that  have 
ever  here  been  produced. 

The  true  interpretation  is,  we  be¬ 
lieve,  that  of  Chrysostom.  The  apos¬ 
tolic  Christians  were  baptized  into  the 
faith  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead, 
and  thereby  they  were  sponsors  in  be¬ 
half  of  the  dead,  that  the  dead  should 
rise.  Baptism  was  itself  an  affirmation 
in  behalf  of  the  dead,  who  were  assailed 
and  condemned  to  final  death  by  these 
deniers  of  their  resurrection.  In  favour 
of  this  view,  1.  Is  Paul’s  use  of  vn ep, 
as  in  behalf  of  with  an  intermediate 
idea.  So  above,  (verse  3,)  in  behalf  of 
our  sins,  that  is,  of  their  forgiveness. 
So  also  2  Thess.  ii,  1,  in  behalf  of  the 
parousia,  which  was  involved  in  error 
by  mistaken  believers.  So  also  in  be¬ 
half  of  the  dead,  whose  resurrection 


124 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


30  And  h  why  stand  we  in  jeop- [  have  fought  with  beasts  at  Ephe- 
ardy  every  hour?  31  I  protest  by  sus,  what  advantageth  it  me,  if  the 
4 ‘your  rejoicing  which  I  have  in  dead  rise  not?  rn  let  us  eat  and  drink; 
Christ  Jesus  our  Lord, k  I  die  daily,  for  to  morrow  we  die.  33  Be  not 
3ii  Jf  5  after  the  manner  of  men  1 1  j  deceived  :  n  evil  communications 

^* 2-  2o;  Sa1,  r?ad’  °,ur-  I  to  speak  after  the  manner  of  men. - 

orw  nfti  Kom‘  8-  36;  chap*  4*  9;  12  Cor.  1.  8. - m  Eccles.  2.  24;  Isa.  22. 13 ;  56. 12 ; 

2  Cor.  4.  10,  11;  11.  23.  |  Luke  12.  19. - ttChap.  5.  6. 


baptism  asserts.  2.  lilies  in  the  direct 
line  of  the  argument.  Paul  has  quoted 
in  favour  of  the  resurrection  the  Christ¬ 
ian  preaching,  (verse  14,)  faith,  (17,) 
the  salvation  of  dead  Christians,  (18,) 
the  jeopardy  of  the  living,  (30) ;  why 
should  he  not  quote  Christian  baptism 
as  a  pledge  in  behalf  of  the  dead? 
These  deniers  were  against  the  dead ; 

Christian  baptism  was  for  the  dead. 

3.  The  Church  early  recognised  the 
connexion  between  baptism  and  the 
resurrection.  It  has  its  basis  in  the 
words  of  St.  Patil:  “Buried  with 
him  in  baptism,  wherein  also  ye  are 
risen  with  him.”  Col.  ii,  12.  And  so 
Chrysostom  says :  “  When  we  have 
instructed  the  catechumen  in  the  di¬ 
vine  mysteries  of  the  Gospel,  and  are 
about  to  baptize  him,  we  command  him 
to  say,  ‘I  believe  in  the  resurrection 
of  the  body.’  .  .  .  This  is  what  St.  Paul 
recalls  to  their  memory.  If  there  is  no 
resurrection  of  the  body  why  are  you 
baptized  for  the  dead  ?  ”  4.  This  ac¬ 

cords  with  the  phrase  the  dead  j  tho 
baptism  being,  not  for  a  dead  person, 
or  some  dead  persons,  but  for  the  uni¬ 
versal  dead. 

30.  We — The  apostles,  as  the  I  of 
the  next  verse  specifies  the  apostle 
himself.  From  their  sponsorship  for 
the  dead  in  baptism  he  passes  to  the 
baptism  of  suffering  and  blood  which 
the  apostles  underwent  in  behalf  of  the 
same  cause. 

31.  By  your  rejoicing — Rather, 
by  the  boasting  of  you  which  I  have.  He 
not  only  affirms  his  daily  death,  but  he 
protests  it  by  that  which  was  both  its 
cause  and  its  compensation,  his  tri¬ 
umph  in  the  conversion  of  the  Corin¬ 
thians.  Die  daily — In  the  purpose 
of  my  enemies,  and  in  the  just  appre¬ 
hension  of  my  own  mind.  But  God 
gave  him  as  many  lives  as  his  perse¬ 
cutors  gave  him  deaths. 


32.  I  have  fought  with  beasts — 

In  a  single  word,  I  beast-fought.  Hap¬ 
pily  our  present  Christian  civilization 
needs  no  such  word.  The  Christians 
during  the  pagan  persecutions  were 
exposed  to  lions,  but  it  is  not  probable 
that  so  early  as  Paul’s  writing  of  this 
epistle  any  such  exposure  had  taken 
place.  The  best  commentators  take 
the  words  as  metaphorical.  The  words 
after  the  manner  of  men,  (literal¬ 
ly,  according  to  man,)  we  doubt  not 
implies  this  figurative  meaning.  The 
word  speaking  is  not,  indeed,  supplied, 
for  the  reason  that  speaking  is  implied 
in  the  very  fact  that  speaking  is  what 
he  is  doing.  According  to  man  may  as 
well  mean,  according  to  man  in  lan¬ 
guage,  as  in  any  other  respect.  Eat 
. . .  die  —  Stoical  moralists  in  Paul’s 
day,  and  materialistic  moralists  of  the 
present  day,  declare  that  earthly  mo¬ 
tives  are  sufficient  for  the  maintenance 
of  a  true  virtue.  This  cannot  be. 
Unless  man’s  virtue  be  fastened  by 
some  cord  to  the  supernal  it  has  noth¬ 
ing  in  it  of  divine.  Culture  and  self- 
respect  may  keep  a  few  philosophers 
at  an  elevated  level,  but  the  mass  of 
men,  if  cut  off  from  the  Above,  and 
deprived  of  its  hopes  and  fears  for  the 
great  future,  will  sink  into  animalism, 
and  the  apostle  has  here  given  voice 
and  utterance  to  the  mere  instincts 
of  the  animal  man  in  his  despair.  In 
ancient  poetry,  the  saddest  and  most 
beautiful,  and  often  most  disgustino:, 
strains,  are  the  varied  expression  either 
of  this  despair,  or  this  union  of  licen¬ 
tiousness  with  despair. 

33.  Paul  now  flings  out  some  words 
of  warning  against  the  demoralizing 
influence  of  the  men  who  are  among 
them  insinuating  the  non-existence  of 
any  human  future.  Deceived — Be¬ 
ware  of  error,  for  evil  intercourses,  in¬ 
timacies,  corrupt  good  morals,  rather 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


125 


corrupt  good  manners.  34  0  Awake 
\o  righteousness,  and  sin  not ;  p  for 
some  have  not  the  knowdedge  of 
God:  <H  speak  this  to  your  shame. 

35  But  some  man  will  say, r  How 


o  Rom.  13.  11 ;  Eph.  5. 14. - p  1  Thess.  4.  5. 

than  manners.  Bad  principles  pro¬ 
duce  bad  characters  and  conduct.  The 
belief  that  we  live  but  for  this  world 
will  seduce  us  into  sin. 

34.  Awake,  from  the  influence  of 
these  seductions  to  living  righteously, 
and  sin  not  ;  for  some,  whose  doc¬ 
trines  I  have  indicated,  though  their 
names  I  will  not  utter,  have  not  the 
knowledge  of  God;  literally,  have 
an  ignorance  of  God.  They  are  really 
holding  fast  a  part  of  their  old  pagan¬ 
ism — the  evil  of  matter  and  the  impos¬ 
sibility  of  a  renovation  of  man’s  body. 
Ihey  “  err,  not  knowing  the  Scriptures, 
nor  the  power  of  God”  touching  the 
resurrection.  Matt,  xxii,  29,  30.  Your 
shame — That  these  semi-pagan  error- 
ists,  denying  the  power  of  God  for  a  res¬ 
urrection,  and  demoralizing  the  Church, 
should  be  still  influential  among  them. 

5.  By  the  contrasts  in  the  glory 
of  various  classes  of  material  bod¬ 
ies  is  illustrated  the  contrast  be¬ 
tween  our  bodies,  mortal  and  im¬ 
mortalized,  35-41. 

Paul  now,  through  the  remainder  of 
the  chapter,  answers  the  Gnostic  oppo¬ 
nent  who  denies  the  possibility  of  the 
resurrection,  based  on  the  vileness  of  cor¬ 
poreal  matter.  He  shows  (35-41)  that 
there  are  varieties  of  body,  contrasts 
the  mode  of  our  present  body  with  the 
mode  of  the  future  same  body,  (42-50,) 
and  furnishes  an  apocalyptic  picture  af¬ 
firming  by  revelation  a  glorious  resur¬ 
rection  of  the  same  body. 

35.  Some  man  —  One  of  the  some 
of  verses  34  and  12.  Both  questions 
deny  the  possibility  of  the  resurrection 
(of  our  present  body,  note  Acts  viii,  9) 
by  asking  the  how  and  the  what  kind. 
Ihey  fully  believe  that  it  is  no  how 
and  of  no  kind’  for  matter  is  immuta¬ 
bly  corrupt,  and  they  have  no  concep¬ 
tion  that  body  can  be  made,  even  by 
divine  power,  any  otherwise  than  cor¬ 
rupt — just  because  it  is  matter. 


are  the  dead  raised  up  ?  and  with 
what  body  do  they  come?  30  Thou 
fool, 8  that  which  thou  sowest  is  not 
quickened,  except  it  die:  37  And 
that  which  thou  sowest,  thou  sow- 

Q  Chap.  6.  5. - rEzek.  37.  3. - .9  John  12.  24. 

36.  Thou  fool — The  italic  thou  is 
furnished  by  the  translators.  Similar 
was  Solomon’s  fool,  who  said  in  his 
heart,  There  is  no  God.  Thou— Yet 
here,  as  in  Rom.  ix,  the  apostle  has  a 
conceptual  opponent  face  to  face.  This 
thou  would  be  more  emphatic  in  Paul’s 
Greek  than  in  our  English,  for  the  Greek 
can  omit  the  pronoun,  and  inserts  it 
only  for  the  keen  point.  As  Dr.  Poor 
(in  Lange)  pertinently  says,  “It  is  the 
pointed  finger  aiming  at  the  objector 
present  to  the  author’s  mind  —  thou.” 
And  fool  belongs  to  this  thou,  just 
because  his  own  planting  a  seed  re¬ 
futes  him.  \V  hen  you  yourself  put  a 
seed  in  the  ground,  you  know  what 
follows.  Quickened  —  Made  alive  in 
the  future  plant. 

Paul  here,  be  it  noted,  is  not  dealing 
in  the  secrecies  of  science,  but  with  the 
bare  facts  presented  to  the  eye  of  the 
seed  planter.  The  three  patent  ocular 
facts  are,  a  burial,  a  death,  and  a  re¬ 
appearance.  The  seed  goes  into  the 
ground,  dies,  and  is  “  resurrected  ”  in 
a  plant  above  ground.  To  Paul’s  con¬ 
ception  the  plant  is  the  same  seed  re¬ 
appearing;  the  same  matter  in  a  new 
form.  Yet  this  sameness  is  not  what 
he  is  now  illustrating ;  he  is  now  only 
showing  the  Gnostic  that  as  matter  is 
not  necessarily  inglorious,  so  the  ma¬ 
teriality  of  our  present  body  is  no  rea¬ 
son  for  objecting  to  its  future  remod¬ 
elling  in  glory.  Paul’s  view  is,  that 
the  same  materiality  rises  re-organ 
ized,  and  endowed  with  new  proper¬ 
ties.  It  is  idem  et  alter  ’  the  same  in 
substance,  but  different  in  phenomena; 
just  as  the  same  carbon  may  be  first 
a  charcoal  and  then  a  diamond.  Ex¬ 
cept  it  die — Is  it  strange  to  you  that 
corruption,  decay,  and  death  should  be 
the  antecedent  of  immortal  life  ?  Lo, 
the  seed  you  plant  cannot  live  until  it 
die.  Death  is  the  necessary  condi  tiou 
to  future  life. 


126 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


est  not  that  body  that  shall  be,  but 
bare  grain,  it  may  chance  of  wheat, 
or  of  some  other  grain:  38  But 
God  giveth  it  a  body  as  it  hath 
pleased  him,  and  to  every  seed  his 
own  body.  39  All  flesh  is  not  the 
same  flesh :  but  there  is  one  hind  of 

37.  Not. .  .body  that  shall  be — The 

planter  does  not  sow  it  a  plant  and  then 
have  it  come  up  a  plant.  But  a  seed 
is  sown  and  a  plant  is  grown.  Just  so 
you  bury  a  putrid  corpse ,  and  it  comes 
forth  an  angel-like  body.  But  to  the 
apostle’s  legitimate  conception  the  new 
plant  is  but  a  transfiguration  of  the  old 
seed,  and  the  new  body  is  but  a  mole¬ 
cular  rearrangement  of  the  old  corpse. 
The  old  corpse  is  the  primitive  material 
out  of  which  the  new  body  is  made ; 
just  as  in  the  change  of  verse  52,  the 
old  is  the  material  for  the  new.  Bare 
grain— Naked  kernel,  not  a  living  stalk, 
with  fresh  branches,  foliage,  and  flow¬ 
er  ;  as  it  is  in  its  upspringing. 

38.  But  God  giveth  it — And  it 
was  just  because  the  Gnostical  objector 
had  a  semi-pagan  ignorance  of  God, 
(note  on  verse  34,)  that  he  could  not 
realize  that  God  can  reorganize  old 
matter  in  new  glory.  Pleased  him — 
For  the  laws  of  the  resurrection,  like 
the  laws  of  nature,  are  a  mode  of  the 
divine  volition.  The  new  body  is  pro¬ 
duced  by  God’s  power,  and  just  as  he 
wills.  To  every  (kind  of)  seed  his 
own  body — And  so  God  may  modify 
the  resurrection  body  so  as  to  destroy 
the  objector’s  supposition  that  the  same 
body  means  a  corrupt  body. 

39-41.  As  the  necessary  corruptness 
of  all  matter,  and  therefore  the  neces¬ 
sary  corruptness  of  all  bodies,  here  or 
hereafter,  is  the  ground  assumption  of 
the  Gnostical  objector  against  the  pos¬ 
sibility  of  the  resurrection,  Paul  now 
enlarges  on  the  varieties  of  body,  and 
the  various  glories  which  material  bod¬ 
ies  are  made  by  God  to  assume.  These 
are  all  to  illustrate  the  difference  be¬ 
tween  the  dying  body  and  the  resur¬ 
rection  body. 

39.  All. .  .not.  .  .same  flesh — All 

are  alike  matter  and  flesh ;  but  God’s 
power  is  competent  to  clothe  the  same 
matter  with  varied  properties. 


flesh  of  men,  another  flesh  of  beasts, 
another  of  fishes,  and  another  of 
birds.  40  There  are  also  celestial 
bodies,  and  bodies  terrestrial :  but 
the  glory  of  the  celestial  is  one,  and 
the  glory  of  the  terrestrial  is  an¬ 
other.  41  There  is  one  glory  of  the 

40.  Celestial.  .  .terrestrial  —  Ce¬ 
lestial  bodies  might  be  understood  of 
the  stars,  or,  as  they  are  called,  “  the 
heavenly  bodies,”  but  there  hardly  ap¬ 
pear  to  be  any  earthly  bodies  to  corre¬ 
spond  with  them.  Hence,  very  plaus¬ 
ibly,  they  are  interpreted  by  the  best 
modern  commentators  as  angelic  bodies 
and  human  bodies.  This  would  assume 
that  an  angel  possesses,  or  at  least  as¬ 
sumes  whenever  he  appears  to  human 
vision,  a  spiritual  body,  verse  44,  yet 
none  the  less  a  subtilely  material  one. 
The  glory  of  our  earthly  bodies  is  in¬ 
deed  a  very  inferior  one  at  present, 
yet  still  possessing  traits  of  the  image 
of  God. 

41.  Glory  —  Visible  splendour. 
The  splendours  of  the  luminaries  differ 
in  intensity,  magnitude,  and  colour. 
Against  the  doctrine  of  a  resurrection 
it  is  argued  that  our  bodies  are  .now  in 
a  continual  process  of  change ;  so  that, 
even  here,  our  very  material  sameness 
is  not  a  literal,  but  a  successional  and 
historical  one.  Yet,  we  reply,  this 
molecular  succession  is,  in  fact,  now 
most  carefully  maintained  unbroken ; 
so  that  the  historical  continuity  and 
sameness  can  be  traced  and  sworn  to. 
The  murderer  of  twenty  years  ago,  in 
spite  of  all  organic  changes,  is  hung 
to-day.  This  man  at  seventy  is  hus¬ 
band  of  the  wife  he  married  at  twen¬ 
ty-five,  and  heir  of  the  patrimony  he 
inherited  in  infancy.  But  we  never 
in  life  drop  our  whole  body  to-day, 
pass  a  bodiless  period,  and  then  hike 
a  whole  new  body.  Nor  then  would 
the  new  body  be  the  same  as  the  old. 
In  order  to  be  the  same  body  next 
year,  the  reconstructor  must  go  back 
and  take  up  the  material  of  the  old 
body  into  the  new.  And  so  in  the 
resurrection,  the  reorganizer  must  go 
back  and  take  up  the  body  that  died ; 
otherwise,  the  successional  historical 
identity  which  exists  in  our  present 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XY. 


127 


6Uii,  and  another  glory  of  the  moon, 
and  another  glory  of  the  stars ;  for 

life,  and  which  is  quoted  as  a  prece¬ 
dent,  is  wholly  abolished. 

Dr.  Poor  theorizes  that  the  “plas¬ 
tic  principle  ”  may,  at  the  resurrection, 
“  assimilate  new  materials  of  a  wholly 
different  kind  ”  from  those  in  our  pres¬ 
ent  bodies.  What  demand  for  such 
a  supposition  ?  Por,  1 .  There  is  not 
known  to  science,  or  demanded  by 
reason,  any  other  “plastic  principle” 
than  an  omnipresent  divine  power, 
working  under  forms  of  law  and  finite 
causations.  As  Paul  says,  God  giveth 
it  a  body  as  it  hath  pleased  him ,  yet  in 
accordance  with  the  laws  of  resurrec¬ 
tion.  2.  When  the  undressed  soul  ap¬ 
pears  before  God  on  the  morning  of 
the  resurrection,  it  is  by  divine  power 
that  from  somewhere  in  the  wide  uni¬ 
verse,  the  particles  should  gather  in 
accretion  upon  the  soul,  to  form  its 
body.  Now  why  is  it  not  quite  as 
easy  for  divine  power  to  order  the 
coming  of  that  set  of  particles  which 
formed  the  old  body  as  any  other  ? 
What  demand  from  science,  reason, 
or  Scripture  for  any  new  materials? 
Nay,  that  divine  power  may  establish 
such  affinity  between  the  soul  and  the 
particles  of  the  old  organism  that  it 
may  attract  them  to  itself  by  a  process 
as  truly  natural  as  that  by  which  a 
magnet  draws  a  mass  of  iron  filings  to 
itself. 

Otherwise  there  is  no  resurrection, 
but  a  new  creation  and  a  substitution. 
The  real  debate  is  not  between  “  two 
theories  of  the  resurrection,”  but  be¬ 
tween  the  resurrection  and  something 
else  that  is  not  a  resurrection.  An 
anastasis  (resurrection)  of  the  dead  is 
an  uprising  of  the  body  from  its  fallen 
position  in  death,  and,  normally,  the 
grave.  That  is  the  very  meaning  of 
the  word.  And  it  is  that  which  down- 
fell  which  must  uprise ,  and  not  some¬ 
thing  else.  Or,  if  it  is  called  in  the 
New  Testament  an  egersis ,  it  is  an  up¬ 
raising.  What  is  it  that  is  upraised 
unless  the  previous  body,  the  body 
that  fell,  and  that  now  lies  a  prostrate 
corpse  ?  There  must  be  no  legerdemain 
fcbout  it;  no  slipping  in  a  supposititious 


one  star  differetli  from  another  star 
in  glory. 

body;  no  substitution;  no  new  crea¬ 
tion  “out  of  new  materials  of  a  whol¬ 
ly  different  kind.”  If  either  of  those 
things  takes  place,  it  is  no  resurrec¬ 
tion  at  all,  and  the  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection  is  wholly  denied. 

This  realistic  identity  is  absolutely 
required  by  Scripture.  Daniel  tells 
us  (xii,  2)  that  they  “that  sleep  in  the 
dust  of  the  earth,”  which  can  be  no 
other  than  the  buried  corpses,  “shall 
awake.”  Our  Lord,  almost  quoting 
Daniel’s  words,  says  that  it  is  “they 
that  are  in  the  graves,”  which  can  again 
mean  only  the  entombed  corpses,  that 
“  shall  come  forth.”  John  v,  28,  29. 
Wherever  death  is  called  a  sleep  it  is 
the  body  (certainly  not  the  soul)  that  is 
conceived  to  sleep,  and  the  resurrection 
is  the  awakening  of  that  same  body. 
Our  Lord’s  resurrection — the  pattern 
and  model  for  all — was  of  his  same  body 
from  the  tomb.  In  his  transfiguration, 
by  which  he  was  assimilated  to  the 
resurrection  body  of  Moses  and  Elijah, 
that  self-same  body  rose  into  the  res¬ 
urrection  state,  and  then  subsided  into 
its  ordinary  conditions ;  unchanged  in 
material  throughout.  In  the  change 
of  verses  51,  52  it  is  this  same  mortal 
body;  and  the  change  is  simply  its 
putting  on  immortality. 

If  by  divine  law  there  may  be  a 
fixed  affinity  between  the  soul  and  its 
last  investiture,  that  law  can  secure 
that  the  same  material  shall  never  be 
organic  in  two  bodies  at  death ;  just 
as  a  secret  law  secures  the  equality  in 
number  of  the  two  sexes. 

This  modern  unscriptural  pseudo¬ 
resurrection  is  a  Gnostical  one.  It 
has  “  an  ignorance  of  God,”  doubting 
his  power  to  raise  the  same  body.  It 
has  the  Gnostic  abhorrence  of  matter, 
demanding  “  new  materials  of  a  wholly 
different  kind,”  known  as  matter  now. 
But  it  does  not  deny  a  future  life,  like 
the  errorists  whom  Paul  corrects ;  and 
so  does  not  shake  the  foundations  of 

Christianitv. 

%/ 

Meyer  quotes  from  Tertullian  the 
following  notes  as  a  caution  to  over¬ 
brilliant  commentators,  verse  40:  One 


128 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


42  lSo  also  is  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead.  It  is  sown  in  corrup¬ 
tion,  it  is  raised  in  incorruption: 

2  Dan.  12.  3;  Matt.  13.  43. 

flesh  of  men,  that  is,  servants  of  God ; 

another  of  beasts,  that  is,  the  hea¬ 
then  ;  another  of  birds,  that  is,  the 
martyrs ;  another  of  fish,  to  whom  be¬ 
longs  the  water  of  baptism!  Also,  verse 

41.  There  is  one  glory  of  the  sun 
— Christ ;  of  the  moon — The  Church  ; 
of  the  stars — The  seed  of  Abraham. 

6.  With  these  differences  in  vari¬ 
ous  bodies,  the  differences  between 
the  buried  and  risen  bodies  corre¬ 
spond,  42-50. 

42.  So  also — Similar  to  the  differ¬ 
ence  in  these  contrasted  classes  of  ob¬ 
jects  in  nature  is  the  difference  be¬ 
tween  the  buried  and  the  resurrection 

body. 

The  words  thrice  produced — sown, 
sown,  sown — can  mean  nothing  but 
buried ,  buried ,  buried  in  the  grave. 
And  raised,  raised,  raised,  can  mean 
nothing  but  raised  from  the  grave. 
And  what  is  or  can  be  raised  but  the 
material  corpse  there  buried  ?  And 
what  can  be  “  resurrected,”  or  immor¬ 
talized,  but  that  same  material  which 
is  reused  from  the  grave  ?  And  if  the 
corpse  is  raised  from  the  grave  by  the 
resurrection,  what  need  of  any  other 
material  ?  Obviously,  indeed,  both 
Jesus  and  Paul  select  the  case  of  the 
buried  only  as  the  ordinary  fact.  But 
that  ordinary  fact  is  selected  to  de¬ 
clare  the  resurrection  of  the  actually 
dead  body.  For  what  has  any  sub¬ 
stituted  body  to  do  with  the  grave  at 
all? 

It  .  .  .  it — The  it  is  not  expressed 
in  the  Greek,  but  necessarily  implied. 
For  as  the  subject  of  both  verbs,  sown 
and  raised,  is  the  same,  so  the  same 
subject  is  buried  and  “  resurrected.” 
But  what  is  the  grammatical  antece¬ 
dent  of  it  ?  What  is  it  that  is  sown  ? 
None  is  here  expressed,  but  verse  44 
shows  that  body  is  implied. 

If  Jesus,  instead  of  reanimating  the 
putrid  corpse  of  Lazarus  by  restoring 
to  it  its  soul,  had  enshrined  his  soul  in 
a  new  body,  it  would  have  been,  so  far 


43  uIt  is  sown  ifl  dishonour,  it  is 
raised  in  glory:  it  is  sown  in  weak¬ 
ness,  it  is  raised  in  power :  44  It 

u  Phil.  3.  21. 


as  the  soul  was  concerned,  a  transmi¬ 
gration,  and  not  a  resurrection.  And  so 
far  as  the  body  is  concerned,  a  substitu¬ 
tion  and  not  a  resurrection.  The  resur¬ 
rection,  to  be  a  resurrection,  must  be  of 
the  same  body ;  and  it  must  be  the  same 
body  by  being  the  same  substance, 
particle  for  particle.  But  it  destroys 
not  the  resurrection  to  endow  the  body 
with  new  properties,  and  arrange  its 
molecules  to  a  new  model. 

There  are  three  qualities  assigned  to 
the  present  body — corruption,  dis¬ 
honour,  and  weakness  ;  and  three  to 
the  resurrection  body — incorruption, 
honour,  and  power.  Corruption  is 
the  quality  that  arises  from  the  insta¬ 
bility  of  the  material  particles,  by 
which  displacement,  decay,  and  disin¬ 
tegration  take  place.  Incorruption 
implies  that  the  bodjq  however  flexible 
to  every  volition,  suffers  no  displace¬ 
ment,  disarrangement,  or  dissolution. 
Every  part  and  particle  retains  its 
place  with  perfect  indissolubleness, 
health,  and  durability.  Flexible  as 
gossamer,  it  is  unyielding  as  adamant. 

43.  Dishonour — Both  in  life  and  in 
death  the  mortal  body  has  parts,  con¬ 
ditions,  operations,  and  failures  that 
render  it  a  disgust  to  the  contemplation. 
In  death,  decay  and  putrefaction  ren¬ 
der  it  unendurable  to  its  fellows. 
“When  the  soul  departs,”  says  Xeno¬ 
phon,  “  men  carry  out  the  body  of  the 
dearest  friend  in  the  quickest  way,  and 
put  it  out  of  sight.”  Glory — Phenom¬ 
enal  properties  that  attract  the  won¬ 
der  and  admiration  of  the  beholder. 
Weakness — With  strength  of  body  to 
effect  little ;  liable  to  sickness  and  de* 
bility,  requiring  to  be  carried  by  ma¬ 
chinery  for’  rapid  locomotion.  Pow¬ 
er — Vigour  of  body  to  accomplish  the 
boldest  determinations  of  the  will,  ex¬ 
emption  from  fatigue,  and  ability  to 
pass  through  space  with  the  rapidity 
of  thought.  Grotius  adds,  “Endowed 
with  a  variety  of  new  senses;  ”  which, 
however  true,  is  not  so  clearly  said. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


129 


is  sown  a  natural  body,  it  is  raised 

44.  Natural  body... spiritual  body 
— The  word  natural,  to  the  English 
reader,  entirely  breaks  the  thread  of 
the  apostle’s  thought.  If  we  assume 
a'  difference  between  soul  and  spirit , 
and  coin  the  word  souli cal  as  the  an¬ 
tithesis  of  spirits lal,  we  present  his  ex¬ 
act  idea,  and  the  connexion  with  the 
word  soul,  verse  45,  will  be  immedi¬ 
ately  made.  The  Greek  word  ipvxy, 
psyche — soul  or  life — when  used  as  an¬ 
tithetical  to  nvevya,  pneuma — spirit — 
signifies  that  animating,  formative,  and 
thinking  soul  or  anima  which  belongs 
to  the  animal ,  and  which  man,  as  ani- 
mal,  shares  as  his  lower  nature,  with 
the  animals.  Its  range  is  within  the 
limits  of  the  five  senses,  within  which 
limits  it  is  able  to  think  and  to  reason. 
Such  is  the  power  of  the  highest  ani¬ 
mals.  Overlying  this,  is  the  spirit 
which  man  shares  with  higher  natures, 
by  which  thought  transcends  the  range 
of  the  senses,  and  man  thinks  of  im¬ 
mensity,  eternity,  infinity,  immortal¬ 
ity,  the  beautiful,  the  holy,  and  God. 
Whether  soul  and  spirit  exist  in  man 
as  two  entities  distinct  from  each  other, 
we  need  not  here  discuss ;  yet  it  is 
certain  that  man’s  mind  possesses  both 
these  two  classes  or  sets  of  thoughts. 
The  lower  faculties  may  exist  without 
the  higher;  for  they  do  so  exist  in 
brutes.  The  brute  has  also  a  higher 
set  of  faculties  overlying  those  of  the 
oyster.  But  it  is  all-important  to  note 
that  it  is  by  man’s  spiritual  faculties 
that  he  rises  into  a  supernal  region,  and 
shows  affinities  with  celestial  natures. 

When  St.  Paul  says  it  is  sown  a 
soulical  body,  as  in  the  two  preced¬ 
ing  cases  (verses  42,  43)  of  the  sown, 
he  does  not  refer  to  the  dead  or  dying 
body,  but  to  the  body  as  mortal  in 
life,  and  sown  in  death.  It  is  a  soulical 
body  while  living,  and  is  buried  as  the 
vacated  frame  of  a  soulical  body.  The 
body  dies  because  the  animal  soul  cith¬ 
er  fuses  into  surrounding  nature,  or  is 
borne  by  the  spirit  into  the  spirit  region. 
There  is — The  anti-resurrectionists  of 
the  Corinthian  Church  seem  never  to 
have  understood  this  striking  assertion. 

A  soulical  body . . .  a  spiritual  body— 

Vol.  IV.— 9 


a  spiritual  body.  There  is  a  nat- 

But  as  the  soulical  body  is  not  all  pure 
soul ,  so  the  spiritual  body  is  not  pure 
spirit.  For  a  pure  spirit  is  not  a  body 
at  all.  As  the  soulical  body  is  soul- 
pervaded  body,  so  the  spiritual  body 
is  spirit-pervaded  body.  But  while  the 
soul  pervades  and  gives  sensitive  life 
to  body  alone,  the  spirit  pervades  both 
soul  and  body,  and  gives  supernal  life 
to  both ;  forming  the  unit  of  body,  soul, 
and  spirit. 

Scholars  agree  that  the  true  reading 
here  is,  If  there  is  a  natural  body,  there 
is  also  a  spiritual  body.  By  the  body’s 
becoming  a  “  spiritual  body  ”  we  un¬ 
derstand  that  it  will  be  so  subtilized, 
so  adjusted  to  the  pure  spirit,  and  so 
subjected  in  every  part  and  particle  to 
the  volition  and  power  of  the  spirit, 
that  while  the  spirit  becomes,  so  to 
speak,  more  substantiated,  the  personal 
unit  of  the  two  natures  possesses  all 
the  capabilities  that  our  thought  usually 
attributes  to  the  pure  spirit.  By  voli¬ 
tion  it  passes  with  lightning  rapidity 
through  measureless  distances.  It  clair- 
voyantly  sees,  at  volition,  through  a 
finite  immensity.  By  volition  it  trans¬ 
forms  itself  to  any  shape,  and  invests 
itself  with  a  countless  variety  of  prop¬ 
erties  and  phenomenal  presentations. 
It  can  become  as  the  dark,  rolling 
cloud,  the  flashing  lightning,  the  solid 
rock.  And  yet  it  will  have  a  normal 
figure  and  face  which  will  at  once 
be  the  true  expression  of  its  essential 
nature,  (far  more  truly  than  human 
physiognomy  now  manifests  the  char¬ 
acter,)  and  will  reveal  to  the  intuition 
of  the  fellow-celestials  the  particu¬ 
lar  personality,  and  perhaps  the  entire 
past  history,  of  the  individual.  When 
asked,  Will  the  glorified  bodies  have 
teeth  ?  we  reply,  If  they  please ;  and 
eat  with  them,  too,  as  the  angels  did 
who  visited  Abraham.  If  asked,  Will 
they  have  hair?  we  reply,  Yes,  if  they 
please.  And  when  asked,  Where  will 
they  got  their  clothes  ?  we  answer, 
Just  where  the  “two  angels”  who 
stood  before  the  apostles  at  Christ’s 
ascension,  procured  their  “  shining  rai¬ 
ment.”  It  is  perfectly  clear,  we  think, 
that  varying  phenomenal  form  and 


130 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A  D.  57. 


ural  body,  and  there  is  a  spiritual 
body.  45  And  so  it  is  written,  The 
first  man  Adam  7  was  made  a  liv¬ 
ing  soul ;  w  the  last  Adam  was  made 
x  a  quickening  spirit.  46  Howbeit 
that  was  not  first  which  is  spiritu¬ 
al,  but  that  which  is  natural ;  and 
afterward  that  which  is  spiritual. 
47  y  The  first  man  is  of  the  earth, 

v  Gen.  2.  7. - w  Rom.  5.  14. - a?  John  5.  21 ; 

6.  33,  39,  40,  54,  57 ;  Phil.  3.  21 ;  Col.  3.  4. y  John 

3.  31. - z  Gen.  2.  7 ;  3.  19. 

properties  are  more  or  less  at  the  com¬ 
mand  both  of  the  pure  spirit  and  of 
the  unit  of  spirit  and  spiritual  body. 
See  note  on  Luke  xxiv,  39. 

45.  So — In  accordance  with  this 
distinction  between  the  soulical  and  the 
spiritual ,  it  is  written  in  Gen.  ii,  7. 
Was  made  a  living  soul — Paul 
quotes  the  words  of  the  Septuagint, 
which,  like  those  of  the  Hebrew,  are 
literally  rendered  became  unto ,  or  into , 
a  living  soul.  Prom  these  words,  as 
Dr.  Poor  truly  says,  no  argument  for 
immortality  could  be  drawn,  for  our 
English  translation  wrongly  conceals 
that  in  Gen.  i,  20,  21,  24,  the  words 
severally  rendered  creature  that  hath 
life ,  living  creature ,  living  creature ,  are 
in  the  Hebrew  precisely  the  same  as 
here  for  living  soul,  which  last  is  the 
true  translation  in  every  case.  Yet 
a  most  remarkable  difference  between 
the  case  of  the  animals  who,  in  the 
above  three  verses,  become  a  hving 
soul,  and  man,  who  becomes  a  living 
soul,  is  this  :  that  whereas  the  animals 
become  such  in  accordance  with  God’s 
fiat  to  nature  to  bring  them  forth ,  man 
becomes  so  by  the  direct  breath  of  the 
Almighty. 

Of  the  antitheses  of  this  verse  the 
clause,  the  first. . . soul  is  Moses’  scrip¬ 
ture  ;  the  last  clause,  the  last . . .  quick¬ 
ening  spirit,  is  Paul’s ;  and,  as  equally 
inspired,  is  equally  good.  Yet  it  may 
be  Paul’s  equivalent  for  Genesis  ii,  7, 
“breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath 
of  life,”  expressed  in  form  to  balance 
the  antithesis.  Christ  is  a  quicken¬ 
ing,  that  is,  an  alive-making ,  spirit, 
by  the  resurrection  of  men  wrought  by 
him. 

46.  Howbeit — Notwithstanding  that 


2 earthy:  the  second  man  is  the 
Lord  afrom  heaven.  4§  As  is  the 
earthy,  such  are  they  also  that  are 
earthy :  b  and  as  is  the  heavenly, 
such  are  they  also  that  are  heav¬ 
enly.  49  And  cas  we  have  borne 
the  image  of  the  earthy, d  we  shall 
also  bear  the  image  of  the  heav¬ 
enly.  50  Now  this  I  say,  brethren, 

a  John  3.  13,  31. - &Phil.  3.  20,  21. - cGen. 

5.  3. - riRom.  8.  29;  2  Cor.  3.  18;  4.  11;  Phil. 

3.  21 ;  1  John  3.  2. 

it  might  be  supposed  that  the  greatest 
would  be  first,  the  reverse  is  the  case. 
Afterward .  .  .  spiritual  —  God  works 
by  progresses  and  climaxes,  bringing 
out  the  greatest  last.  See  note  on  Ro¬ 
mans  viii,  39. 

47.  Of — Rather,  from  the  earth, 
as  the  second  man  is  from  heaven. 
In  Gen.  ii,  7,  the  same  Greek  words 
occur,  from  the  earth.  The  Lord — 
This  phrase  is  rejected  as  spurious  by 
the  best  scholars;  the  true  reading  is 
the  second  man  is  the  Lord  from 
heaven.  By  this  antithesis,  as  by 
the  former,  (verses  45  and  49,)  Adam 
is  viewed  at  his  creation,  and  Christ 
at  his  second  advent,  producing  our 
resurrection. 

48.  As . . .  earthy,  such . . .  earthy 

— By  the  universal  law  of  descent, 
earthly  beings  inherit  the  nature  of 
their  progenitors.  See  note,  Romans 
v,  12,  on  the  phrase  all  have  sinned. 
Heavenly — But  the  nature  of  the 
heavenly  is  stamped  at  the  resurrec¬ 
tion  upon  the  earthy  by  a  direct  act 
of  divine  power. - 

49.  W e  shall  also  bear — Instead  of 
the  future  the  subjunctive  of  the  verb 
has  the  best  authority  from  MSS.  But 
Alford  rejects  it,  properly,  (as  well  as 
the  subjunctive  in  Romans  vi,  1,)  as 
having  been  introduced  from  doctrinal 
reasons.  It  would  then  follow,  from 
Alford’s  own  conclusion,  that  St.  Paul 
here  gives  us  a  we  in  which  it  was 
not  fully  certain  that  himself  would  be 
included.  See  note,  verse  52. 

50.  Now  —  Rather,  but.  We  shall 
attain  the  heavenly  resurrection  image, 
but  not  as  unchanged  flesh  and  blood 
This  I  say  —  As  the  thought  really 
running  through  all  the  antitheses. 

O  O  i 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


131 


that e flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit 
the  kingdom  of  God ;  neither  doth 
corruption  inherit  incorruption. 

51  Behold,  I  show  you  a  mys¬ 
tery;  fWe  shall  not  all  sleep,  s  but 
we  shall  all  be  changed,  52  In  a 
moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye, 
at  the  last  trump :  h  for  the  trumpet 
shall  sound,  and  the  dead  shall  be 

eMatt.  16.  17;  John  3.  3,  5. — -f  1  Thess.  4.  15, 
16, 17. - (7  Phil.  3.  21. 

(42-49,)  furnishing  the  full  and  final 
answer  to  the  question  what  body  ? 
and  negativing  the  error  on  which 
that  question  was  based,  that  the  res¬ 
urrection  implies  our  corrupt  mortal 
bodies  in  a  future  state.  Flesh  and 
blood  —  The  perishable  amalgam  of 
soul  and  matter  which  furnished  the 
basis  of  the  objection  against  the  res¬ 
urrection.  Cannot — Literally,  are  not 
able,  as  vile  and  putrifying,  to  inhabit 
the  eternal  mansions.  They  must  be 
as  immortal  as  the  heavenly  abodes 
themselves. 

7.  Apocalyptic  picture  of  the 
glorious  resurrection,  51-53;  tri¬ 
umphal  pean,  54-57 ;  and  admoni¬ 
tory  inference,  58. 

51.  Behold — Lift  up  your  eyes 
upon  the  glorious  picture  I  present. 
Show —  Utter.  The  showing  was  in 
language.  A  mystery  —  A  truth 
hitherto  concealed  in  the  eternal  coun¬ 
sels,  now  revealed  to  men  by  me. 
We — Who  are  this  we  ?  Alford,  and 
other  commentators  who  are  earnest 
to  make  out  that  Paul  firmly  expected 
the  resurrection  to  occur  in  his  own 
generation,  say  that  it  means  Paul  and 
his  Corinthian  brethren.  We  think  it 
as  comprehensive,  at  least,  as  the  we 
of  verse  49,  including  all  the  candidates 
for  the  glorious  resurrection — all  who 
have  borne  the  image  of  the  earthy. 
And  this  seems  to  be  a  complete  reply 
to  all  argument  drawn  from  both  this 
we  and  that  in  1  Thess.  iv,  15.  For  it 
shows  that  St.  Paul’s  we  may  cover  a 
whole  class — a  class  in  which  he  may 
eventually  fail  to  be  one.  All— And 
this  all  we  consider  as  comprehensive 
as  the  all  of  verse  22.  St.  Paul  is 
here  meeting  the  question,  How  will  it 


raised  incorruptible,  and  we  shall 
be  changed.  53  For  this  corrup¬ 
tible  must  put  on  incorruption,  and 
‘this  mortal  must  put  on  immor¬ 
tality.  54  So  when  this  corrup¬ 
tible  shall  have  put  on  incorrup¬ 
tion,  and  this  mortal  shall  have 
put  on  immortality,  then  shall  be 
brought  to  pass  the  saying  that  is 

h  Zech.  9.  14 ;  Matt.  24.  31 ;  John  5.  25 ;  1  Thess. 

4.  16. - i  2  Cor.  5.  4. 


be  with  those  alive  when  Christ  de¬ 
scends  in  judgment?  Be  changed — 
On  this  change  we  may  note,  1.  That 
it  is  a  change  that  comes  upon  and  is 
of  the  very  body  then  being  ;  the  very 
same  matter  and  substance :  2.  That  a 
change  does  not  mean  the  bringing  in 
any  new  material:  3.  That  verse  53 
shows  that  it  consists  in  the  assum¬ 
ing  of  immortality,  with  the  modifica¬ 
tions  included  therein,  upon  that  very 
mortal  body  and  no  other.  We  may 
add  that  this  change  illustrates  the 
transition  through  which  man,  without 
sin,  would  have  entered  on  his  full  im¬ 
mortality.  Death,  hades,  and  the  in¬ 
termediate  state,  would  for  him  have 
had  no  existence.  Nay,  the  “everlast¬ 
ing  fire  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his 
angels,”  would  have  been  suffered  by 
devils  alone.  Man’s  great  mistake  of 
falling  into  Satan’s  proper  inheritance 
would  have  been  avoided. 

52.  In  a  moment — vEv  uTOfic).  In 
an  atom  of  time',  in  an  indivisible  in¬ 
stant.  In  the  twinkling  (literally, 
stroke)  of  the  eye.  Quick  as  a  jerk 
of  the  eyelash.  The  last  trump — See 
note,  1  Thess.  iv,  6.  We. .  .changed 
—St.  Paul’s  present  we  conceptually 
includes  not  quite  the  same  as  the  first 
we  of  verse  51,  but  all  the  living  in 
the  body  at  the  parousia. 

53.  This  corruptible — The  very 
mortal  body  that  lives  at  the  time  of 
the  change.  Put  on — Literally,  shall 
clothe  on ;  the  Greek  being  the  word  sig¬ 
nifying  to  put  on  a  garment.  On  the 
very  self-same  mortal  body,  immortal¬ 
ity  shall  be  taken  as  an  investiture, 
making  the  mortal  immortal.  2  Cor.  v,  2. 

54.  Brdught  to  pass — In  a  more 
specific  fact,  yet  justly  to  be  included 


132 


I.  COllINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


written,  k  Death  is  swallowed  up 
in  victory.  55  1  0  death,  where  is 
thy  sting  ?  O  fl  grave,  where  is  thy 
victory?  50  The  sting  of  death 

A;  Isa.  25.  8;  Heb.  2. 14, 15;  Rev.  20.  14. - ZHos. 

13.  14. - 6  Or,  hell. 

in  the  general  saying  of  Isa.  xxv,  8. 
The  words  are  the  same  as  the  Hebrew, 
with  the  active  verb  made  passive. 
Y et  Stanley  maintains  that  the  apostle 
probably  still  used  some  Greek  transla¬ 
tion;  other,  however,  than  the  Septua- 
gint.  Death. .  .victory— The  proph¬ 
et  is  depicting  a  blessed  future  to  be 
brought  about  by  the  Messiah ;  but  his 
pencil  does  not  distinguish  in  its 
strokes  the  hues  that  belong  to  the 
periods  before,  at,  and  after,  the  res¬ 
urrection.  Touches  belonging  to  each 
separately  are  blended  in  the  then 
blessed  Messianic  future.  Isaiah  says, 
that  in  the  great  coming  time,  death 
shall  be  swallowed  up  in  victory; 
Paul  says  it  will  be  completely  done 
by  the  resurrection  at  the  parousia. 
Isaiah  says,  in  the  same  verse,  that 
“  God  will  wipe  away  tears  from  off  all 
faces ;  ”  John  (Rev.  xxi,  4)  says,  this 
shall  be  beyond  the  judgment  and  the 
casting  the  wicked  into  hell,  even  in 
the  new  heavens  and  earth  of  eternity. 

55.  In  this  verse,  no  doubt,  Hosea 
xiii,  14  was  running  through  St.  Paul’s 
•mind,  but  he  does  not  seem  so  much 
to  quote  as  to  parallel  the  prophet. 
Modern  editors,  such  as  Stanley  and 
Alford,  find  death  not  only  in  the  first 
clause,  but  in  the  second,  instead  of 
hades ,  rendered,  unfortunately,  grave. 
They  think  that  hades  has  been  in¬ 
serted  to  conform  it  to  the  Septuagint. 
Wordsworth  retains  hades ,  assuming 
that  the  copyists  substituted  death  to 
avoid  the  pagan-like  personification  of 
hades.  On  esthetic  ground  we  can 
hardly  believe  that  St.  Paul  could  do 
so  flat  a  thing  as  to  substitute  death 
repeated,  in  the  place  of  the  Septuagint 
hades.  Sting — Not  a  goad-point ,  (see 
notes,  Acts  ix,  5,)  as  Stanley  insipidly 
prefers  ;  but  a  sting  as  of  a  scorpion, 
(Rev.  ix,  10,)  or  a  serpent,  as  in  Gen.  ii, 
and  Num.  xxi.  Grave — Hades,  the 

abode  of  the  disembodied  spirit  in  the 
intermediate  state.  See  notes,  Luke 


is  sin  ;  and  m  the  strength  of  sin 
is  the  law.  57  nBut  thanks  le  to 
God,  which  giveth  us  °the  victo¬ 
ry  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

m  Rom.  4. 15 ;  5.  13 ;  7.  5, 15. - n  Rom.  7.  25. 

0 1  John  5.  4,  5. 

xvi,  23  ;  xxiii,  43.  Death  detains  the 
body  in  the  grave  ;  hades  detains  the 
spirit  in  the  intermediate  state ;  the 
resurrection  delivers  and  unites  them 
both.  Over  this  deliverance  St.  Paul 
now  peals  his  pean,  as  healing  the 
wound  made  by  death’s  sting,  and 
spoiling  the  victory  of  hades,  the  de¬ 
tainer  from  heaven.  This  adverse 
view  of  hades  fully  shows  that  it  does 
not  signify  the  glorified  heaven ,  and  so 
demonstrates  the  reality  of  an  interme¬ 
diate  state. 

56.  Sting  of  death  is  sin — Before 

Adam’s  sin  the  destroyer  slew  the 
lower  orders  of  creation,  but  had  no 
sting  for  man  ;  man  would  attain  the 
resurrection  state  without  death  or 
hades.  Note,  verse  51.  Strength... 
the  law — The  law  over  Adam,  with 
its  “Thou  shalt  not,”  made  the  act 
(otherwise  irresponsible  like  those  of 
animals)  to  be  sin,  and  worthy  of 
death.  Thence  death,  which  in  the 
lower  orders  is  simply  natural,  in  man 
is  also  judicial  and  penal. 

57.  But  —  There  is  one  who  has 
satisfied  the  law  ;  has  thence  taken 
out  the  strength  of  sin ;  thence  de¬ 
stroyed  the  sting  of  death;  and  so 
wrought  the  resurrection.  This  expo¬ 
sition  shows  that  the  reference  to  the 
law  is  logically  in  the  straight  line  of 
Paul’s  argument.  It  shows,  we  think, 
the  infelicity  of  Stanley’s  remark :  “It 
seems  as  if  he  could  not  mention  sin, 
without  adding  that  the  strength  of  sin 
is  the  law.”  As  if  the  apostle’s  pen, 
like  a  garrulous  man’s  tongue,  ran  on 
its  own  account  in  the  grooves  of  habit, 
loose  from  brain  or  thought.  T  et  it  is 
a  pertinent  remark  of  Stanley’s,  that 
this  apparently  “  is  the  germ  of  what 
is  afterwards  "fully  developed  in  Rom. 
v,  12-21 ;  vii,  7-24.”  -And  Rom.  vii,  25 
is  an  echo  of  this  verse.  Th  e  victory 
— That  over  hades,  in  verse  55,  by  the 
resurrection,  through  our  Lord  Je¬ 
sus  Christ. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


133 


58  p  Therefore,  my  beloved  breth¬ 
ren,  be  ye  steadfast,  unmoveable, 
always  abounding  in  the  work  of 

p  2  Pet.  3.  14. 

58.  Therefore — The  Christian  doc¬ 
trine  is  a  great  motive  force  for  the 
Christian  life.  All  the  terrors  and 
glories  of  death,  resurrection,  judg¬ 
ment,  and  eternity,  are  startling  admo¬ 
nitions  to  steadfast,  solemn  duty-doing. 
My  beloved  brethren  —  St.  Paul’s 
heart  hovers  in  full  affection,  in  pass¬ 
ing  irom  those  fearful  scenes,  over 
his  brethren,  as  if  he  would  provide 
for  their  safety.  Steadfast,  unmov¬ 
able — In  your  faith  in  the  resurrection 
which  the  some  of  verse  12  are  en¬ 
deavouring  to  overthrow.  Steadfast, 
unmovable,  and  abounding,  form  a 
climax.  Steadfast  means  positive,  in¬ 
trinsic  firmness;  unmovable  implies 
resistance  to  the  mightiest  outward 
pressures  and  fiercest  onsets ;  abound¬ 
ing  means  energetic  action.  Some 
Christians  appear  to  do  nothing  ;  some 
to  do  a  little ;  others  abound  in  every 
good  word  and  work.  Work  of  the 
Lord — The  conversion  of  sinners,  the 
upbuilding  of  the  Church,  and  all  the 
countless  forms  of  Christian  activity. 
Not  in  vain — As  it  would  be  (verses 
29-34)  were  there  no  resurrection. 
But  there  being  a  resurrection,  every 
deed  in  faith  shall  brighten  the  lustre 
of  the  resurrection  body.  “  One  star 
differeth  from  another  star  in  glory.” 
This  maxim  is  not,  indeed,  uttered  by 
the  apostle  of  the  differences  of  person¬ 
al  glory  in  heaven  ;  but  it  is,  no  doubt, 
applicable.  The  brighter  our  earthly 
Christian  character,  the  more  tran¬ 
scendent  our  heavenly  glory.  In  the 
Lord — Our  labours  shall  attain  their 
highest  reward  in  Christ,  who  is  all 
riches . 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

St.  Paul  having  now  closed  the  serial 
argument  of  the  epistle,  proceeds  to 
make  his  closing  points.  He  presents, 
1.  The  collection  for  the  Jerusalem 
poor.  1-4.  2.  His  purposes  of  visiting 

Corinth,  5-9.  3.  The  visits  of  Timo¬ 
thy  and  Apollos,  10-12.  4.  A  final  in¬ 
terjected  admonition,  13,  14.  5.  In- 


the  Lord,  forasmuch  as  ye  know 
Qthat  your  labour  is  not  in  vain 
in  the  Lord. 


q  Chap.  3.  8. 

tercession'  for  mutual  friends,  15-18. 
6.  Salutations,  closing  anathema,  and 
benedictions,  19-24. 

Paul’s  Tenth  Response  :  —  Con¬ 
cerning  the  Collection  for  the  Je¬ 
rusalem  Poor,  1-4. 

Why  the  Jerusalem  Christians  were 
chronically  poor  does  not  very  clearly 
appear  from  the  explanations  of  com¬ 
mentators.  Why  they  needed  the  ben¬ 
efactions  referred  to  in  Acts  xi,  29,  30, 
we  have  explained  in  our  note  on  verse 
29 ;  but  that  was  now  thirty  years  ago. 
That  they  were  more  oppressed  than 
the  Churches  of  Rome,  Philippi,  or  Cor¬ 
inth,  does  not  appear.  We  may  there¬ 
fore  venture  the  suggestion  that  they 
were  not  much,  if  any,  poorer  than  the 
other  Churches.  When  the  cause  of  a 
poor  people  is  pleaded,  we  usually  have 
very  moving  descriptions  of  the  depth 
of  their  poverty ;  but  if  any  thing  of 
this  kind  is  said  in  any  of  the  para¬ 
graphs  on  the  subject  it  has  escaped 
our  examination.  On  the  contrary,  St. 
Paul  is  afraid,  in  Rom.  xv,  31,  that 
his  contributions  will  not  be  received 
by  the  Jerusalem  Christians ;  which 
indicates  that  if  poor  they  were  also 
proud  and  fanatical.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  know  that  it  was  the  Jewish 
custom  throughout  the  world,  recog¬ 
nised  by  Roman  law,  to  send  a  poll- 
tax  of  a  didrachm  to  Jerusalem.  Note 
Acts  ix,  2.  To  Christians,  as  well  as 
to  Jews,  Jerusalem  was  the  mother- 
city.  There  were  the  scenes  of  the 
atonement  and  the  pentecost.  And 
Paul,  in  Rom.  xv,  27,  gives  as  the  rea¬ 
son  why  G-entiles  should  contribute, 
the  fact  that  they  have  received  “  spir¬ 
itual  things  ”  from  Jerusalem.  Yet  Je- 
rusalem-Christianity  had  concentrated 
itself  into  an  anti-Gentile  narrowness. 
How  noble  an  effect,  then,  might  it 
not  have  for  the  Pauline  Churches  to 
show  Jerusalem  that  they  were  not  par¬ 
tisans  against  her,  by  making  a  unan¬ 
imous  contribution  for  the  benefit  of 


134 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

AT OW  concerning  athe  collection 
XN  for  the  saints,  as  I  have  given 
order  to  the  churches  of  Galatia, 
even  so  do  ye.  2  bUpon  the  first 
day  of  the  week  let  every  one  of 

a  Acts  11.  29;  24.  17;  Rom.  15.  26;  2  Cor.  8.  4; 
_ 9.  1, 12;  Gal.  2.  10. _ 

her  poorer  people!  In  what  disaster 
the  whole  generous  project  resulted 
when  Paul  arrived  at  Jerusalem  is  told 
in  Acts  xxi,  18-40,  where  see  notes. 

1.  The  collection  —  Bloomfield 
shows  that  the  Greek  word  is  rather  a 
diminutive  of  the  classic  term  for  col¬ 
lection  ;  and  it  might  be  well  rendered 
pickings ,  savings ,  that  is,  from  the  small 
income  of  the  contributor.  Saints — 
Simply  the  term  for  Christians.  The 
eaintship  of  the  second  Jerusalem 
Church  at  this  time  was  not  very  high. 
Note  Acts  viii,  1.  Order — Direction. 
Churches  of  Galatia — The  Epistle  to 
the  Galatians  was  not  yet  written,  and 
Paul  had  probably  given  this  direction 
at  his  last  visit.  He  mentions  it  here 
to  indicate  that  it  is  to  be  a  general 
movement  of  the  Pauline  Churches. 

2.  The  first  day  of  the  week  — 
Greek,  ylav  oaftfidruv ,  where  the  nu¬ 
merical  one  is  for  an  ordinal  first,  agree¬ 
ing  with  yyepa,  day ,  understood.  The 
other  word,  in  either  singular  or  plural, 
had  come  to  signify  week.  This  direc¬ 
tion,  which  would  for  the  same  reason 
be  extended  to  all  the  Pauline  Churches, 
indicates  the  early  adoption  by  Gentile 
Christians  of  a  seven-day  division  of 
time,  peculiar  heretofore  to  the  Jews. 
It  was  the  earliest  establishment  of 
the  Christian  week,  with  “  the  Lord’s 
day”  at  its  head.  St.  Paul’s  objection 
in  his  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  that 
they  “  observe  days,”  stands  not  in 
the  way  of  his  enjoining  upon  these 
very  Galatians  to  “  observe  ”  this  day. 
St.  John  (Rev.  i,  10)  inspiredly  recog¬ 
nises  this  day  as  a  Christian  institution, 
and  the  question,  Dominicum  servasti? 
— Hast  thou  kept  the  Lord’s  day? — 
was  a  test  of  Christian  profession  and 
a  qualification  for  martyrdom.  Justin 
Martyr,  whose  life  covers  the  forty 
years  of  the  formation  of  the  Xew 
Testament  canon,  says,  “  Upon  the  so- 


you  lay  by  him  in  store,  as  God 
hath  prospered  him,  that  there  be 
no  gatherings  when  I  come.  3  And 
when  I  come, c  whomsoever  ye  shall 
approve  by  your  letters,  them  will  I 
send  to  bring  your  1  liberality  unto 

b  Acts  20.  7;  Rev.  1. 10. - c2  Cor.  8. 19. 

_ 1  Gr.  gift ,  2  Cor.  8.  4,  6, 19. _ 

called  sun's  day  there  are  meetings  of 
all  dwelling  in  both  cities  and  country.” 
See  note  on  Acts  xx,  7.  The  decalogue 
requires  the  keeping  one  day  in  seven 
publicly,  organically,  religiously;  but 
it  does  not  prescribe  which  day  shall 
be  the  observed  “  seventh.”  The  Jew¬ 
ish  Church  held  that  to  be  its  seventh 
and  sabbath  which  its  sacred  tradition 
was  in  possession  of ;  the  Christian 
Church,  by  clear  apostolic  sanction,  first 
elevated  the  Lord’s  resurrection  day 
to  the  head  of  its  week,  and  then 
gradually  disused  the  Jewish  sabbath. 
If,  as  may  be  clearly  proved,  the  deca¬ 
logue  is  of  perpetual  obligation,  then 
Sunday  is  the  Christian  decalogue  sab¬ 
bath.  Every  one — Do  not  expect 
the  rich  or  the  liberal  alone  to  con¬ 
tribute.  A  mite  from  each  is  a  mass 
from  the  whole.  It  is  wonderful  how 
much  may  be  done  by  a  Church  where 
every  one  gives  his  something.  Lay 
by  him— So  keeping  a  little  savings 
bank  at  home,  and  bringing  the  whole 
to  the  church  when  the  apostle  arrives. 
Prospered  him  —  The  poor  giving  a 
little,  the  richer  more  in  proportion. 
No  gatherings  —  If  the  whole  are 
made  at  once  they  will  be  scanty,  and 
the  apostle’s  time  will  be  occupied  with 
moneys  which  he  would  rather  expend 
on  souls. 

3.  By  your  letters  —  The  italic 
your  is  supplied  by  the  translators, 
and,  probably,  incorrectly;  for  while 
the  selection  of  the  delegates  was  to 
be  made  by  the  Churches,  the  letters 
authenticating  them  to  the  Jerusalem 
Church  were  to  be  by  Paul.  Bloom¬ 
field  says,  this  is  the  construction  giv¬ 
en  by  “  all  the  ancient  translators  and 
commentators,”  and  by,  perhaps,  the 
best  modern  ones.  The  selection  was 
properly  to  be  made  by  the  Churches, 
and  Paul,  with  due  delicacy,  proposes 
this  in  advance  as  a  guarantee  against 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


135 


Jerusalem.  4  dAnd  if  it  be  meet 
that  I  go  also,  they  shall  go  with 


me. 

5  Now  I  will  come  unto  you, 
« when  I  shall  pass  through  Mace¬ 
donia:  for  I  do  pass  through  Mace¬ 
donia.  6  And  it  may  be  that  I  will 
abide,  yea,  and  winter  with  you, 
that  ye  may  f  bring  me  on  myjour- 


d  2  Cor.  8.  4, 19. - e  Acts  19.  21;  2  Cor.  1.  16. 

-—/Acts  15.  3;  17.  15;  21.  5;  Romans  15.  24; 
2  Cor.  1.  16.  _ 


ney  whithersoever  I  go.  7  For  I 

will  not  see  you  now  by  the  way ; 
but  I  trust  to  tarry  a  while  with 
you,  s  if  the  Lord  permit.  8  But 
I  will  tarry  at  Ephesus  until  Pen¬ 
tecost.  9  For  ha  great  door  and 
effectual  is  opened  unto  me,  and 
• there  are  many  adversaries. 

10  Now  k  if  Timotheus  come,  see 

a  Acts  18. 21 ;  chap.  4. 19 ;  James 4. 15. h  Acts 

14.  27;  2  Cor.  2.  12;  Col.  4.3;  Rev.  3.8. - tActs 

19.  9. - h  Acts  19.  22 ;  chap.  4.  17. 


any  selfishness  on  his  own  part.  The 
names  of  the  persons  who  really  went 
are  given  in  Acts  xx,  4.  Paul  also 
went  with  them,  as  suggested  in  next 
verse.  From  these  epistles  commen¬ 
tators  correctly  infer  that  letter- writing 
was  frequent,  and  that  it  is  not  at  all 
probable  that  every  letter  of  St.  Paul  is 
in  the  New  Testament.  He  may  have 
written  a  letter  a  week. 

4.  Meet — Worth  the  while  ;  of  suf¬ 
ficient  importance  to  require  my  so 
doing.  The  journey,  their  reception 
at  Jerusalem,  and  the  sad  results  to 
Paul,  are  narrated  by  Luke,  Acts  xx,  3  ; 
xxi,  30.  Touching  Luke’s  saying  noth¬ 
ing  about  the  money  part  of  that  mission 
to  Jerusalem,  see  note,  Acts  xxiv,  17. 

Personal  matters— Conclusion,  5-24. 

a.  Paul's  purpose  to  visit  Corinth ,  5-9. 

5.  Will  come.  .  .when.  .  .through 
Macedonia  — St.  Paul’s  first  purpose 
(probably  announced  in  a  lost  epistle 
sent  before  this)  was  to  cross  the  sea 
strait  from  Ephesus  to  Corinth.  For 
changing  this  purpose,  he  had  to  de¬ 
fend  himself  earnestly  in  2  Cor.  i,  23, 
where  see  note,  against  a  charge  of 
levity.  I  do  pass — As  he  afterwards 
did,  and  wrote  his  second  epistle  from 
there.  Some  early  transcriber  of  this 
epistle  read  this  phrase :  for  I  am  pass¬ 
ing  through  Macedonia ,  and  recorded 
his  blunder  in  the  note  at  the  end,  as¬ 
signing  Philippi  (in  Macedonia)  as  the 
place  whence  it  was  written. 

6.  Winter  with  you — It  was  now 
approaching  spring ;  he  left  Ephesus, 
went  and  spent  the  summer  and  fall  in 
Macedonia  and  thereabouts,  and  really 
wintered  at  Corinth,  whence  he  wrote 
liis  epistles  to  Galatia  and  Rome.  Note, 


Acts  xx,  1-3.  That  ye— The  ye  is 
emphatic  and  honouring.  You  and  no 
other  Church.  Bring  me  on  my 
journey — Aid  in  furnishing  equip¬ 
ments,  and  honourably  escorting  him  a 
part  of  the  way.  Whithersoever— 
His  plan  beyond  Corinth  being  unfixed. 

7.  I  will — I  purpose ;  not  the  aux¬ 
iliary  verb  will ,  but  the  verb  to  will. 
Now  by  the  way  —  He  intends  no 
flying,  passing  visit.  Lord  permit — 
See  James  iv,  15. 

8.  Until  Pentecost — Erasmus  and 
other  commentators  were  sorely  puz¬ 
zled  with  this  honourable  mention  of 
a  Jewish  feast  to  Gentile  Christian 
readers.  Of  course,  however,  Gentile 
Christians  were  sufficiently  associated 
with  Jews  in  the  Church  to  know  the 
two  principal  feasts  of  passover  and 
pentecost.  Both  had  acquired  a  pow¬ 
erful  Christian  character  from  the  cru¬ 
cifixion  at  the  former  and  the  gift  of 
tongues  at  the  latter.  But  in  fact  Paul 
mentions  pentecost  here  as  a  date 
rather  than  an  institution.  So  we 
speak  of  Christmas  and  holidays.  The 
present  verse  conclusively  shows  that 
the  epistle  was  written  from  Ephesus. 

9.  A  great  door — Much  of  Ephesus 
heretofore  closed  is  now  opened  to 
him.  Many  adversaries  —  Requir¬ 
ing  his  presence  to  defend  and  protect 
the  Church.  It  is  very  probable  that 
it  was  this  great  door  now  opened 
that  had  already  awakened  the  hostile 
zeal  of  Demetrius  the  silversmith,  and 
other  adversaries,  in  behalf  of  Diana 
and  their  “  craft.” 

b.  The  visits  of  Timothy  and  Apollos , 

10-12. 

10.  If  Timotheus  come — As  Paul 
had  informed  them  (iv,  16)  that  he  had 


136 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


that  he  may  be  with  you  without 
fear:  for  1 * 3 * * * *  lie  worketh  the  work  of 
the  Lord,  as  I  also  do.  11  mLet 
no  man  therefore  despise  him:  but 
conduct  him  forth  nin  peace,  that 
he  may  come  unto  me:  for  I  look 
for  him  with  the  brethren.  12  As 
touching  our  brother  °Apollos,  I 
greatly  desired  him  to  come  unto 
you  with  the  brethren:  but  his  will 

ZRom.  16.  21 ;  Phil.  2.  20,  22;  1  Thess.  3.  2. - 

ml  Tim.  4.  13. - n  Acts  15.  33. - 0 Chap.  1.  12; 

3.  5. - v  Matt.  24.  42;  25.  13;  1  Thess.  5.  6; 

1  Pet,  5,  8. _ 

sent  him,  and  of  the  object  of  his  com¬ 

ing.  As  Luke  informs  us,  (Actsxix,  22,) 

just  before  writing  this  present  epistle, 
St.  Paul,  intending  to  go  to  Macedonia 

and  Corinth,  sent  forward  Timothy  and 
Erastus  as  his  pioneers.  As  the  epis¬ 

tle  would  take  the  cross  route,  and 
Timothy  might  progress  slowly  by 
reason  of  duties  on  the  way,  Paul  an¬ 

ticipates  his  arrival  in  Corinth,  and  be¬ 
speaks  a  kindly  reception.  Yet  such 
might  be  Timothy’s  engagements  that 
he  might  not  go  so  far  as  Corinth,  and 
hence  the  apostle’s  if.  Without  fear 
— Literally,  see  that  he  may  be  fearlessly 
among  you.  As  a  young  man  sent  to 
represent  Paul  in  a  great  and  factious 
Church,  Timothy  might  have  justly  felt 
an  intimidation.  He  may  have  pos¬ 
sessed  that  personal  diffidence  which 
is  often  found  compatible  with  much 
strength  of  character.  As  I — A  rep¬ 
etition  of  his  commendation  in  xiv,  P7. 

11.  Despise  him  —  Paul  said  to 
Timothy  himself,  “Let  no  man  despise 
thy  youth,”  (1  Tim.  iv,  12,)  as  if  his 
youth  were  the  only  thing  that  could 

be  despised.  In  peace — As  with  a 
parting  salaam.  With  the  brethren 
— What  brethren  these  were  with 

whom  he  wished  Timothy  to  come  is 

uncertain.  Stanley  suggests  that  the 
bearers  of  this  epistle  were  to  be  a  sort 

of  mission  to  Corinth,  with  Apollos  at 
their  head,  but  that  he  declined.  “This 

mission  was  composed  of  Titus  and  two 

other  brethren,”  (2  Corinthians  viii, 

18,  22,  23,)  whose  names  are  not  men¬ 
tioned.  With  these  brethren,  proba¬ 
bly,  it  was  that  Paul  expected  Timothy 
to  come. 


was  not  at  all  to  come  at  this  time; 
but  he  will  come  when  he  shall  have 
convenient  time. 

13  p  Watch  ye,  ^  stand  fast  in  the 
faith,  quit  you  like  men, r  be  strong. 
14  8 * * 11 * * * * * * 18  Let  all  your  things  be  done 
with  charity. 

15  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  (ye 
know  1  the  house  of  Stephanas,  that 
it  is  uthe  firstfruits  of  Achaia,  and 

tfChap.  15.  1;  Phil.  1.  27;  4.  1;  1  Thess.  3.  8; 

2  Thess.  2.  15. - r  Eph.  6.  10;  Col.  1.  11. - 

s  Chap.  14.  1;  1  Pet.  4.  8. - 1  Chap.  1.  16. - 

u  Rom.  16.  5. 

12.  Apollos — This  interesting  per¬ 
sonage  was  first  found  by  Paul  here 
at  Ephesus,  (Acts  xviii,  24-28,)  whence 
he  went  to  Corinth.  His  success  and 
popularity  there  could  not  induce  him 
to  stav,  and  he  returned  and  is  found 

v  I 

here  with  Paul  again  at  Ephesus.  A 
faction  at  Corinth  called  itself  by  his 
name.  Will .  . .  not ...  to  come — How 
little  these  two  noble  men  countenanced 
the  assumption  of  their  names,  appears 
from  this  passage.  Paul,  so  far  from 
fearing  his  action  or  influence  at  Cor¬ 
inth,  beseeches  him  to  visit  that  city 
with  Titus.  Apollos,  probably  with 
the  same  disgust  at  the  factions  that 
drove  him  thence,  for  the  present  de¬ 
clines  to  go.  Jerome  sa}rs,  that  when 
peace  was  restored  he  returned  to  that 
city,  and  was  made  its  bishop. 

c.  Paul  ’s  final  interjected  admonition, 
13,  14. 

Paul  must  utter  a  few  more  words 
of  rousing  admonition  before  he  closes. 
His  words  are  almost  all  of  military 
force. 

13.  Watch — Like  a  wakeful  sen¬ 
tinel  when  the  enemy  is  near.  Stand 
fast  in  the  faith — Whether  foes  as¬ 
sault  or  deceivers  seduce  you.  Quit 
.  .  .men — A  single  word  in  the  Greek 
— be  men;  exert  your  Christian  man¬ 
hood.  Be  strong  —  Strain  up  your 
nerve  and  sinew.  With  charity  — 
Rather,  in  love;  a  caution  against  fac¬ 
tions,  and  a  reminder  of  chapter  xiii. 

d.  Paul  intercedes  with  Corinthians  in 
behalf  of  mutual  friends ,  1 5-1 8. 

15.  House  of  Stephanas — Men¬ 
tioned  in  i,  16  as  among  the  few  bap¬ 
tized  by  Paul  himself.  Firstfruits — 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  XYI. 


137 


that  they  have  addicted  themselves 
to * ii, iii, *  v * * * *the  ministry  of  the  saints,) 
16  w  That  ye  submit  yourselves  un¬ 
to  such,  and  to  every  one  that  help- 
eth  with  us,  and  x  laboureth.  IT  I 
am  glad  of  the  coming  of  Stephanas 
and  Fortunatus  and  Achaicus :  y  for 
that  which  was  lacking  on  your 
part  they  have  supplied.  18  zFor 
they  have  refreshed  my  spirit  and 


®  2  Cor.  8.  4 ;  9. 
-a?Heb.  6.  10. 


1 ;  Heb.  6.  10.— 
-y  2  Cor.  11. 


— wHeb.  18.17. 
9;  Phil.  2.  30; 


Philem.  18. - z  Col.  4.  8. 


yours:  therefore  a acknowledge  ye 
them  that  are  such. 

19  The  b churches  of  Asia  sa¬ 
lute  you.  Aquila  and  Priscilla  sa¬ 
lute  you  much  in  the  Lord,  cwith 
the  church  that  is  in  their  house. 
20  All  the  brethren  greet  you. 
d  Greet  ye  one  another  with  a  holy 
kiss.  21  e  The  salutation  of  me 
Paul  with  mine  own  hand.  22  If 

a  Phil.  2.  29;  1  Thess.  5.  12. - b  Acts  19.  10; 

1  Pet.  1.  1. - c  Rom.  16.  5,  15;  Philem.  2. —  • 

<2  Rom.  16.  16. - e  Col.  4.  18;  2  Thess.  3.  17. 


See  note  on  xv,  23.  Ministry  of  the 
saints — Hospitalities  and  benefactions 
to  poorer  Christians,  especially  to  the 
apostles  and  preachers. 

16.  Submit  yourselves — Be  ser¬ 
vants  to  them  as  they  are  servants  to 
Christians. 

17.  Coming  of — The  three  who 
brought  the  letter  from  the  Corinthians 
and  reported  to  the  apostle  the  true 
state  of  his  Corinthian  Church.  Stan¬ 
ley  thinks  that  this  Stephanas  was  a 
slave  in  the  household  of  Stephanas , 
bearing,  according  to  custom,  his  mas¬ 
ter’s  name.  Lacking  on  your  part 
— All  the  service  I  need  which  you 
could  not  render  me  they  supplied. 
This  seems  the  natural  meaning  ;  but 
we  are  unable  to  say  in  what  the  lack 
consisted.  But  it  very  probably  means 
the  enjoyment  of  presence  and  society. 
The  want  of  you  in  my  heart  they  by 
their  presence  supplied.  They  were 
you  in  miniature  for  the  time. 

18.  My  spirit  and  yours — For 
there  is  such  a  sympathy  across  the 
Aegean  between  you  and  me,  that  to 
refresh  me  refreshes  you.  You  are 
the  stronger  for  my  strength.  Ac¬ 
knowledge — Recognise  them  as  such 
as  I  have  described  them. 

d.  Salutations ;  closing  autograph , 
anathema ,  and  benedictions ,  19-24. 

19.  Churches  of  Asia  —  Procon¬ 
sular  Asia,  of  which  Ephesus  was  the 
capital.  In  these  were  included  the 
“  seven  Churches  ”  addressed  by  John 
in  the  Apocalypse.  It  is  here  in¬ 
teresting  to  hear  for  an  instant  their 
united  voice  sent  through  Paul  in 
greeting  to  the  Church  at  Corinth.  It 
was  probably  to  this  entire  circle  of 


Churches  that  Paul  addressed  the  so- 
called  “  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,”  as 
a  common  “cyclical  letter,”  or  circu¬ 
lar  address.  Aquila  and  Priscilla — 
See  notes  on  Acts  xviii,  2,  3,  and  Rom. 
xvi,  3.  Church.  .  .in  their  house — • 
This  faithful  pair  had  a  house-church  at 
Rome  as  well  as  at  Ephesus.  Rom.  xvi,  5. 

20.  All  the  brethren — The  body 
of  the  Ephesian  Church  sends,  from 
Asia  to  Europe,  to  the  body  of  the  Co¬ 
rinthian  Church,  its  fraternal  Christian 
greet.  Holy  kiss — Romans  xvi,  16. 
Justin  Martyr  says  :  “At  the  close  of 
our  prayers  we  salute  each  other  with  a 
kiss.”  The  “  Apostolic  Constitutions,” 

ii,  57,  says:  “  Then  let  the  men  salute 
each  other,  and  the  women  salute 
each  other,  with  the  kiss  in  the  Lord 
— and  after  that  let  the  deacon  pray 
for  the  whole  Church.”  It  was  simply 
the  adoption  into  the  Christian  ritual  of 
an  eastern  and  Old  Testament  custom. 
Stanley  says:  “  On  Good  Friday  it  was 
omitted,  in  commemoration  of  the  kiss 
of  Judas.  Down  to  the  fifth  century 
it  was  given  after  baptism,  and  was  af¬ 
terwards  superseded  by  the  (verbal) 
salutation,  ‘Peace  be  with  thee.’  It 
was  technically  called  rj  elprjvi /,  ‘  the 
peace.’  ”  Grotius  says,  “  He  rightly 
enjoins  the  kiss  of  peace  on  those  who 
were  in  danger  of  being  rent  to  pieces 
by  schisms.” 

21.  Mine  own  hand — In  2  Thess. 

iii,  17,  Paul  adds,  “  which  is  the  token 

in  every  epistle :  so  I  write.”  His  au¬ 

tograph  was  security  against  forgery. 

See  Rom.  xvi,  22  ;  Gal.  vi,  11  ;  Phil.  19. 

Yery  probably  the  whole  close  (21-24) 

was  autographic. 

22.  If — This  awful  woe,  given  by 


138 


I.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


any  man  flove  not  tlie  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  s  let  him  be  Anathema, 
h  Maran-atha.  23  ‘The  grace  of 

/Eph.  6.  24. - c^Gal.  1.  8,  9. - h  Jude  14, 15. 

Paul’s  own  hand,  closing  with  the  sol¬ 
emn  Aramaic  watchword,  formed  an 
impressive  and  memorable  sentence 
for  .the  Corinthian  Church.  Anath¬ 
ema — Devoted  to  destruction  ;  “  sacred 
to  perdition.”  Note  on  Romans  ix,  3, 
and  on  Joshua  vi,  It,  21.  This  word 
describes  the  awful  side  of  human 
guilt  and  destiny.  It  is  the  anticipa¬ 
tion  of,  and  solemn  assent  to,  the 
dread  “Depart,  ye  cursed,”  of  the 
final  Judge,  at  which  it  becomes  us  to 
tremble  rather  than  to  cavil.  Maran- 
atha — That  is,  the  Lord  is  come.  It 
is  the  Christian’s  reminder  as  he  waits 
the  advent  of  the  judge  to  execute 
that  anathema.  It  is  a  brief  motto, 
in  the  language  spoken  by  the  Incar¬ 
nate  when  on  earth,  (like  Abba,  in 
Rom.  viii,  15),  a  watchword  by  which 
Christians  could  avow  themselves  and 
recognise  each  other. 

Stanley  says  :  “  The  word  Maran  is 
the  longer  form  of  Mar,  the  Chaldee 
(or  later  Hebrew)  word  for  Lord ,  and 
used  as  such  in  Dan.  ii,  47 ;  iv,  19,  24; 
v,  23 ;  familiar  also  as  the  title  of  ec¬ 
clesiastical  dignitaries  in  the  Syrian 
Church.  Atha  is  frequently  used  in 
the  poetical  books  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  for  comes ,  and  so  also  in  the 
Chaldee.”  He  adds  that  the  Maronite 
Jews  of  Spain  were  so  called  because, 
in  expectation  of  a  future  Messiah, 
they  were  ever  uttering  the  word 
Maran,  Lord,  to  which  the  Christians 
retorted  Maran-atha,  The  Lord  is 
come.  This,  Paul’s  anathema,  has  a 
dread  sound :  not  much  unlike  a  dis¬ 
cord,  in  the  flowing  music  of  salutations 
and  benedictions.  Alas !  it  is  a  true 
representation  of  the  tragic  and  mourn¬ 
ful  semi-tone  that  runs  through  the 
anthem  of  human  history  and  human 
destiny,  commenced  by  sin  and  closing 
in  woe. 

23.  The  grace  —  The  reverse  side 

from  the  anathema.  Lord — The  gra- 


our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you. 
24  My  klove  be  with  you  all  in 
Christ  Jesus.  Amen. 

iRom.  16.  20. - k  2  Cor.  12.  15;  Phil.  1.  8. 

cious  New  Testament  title  of  Christ ; 
as  Maran  is  a  sterner  title  from  the 
language  of  the  Old.  The  later  an  echo 
from  Sinai ;  the  former  from  Calvary. 

24.  My  love — Notwithstanding  my 
rebukes.  With . . .  all — Notwithstand¬ 
ing  your  schisms  and  partisanships 
against  me.  In  Christ  Jesus — Who 
is  the  unity  of  us  all  in  spite  of  the 
factions  that  divide  you,  and  the  dis¬ 
tance  that  separates  us.  Amen — A 
Hebrew  word,  now  adopted  through 
the  New  Testament  Greek  into  all  the 
languages  of  Christendom.  Its  orig¬ 
inal  Hebrew  meaning  was  firm ;  hence, 
faithful,  true ;  and  hence,  as  a  respon¬ 
sive  or  closing  formula,  so  is  it,  or  so 
be  it.  Our  Lord’s  commencing  formula, 
verily ,  verily ,  was  in  the  Greek,  amen , 
amen.  Our  Lord  himself,  in  Rev.  iii,  14, 
is  called  the  Amen,  the  faithful  and  true 
Witness.  How  important  the  response 
amen  was  held  to  be  by  the  rabbins 
appears  from  our  note  to  xiv,  16.  The 
apostle  doubtless  himself  affixed  this 
word  to  the  epistle,  and  we  doubt  not 
that  when  this  epistle  was  read  in  the 
Corinthian  Church,  the  people  silenced 
the  murmurs  of  the  factious  leaders 
by  re-echoing  to  the  amen  of  their 
beloved  founder-apostle  a  response, 
(in  the  words  of  Jerome,)  “  like  the 
voice  of  the  falling  waters  or  the  roll¬ 
ing  thunders.”  Hence,  when  the  gen¬ 
tle  Timothy  addressed  them  in  Paul’s 
great  name,  so  clear  was  the  unanim¬ 
ity,  in  spite  of  some  few  recusants, 
that  Titus  was  able  to  report  to  Paul 
at  Philippi  that  the  Corinthian  Church 
was  “  Amen,  faithful  and  true.” 

Dear  reader,  when  the  Lord  com- 
eth  to  the  final  analysis  and  judgment 
,  of  the  world,  may  our  record  on  the 
page  of  the  Divine  Memory  declare 
that  we,  too,  have  been  “faithful  and 
true.”  Such,  in  closing  this  book, 
amid  weakness  and  tears,  is  our  humble 
prayer.  Amen  and  Amen. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  SECOND  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  few  weeks  after  despatching  the  first  epistle  to  Corinth  by  Titus, 
Paul  left  Epliesus,  upon  what  proved  to  be  his  third  missionary  tour, 
for  account  of  which  see  our  Outline  History,  commencing  this  vol¬ 
ume.  On  his  way  to  Macedonia,  he  arrived  at  Troas,  on  the  Helle¬ 
spont,  where,  although  a  door  was  opened  for  preaching  an  effective 
gospel,  such  was  his  reduced  state  of  health,  and  such  his  anxiety  at 
the  non-arrival  of  Titus  to  report  how  the  Corinthians  had  accepted 
his  first  letter,  that  he  had  no  repose,  and  felt  impelled  to  cross  the 
Hellespont  to  Philippi.  Here,  by  his  own  vivid  description,  his  “  flesh 
had  no  rest;  without  were  fightings,  within  were  fears.”  The  “fears” 
were,  that  the  Corinthian  Church,  rejecting  his  apostleship,  should 
apostatize  from  Christ.  While  in  Macedonia,  at  Philippi,  or  some  one 
of  the  Churches  of  that  region,  Titus  at  length  arrived.  His  report  was 
life  and  health  to  our  apostle.  Corinth  had  well  received  his  letter  ; 
the  incestuous  sinner  had  been  disciplined  to  repentance ;  and  Paul 
was  still  acknowledged  as  founder-apostle  of  Corinth.  Yet,  while 
the  apostle  was  thus  triumphant,  he  was  not  discharged  from  war. 
There  was  still  a  small,  though  relentless  and  bitter,  faction,  that  would 


task  for  awhile  his  energies.  The  Judaizers  had  been  reinforced  by 
a  set  of  leaders  who  had  come  from  Palestine  with  letters  of  recom¬ 
mendation  from  some  high  authority.  They  were  bold  and  inventive 
in  charges  and  imputations  upon  Paul  as  a  spurious  apostle.  He  had 
no  authentic  commission ;  his  rhetoric,  however  powerful  his  letters, 
was  weak  and  contemptible;  he  was  light  and  fickle,  as  evinced  by 
his  change  of  purpose  to  visit  Corinth ;  his  assumption  of  miraculous 
power  to  punish  delinquents  was  a  baseless  despotism. 

All  this  report  required  this  Second  Epistle.  It  is  a  re-assertion  of 
his  gospel  and  his  apostleship  ;  first,  in  a  mild  and  dissertator^  style, 
as  to  lo^al  Corinth  ;  and  then,  in  a  severe  and  menacing  tone  of  com¬ 
parison  and  measurement  of  character,  intended  for  the  recusant  fac¬ 
tion.  Between  these  two  parts  of  the  epistle  Paul  inserts,  as  an  appen¬ 
dage  and  practical  conclusion  of  his  dissertation  to  his  loyal  friends, 
an  earnest  exhortation  in  behalf  of  his  great  scheme  of  contributing  a 
pecuniary  gift  to  the  Jerusalem  Church.  So  that  our  epistle  consists 
of  three  parts,  as  presented  in  the  following  scheme. 

Written  under  earnest  excitement,  at  a  period  when  the  apostle’s 
4‘  thorn  ”  was  very  poignant,  this  epistle  is  marked  often  by  abrupt 


140  INTRODUCTION  TO  SECOND  CORINTHIANS. 

transitions  and  sententious  style.  It  is,  with  the  exception  of  that  to 
the  Galatians,  the  most  polemic  of  all  his  epistles.  Traces  of  the 
combat  of  both  epistles  are  found  in  the  later  literature  of  the  Church. 
See  notes  on  1  Cor.  x,  1,  and  Gal.  ii,  21.  But  though  the  discussions 
of  tins  epistle  touch  points  less  fundamental,  and  with  an  argument 
less  profound,  yet  the  greatness  of  the  Corinthian  Church,  its  central 
position,  and  its  apostolic  history,  rendered  this  contest  the  more 
momentous  of  the  two. 

Of  the  genuineness  of  the  epistle  there  has  never  been  any  dispute 
among  scholars.  Renan,  following  his  Tubingen  masters,  places  it 
among  the  unquestionable  books  of  the  New  Testament. 


COttlVi  H 


PLAN  OF  THE  EPISTLE. 


PART  FIRST. 

St.  Paul’s  Maintenance  of  his  Genuine  Apostle- 
ship  . . 

I  Defence  of  his  Impugned  Change  of  Apostolic  Plan  of 
Travel . 

1.  That  change  not  from  fickle  will,  but  from  divine 

motive . 

2.  His  motive  was,  a  wish  not  to  come  to  their  grief. 

3.  Which  brings  up  the  case  of  the  repentant  incest¬ 

uous  sinner . 

4.  His  own  lingering  by  the  way  at  Troas  and  Mace¬ 

donia,  to  hear  from  them,  described . 

IT.  His  Apostolic  Office . 

1.  It  is  above  commendation,  above  the  Mosaic  ritu¬ 

alism  . 

2.  Antithesis  of  apostolic  trials  and  triumphs  resulting 

in  glory . 

3.  Consequent  apostolic  transparency  and  confidence 

before  Christ  and  before  men . 

4.  His  apostolic  doctrine  of  Christ’s  death,  of  renewal 

and  reconciliation . 

5.  Consequent  style  of  apostolic  appeal  to  men  to  be 

reconciled . 

6.  Such  appeals  sustained  by  a  living  example  of  pu¬ 

rity  amid  calumny . 

PART  SECOND. 

The  Exhortation  to  Unite  in  his  Collections  for 
Jerusalem . 

1.  Direct  exhortation  of  them  to  largeness,  separate¬ 

ness,  and  sanctification . 

2.  And  to  acceptance  of  himself . 

a.  From  his  purity  and  affection . 

b.  As  instanced  by  his  anxiety  until  he  heard  from  them , 

and  his  joy  in  learning  of  their  loyalty . 

3.  And  to  furnishing  liberal  donations  for  Jerusalem.. . . 

a.  By  the  Macedonian  example . 

b.  By  Christ's  example ,  and  by  their  own  willing  mind . . .  . 


i,  15-xi,  17 

i,  15-ii,  17 

i,  15-22 
i,  23— ii,  4 

ii,  5-11 

ii,  12-17 
iii,  1-vi,  10 

iii,  1-iv,  6 

iv,  7-v,  5 
v,  6-13 

v,  14-19 
v,  20-vi,  2 

vi,  3-10 

vi,  11-ix,  15 

vi,  11-vii,  1 

vii,  2-16 
vii,  2-4 

vii,  5-16 
viii,  1-ix,  15 

viii,  1-8 
viii,  9-12 


142 


PLAN  OF  THE  EPISTLE. 


c.  By  assurance  of  fair  proportionm.ent . 

d.  And  trusty  conveyers . 

e.  By  need  of  their  sustaining  his  boasts  of  them . 

f.  By  the  rich  reward  accruing . 

g.  And  by  the  gratitude  of  the  benefitted  forties . 

PART  THIRD. 

The  Measurement  of  the  Apostle  with  his  De¬ 
tractors  and  his  Chief  Opposer . 

I.  Preliminaries  to  the  Measurement . 

1 .  Insinuations  of  his  foes  ;  his  weapons,  and  his  read¬ 

iness  for  the  issue . 

2.  Their  false  and  self-deceiving  mode  of  measuring ; 

his  mode . 

3.  Apology  for  self-commendation,  and  exculpation 

from  detailed  charges . 

4.  Unmasking  of  the  hypocrites,  and  apologetic  an¬ 

nouncement  of  the  measurement . 

II.  The  Measurement  —  Showing  ms  own  Boundless  Supe¬ 

riority . 

1.  By  his  genuine  Hebraism . 

2.  By  incomparably  greater  sufferings  for  the  Gospel 

3.  By  revelations,  divine  infliction,  and  miracles. . . . 

4.  By  disinterestedness . 

5.  By  apostolic  intimations,  and  judicial  warnings,  of 

apostolic  inflictions . 


viii,  13-15 
viii,  16-24 
ix,  1-5 
ix,  6-11 
ix,  12-15 


x,  1-xiii,  10 
x,  1-xi,  21 

x,  1-11 

x,  12-18 

xi,  1-12 
xi,  13-21 

xi,  22-xiii,  10 

xi,  22 

xi,  23-33 

xii,  1-12 
xii,  13-18 

xii,  19-xni,  10 


THE 


SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  THE  CORINTHIANS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAUL.  a  an  apostle  of  Jesns 
Christ  by  the  will  of  God, 
and  Timothy  our  brother,  unto  the 
church  of  God  which  is  at  Corinth, 
l,with  all  the  saints  which  are  in 
all  Achaia:  2  c  Grace  be  to  you, 
and  peace,  from  God  our  Father 
and  from  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
3  d  Blessed  be  God,  even  the  Fa¬ 
ther  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the 


Father  of  mercies,  and  the  God  of 
all  comfort;  4  Who  e comforteth 
us  in  all  our  tribulation,  that  we 
may  be  able  to  comfort  them  which 
are  in  any  trouble,  by  the  comfort 
wherewith  we  ourselves  are  com¬ 
forted  of  God.  5  For  as  [the  suf¬ 
ferings  of  Christ  abound  in  us,  so 
our  consolation  also  aboundeth  by 
Christ.  6  And  whether  we  be  af¬ 
flicted,  *it  is  for  your  consolation 


a\  Cor.  1.1;  Eph.  1. 1;  1  Tim.  1.  1.-— &  Phi . 

1. 1;  Col.  1.  2. - cRom.  1.  7;  1  Cor.  1.  3;  Gal. 

1.  3;  Phil.  1.  2;  Col.  1.  2;  1  Thess.  1. 1 ;  2  Thess. 


1  2;  Philem.  3. - d  Eph.  1.  3;  1  Pet.  1.  3. - 

e  Psa.  86.  17;  Isa.  12.  1;  49.  10;  John  14.  lb.— 
./'Acts 9. 4;  chap.  4. 10;  Col.  1.  24. ^Chap.  4.  lo. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Address  o,nd  Benedictory  Greeting ,  1—7. 

1.  An  apostle — Note  on  1  Cor.  i,  1. 
Our  brother — Literally,  the  brother. 
Note  1  Cor.  i,  1.  Even  with  Timothy, 
whom  he  addresses  as  his  own  son, 
and  endorses  as  working  the  work  of 
the  Lord,  as  I,  (1  Cor.  xvi,  10.)  Paul 
is  obliged  to  assert  himself  as  solely  an 
apostle.  All  Achaia — Including  the 
whole  of  southern  Greece.  As  Corinth 
was  the  political  capital,  so  now  it  is 
also  the  Christian  capital. 

2.  Grace  be  to  you  —  Doddridge 
says  that  this  benediction  occurs  in 
eleven  of  Paul’s  epistles.  The  apostle 
would  scatter  his  benedictions  wher¬ 
ever  Christian  Churches  can  be  found. 

3.  Father  of  mercies — As  if  all 
mercies  were  the  offspring  of  the  di¬ 
vine  heart.  God  of  all  comfort  — 
The  Jews  too  strongly  held  that  the 
afflicted  were  the  objects  of  God’s  ha¬ 
tred  ;  but  the  apostle  finds  that  God  is 
the  supreme  consoler  of  the  afflicted. 
Modern  atheistic  philosophy  denies  any 
proof  of  divine  goodness  in  the  crea¬ 
tion.  But  whatever  proof  of  divine 
wrath  there  is  in  the  creation,  Chris¬ 


tianity  finds  an  infinite  mercy  in  re¬ 
demption. 

4.  Able  to  comfort — The  consola¬ 
tions  St.  Paul  receives  from  God,  he 
receives  not  for  himself  alone.  They 
are  gifts  wherewith  he  is  able  to  con¬ 
sole  and  enrich  others.  The  fulness 
of  the  generous  heart  overflows,  nay, 
empties  itself,  in  blessings  upon  its 
fellow-sufferers. 

5.  Sufferings  of  Christ  —  Not  as 
some  render,  sufferings  for  Christ; 

but  the  same  sufferings  in  kind  as 
those  of  Christ ;  or  rather,  sufferings 
undergone  by  Christians  in  their  one¬ 
ness  with  Christ,  so  that  they  are  his. 
By  Christ  —  For  Christ  makes  con¬ 
solation  to  abound  to  all  who  undergo 
his  sufferings.  The  martyr  for  Christ 
has  rejoiced  and  triumphed  in  the  flame 
through  Christ. 

6.  For  your — St.  Paul,  in  verse  4, 
says  that  being  divinely  consoled  with 
that  divine  consolation  he  can  console 
others;  he  now  assures  the  Corinthians 
that  those  others  whom  he  would  console 
thus  are  themselves.  Whether  afflicted 
or  comforted,  that  affliction  or  com¬ 
fort  shall  redound  to  the  blessing  of  his 

|  dear  Corinthians.  Which  refers  to 


144 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  I).  58. 


and  salvation,  which  ’is  effectual 
in  the  enduring  of  the  same  suf¬ 
ferings  which  we  also  suffer:  or 
whether  we  be  comforted,  it  is 
for  your  consolation  and  salvation. 
7  And  our  hope  of  you  is  stead¬ 
fast,  knowing,  that  h  as  ye  are  par¬ 
takers  of  the  sufferings,  so  shall  ye 
be  also  of  the  consolation. 

1  Or,  is  wrought. - h  Romans  8.  17 ;  2  Tim¬ 
othy  2.  12. _ 

consolation  and  salvation  ;  for  they 
are  effectual  in  producing  in  the  Co¬ 
rinthians  a  firm  endurance  of  the  same 
sufferings  as  Paul  himself  underwent 
in  Christ’s  service.  A  like  spiritual 
blessedness  produces  a  like  spiritual 
endurance. 

7.  The  Corinthian  patience  in  the 
sufferings  for  Christ’s  sake,  and  their 
maintenance  of  a  firm  confession  of 
Christ  in  Corinth  amid  unpopularity 
and  persecution,  inspired  a  hope  that 
was  steadfast  that  they  would  be  final 
partakers  of  an  eternal  consolation. 

St.  Paul  now  opens  the  great  topics 
of  the  epistle.  The  report  brought  by 
Titus  in  regard  to  the  Corinthian  tem¬ 
per  on  receiving  his  first  epistle,  incites 
him  to  a  full  dissertation  upon — 

a.  His  affliction  in  Asia ,  and  his  pur¬ 
pose  to  visit  them ,  8-14. 

8.  Have  you  ignorant — St.  Paul’s 
frequent  phrase  in  introducing  a  new 
information.  Rom.  i,  13 ;  1  Cor.  x,  1 ; 
xii,  1;  1  Thess.  iv,  13,  and  other  pas¬ 
sages.  Trouble — AYhat  this  trouble, 
or  rather,  affliction ,  even  to  despair  of 
life,  was,  is  variously  decided  by  com¬ 
mentators.  Some  identify  it  with  his 
danger  at  Ephesus  in  Demetrius’s  riot ; 
but  in  that  affair  lie  was  clearly  not 
allowed  to  encounter  as  much  danger 
as  he  wished.  Some  refer  it  to  his 
fighting  with  wild  beasts  at  Ephesus ; 
but  the  literal  reality  of  such  an  event 
is  improbable.  AYe  identify  it  without 
doubt  with  the  “  thorn  in  the  flesh  ”  in 
xii,  7,  where  see  our  note.  Alford,  who 
identifies  that  “  thorn  ”  as  sore  eyes ,  nev¬ 
ertheless  starts  here  on  the  right  track : 
“The  expression,”  he  says,  “seems 
rather  to  regard  a  deadly  sickness  than 
a  persecution.”  St.  Paul  does  not  say 
that  the  trouble  was  at  Ephesus,  but 


8  For  we  would  not,  brethren, 
have  you  ignorant  of  'our  trouble 
which  came  to  us  in  Asia,  that 
we  were  pressed  out  of  measure, 
above  strength,  insomuch  that  we 
despaired  even  of  life:  9  But  we 
had  the *  2 3 4 * * * * 9  sentence  of  death  in  our¬ 
selves,  that  we  should  k  not  trust 
in  ourselves,  but  in  God  which 

i  Acts  19.  23;  1  Cor.  15.  32;  16.  9. - 2  Or,  an- 

swer. - k  Jer.  17.  5,  7. _ _ 

in  Asia.  Assuming  that  his  anxiety 
about  the  effect  of  his  epistle  on  the 
Corinthians,  joined  with  the  excite¬ 
ments  of  the  riot,  affected  his  nervous 
system  before  leaving  Ephesus,  the 
paroxysm  by  which  life  was  in  despair 
doubtless  took  place  at  Troas.  Pressed 
out  of  measure  —  Literally,  we  were 
overwhelmingly ,  above  our  strength, 
borne  down.  He  was  prostrated  by  epi¬ 
lepsy,  and  his  life  was  despaired  of.  1  o 
identifying  this  trouble  as  a  sickness 
Meyer  objects — 1.  That  verse  5  speaks 
of  sufferings  of  Christ ;  2.  A  erse  7 
makes  the  Corinthians  partakers  j  and, 

3.  Paul  speaks  in  the  plural,  as  if 
others  shared.  But,  1.  Paul’s  being 
overwhelmed  with  an  almost  fatal 
anxiety  for  the  Corinthian  Church  was 
eminently  identical  with  the  sufferings 
of  Christ.  2.  The  Corinthians  being 
partakers  can  only  mean  that  they 
had  their  share  in  the  great  mass  of 
sufferings  for  Christ,  not  that  they 
nearly  died  with  him  in  Asia.  3.  Paul  s 
use  of  the  plural  is  counterbalanced  b}r 
his  use  of  the  singular  life,  death, 
sentence  of  death — all  of  which  cer¬ 
tainly  must  be  held  as  individual. 

4.  AYe  make  a  fuller  break  between 

verses  7  and  8  than  Meyer,  which  iso¬ 

lates  Paul’s  trouble  from  the  suffer¬ 

ings  of  which  the  Corinthians  were 

partakers. 

9.  Sentence  — ATell  expressed  by 
Alford:  “AYe  had  in  ourselves  the  re¬ 
sponse  of  death ;  that  is,  our  answer 
within  ourselves  to  the  question  ‘life 
or  death?’  was  ‘death.’  The  Greek 
word  may  signify  sentence  or  answer. 
being  the  answer  given  by  a  judge 
when  his  sentence  or  verdict  upon  the 
accused  was  asked.  Raiseth  the 
dead — Esteeming  his  recovery  as  near- 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  I. 


145 


raiseth  the  dead:  10  1  Who  de¬ 
livered  us  from  so  great  a  death, 
and  doth  deliver:  in  whom  we 
trust 'that  he  will  yet  deliver  us; 
11  Ye  also  '"helping  together  by 
prayer  for  us,  that  n  for  the  gift 
bestowed  upon  us  by  the  means  of 
many  persons  thanks  may  be  given 
by  many  on  our  behalf.  14  For 
our  rejoicing  is  this,  the  testimo¬ 
ny  of  our  conscience,  that  in  sim¬ 
plicity  and  0  godly  sincerity,  mot 

l  2  Pet.  2.  9. - m  Rom.  15.  30;  Phil.  1.  19; 

Philem.  22. - n  Chap.  4.  15. - o  Chap.  2.  17  ; 

ly  a  resurrection.  And  the  greatness 
of  the  danger  raised  his  thoughts  from 
self  to  the  Author  of  life. 

10.  Doth  deliver — The  danger  and 
the  deliverance  were  continuous.  The 
nervous  predisposition  still  hung  over 
Paul,  and  his  life  was  a  constant  deliv¬ 
erance  from  death.  We  may  suggest 
as  a  strong  proof  of  the  real  nature  of 
Paul’s  danger,  his  continued  reserve  in 
specifically  naming  it.  Had  it  been  a 
beast-fight,  or  a  conspiracy,  or  an  as¬ 
sault,  or  even  “  a  weakness  of  the 
eyes,”  he  would  have  specified  it ;  but 
here,  as  elsewhere,  from  its  humiliating 
character  it  is  covered  under  allusions 
and  metaphors. 

11.  Helping... by  prayer  for  us — 

It  would  seem  that  although,  accord¬ 
ing  to  verse  8,  the  Corinthians  knew 
nothing  of  this  particular  collapse,  yet 
Paul’s  general  predisposition  was  known 
to  them,  and  was  the  subject  of  inter¬ 
cession  in  his  behalf.  By  the  means 
— That  is,  by  the  intercession  of  ma¬ 
ny  persons  in  the  Corinthian  Church. 
Gift — Restoration  from  the  attack  of 
disease.  Says  Doddridge,  “  Nothing  is 
more  reasonable  than  that  mercies  ob¬ 
tained  by  prayer  should  be  owned  by 
praise.” 

12.  For — Connects  with  the  trust 
of  verse  10.  The  testimony  of  his 
conscience  is  the  ground  of  his  re¬ 
joicing.  For  simplicity  the  better 
reading  is  holiness.  Godly  sincerity 
— Literally,  sincerity  of  God.  Flesh¬ 
ly  wisdom — The  reverse  of  the  holi¬ 
ness  and  godly  sincerity ;  implying 
chat  hypocritical  self-interest  imputed 

VOL.  IV.— 10 


with  fleshly  wisdom,  but  by  the 
grace  of  God,  we  have  had  our  con¬ 
versation  in  the  world,  and  more 
abundantly  to  you-ward.  13  For 
we  write  none  other  things  unto 
you,  than  what  ye  read  or  acknowl¬ 
edge  ;  and  I  trust  ye  shall  acknowl- 
edge  even  to  the  end ;  14  As  also 
ye  have  acknowledged  us  in  part, 
9  that  we  are  your  rejoicing,  even 
as  rye  also  are  ours  in  the  day  of 
the  Lord  Jesus. 

4.  2. - v  1  Cor.  2.  4,  13. - q  Chap.  5.  12. - 

r  Phil.  2.  10;  4.  1 ;  1  Thess.  2.  19,  2C. 

to  him  by  the  detractors  from  his  apos- 
tlesliip  whom  he  is  about  to  encoun¬ 
ter  in  this  epistle.  St.  Paul’s  joy  was 
that  on  a  survey  his  conscience  as¬ 
sured  him  that  his  life  was  the  reverse 
of  the  picture  drawn  by  his  opponents. 
Conversation  —  The  Greek  word  sig¬ 
nifies,  in  its  classical  use,  business  in  a 
worldlv  sense  :  in  the  New  Testament 
it  signifies  moral  conduct ,  good  or  bad. 
More  abundantly  —  Because  he  had 
had  more  abundant  time  and  occasions 
to  manifest  his  holiness  and  sincerity 
to  the  Church  whose  founder-apostle 
Paul  had  been.  To  you-ward — To¬ 
ward  you. 

1 3.  Write  none  other . . .  than  what 
ye  read — There  is  no  lurking  design, 
no  concealed  sub-sense  in  his  words. 
They  mean  what  they  say,  just  as  they 
are  read  by  his  Corinthians.  Or  ac¬ 
knowledge  —  Knowing  beforehand 
that  they  are  truth.  Shall  acknowl¬ 
edge — As  there  is  no  hypocrisy,  so 
there  will  be  no  apostasy.  * 

14.  In  part — ^Either  meaning  a  part 
of  you  have  acknowledged  me ;  or, 
you  have  acknowledged  as  to  the  part 
of  my  life  and  character  that  you  have 
thus  far  seen  and  understood,  although 
another  large  part  has  needed  much 
explanation  and  defence;  or,  you  have, 
partially  but  not  adequately,  acknowl¬ 
edged.  The  second  we  think  the  real 
sense.  Your  rejoicing — Rather,  your 
boast;  the  opposite  of  shame ,  as  rejoic¬ 
ing  is  the  opposite  of  sorrow.  Day 
* .  .Jesus — Our  boasting  of  each  other 
now  and  ever  will  be  ratified  and  com¬ 
pleted  at  the  judgment-day. 


A.  D.  58. 


146 


IT.  CORINTHIANS. 


15  And  in  this  confidence  8 1 
w ns  minded  to  come  unto  you  be¬ 
fore,  that  ye  might  have  1  a  sec¬ 
ond  3  benefit ;  fi  6  And  to  pass  by 
you  into  Macedonia,  and  "to  come 
again  out  of  Macedonia  unto  you, 
and  of  you  to  be  brought  on  my 
way  toward  Judea.  17  When  I 
therefore  was  thus  minded,  did  I 
use  lightness  ?  or  the  things  that 
I  purpose,  do  I  purpose  v  according 


si  Cor.  4.  19. - 1  Rom.  1.  11.- 

— u  1  Cor.  16,  5,  6. - v  Chap. 


—3  Or,  grace. 
10.  2. - 4  Or, 


to  the  flesh,  that  with  me  there 
should  be  yea,  yea,  and  nay,  nay  ? 
IS  But  a* "God  is  true,  our  "word 
toward  you  was  not  yea  and  nay. 

19  For  w  the  Son  of  God,  Jesus 
Christ,  who  was  preached  among 
you  by  us,  even  by  me  and  Silva- 
nus  and  Timotheus,  was  not  yea 
and  nay,  xbut  in  him  was  yea. 

20  yFor  all  the  promises  of  God 
in  him  are  yea,  and  in  him  amen, 

preaching. - w  Mark  1.  1 :  Luke  1.  35-;  Acts 

9.  20. - x  Ileb.  13.  8. - V  Rom.  lo.  8,  9. 


PART  FIRST. 

PAUL’S  MAINTENANCE  OF  HIS  APOS- 
TLESHIP.  Chap,  i,  15-xi,  17. 

I.  Defence  of  his  Impugned  Change 
of  Plan  of  Travel,  i,  15— ii,  17. 

1.  His  change  of  plan  was  not 
of  fickle  will,  but  of  divine  motive, 

15-22. 

15.  This  confidence— Of  our  mutual 
boast  of  each  other.  Before,  qualifies 
minded,  and  should  be  placed  before 
it.  This  purpose  was  before  his  first 
epistle,  and  was  a  subordinate  part  of 
his  plan,  as  stated  Acts  xix,  21.  A 
second  benefit — A  double  benefit,  b} 
a  double  visit,  as  described  next  verse. 

16.  And— By  the  plan  here  proposed 
Corinth  was  to  have  been  both  Paul’s 
sallying  and  his  rallying  point  — his 
centre  and  capital— during  this  Euro¬ 
pean  visit.  But  the  news  brought  by 
the  Chloe  folks,  confirmed  by  Stepha¬ 
nas  and  his  colleagues*  shook  Corinth 
out  of  its  supreme  place  in  his  confi¬ 
dence.  This  sinking  of  Corinth  capital 
is  implied  in  1  CoT.  xvi,  5,  and  proba¬ 
bly  became  known  at  Corinth  through 
Stephanas  and  colleagues,  and,  perhaps, 
through  Titus  and  Timothy,  and  gave 
vantage  ground  to  St.  Paul’s  detractors. 
Into . .  .  out  of — ■He  would  have  crossed 
the  Aegean,  straight  from  Ephesus  to 
Corinth ;  thence  he  would  have  visit¬ 
ed  Macedonia  and  gone  back  again. 
Of  you  to  be  brought  on  my  way — 
By  a  furnishing  of  travelling  outfit  and 
an  escort  of  honour.  So  high  did  the 
Corinthian  saints  stand  in  the  apostle  s 
expectations.  Then  to  be  told  (1  Cor. 
xvi,  5)  that  they  were  to  be  an  inci¬ 


dent  subordinate  to  Macedonia,  was  a 
severe  check  upon  Corinth.  St.  Paul  s 
opponents  could  now  say  that  he  was 
fickle  ;  was  vexed  because  Corinth  had 
not  sufficiently  idolized  him  ;  and  that 
thence  lie  was  a  self-seeking  pseudo¬ 
apostle.  Paul  will  now  give  a  different 
version  of  his  change  of  purpose. 

17.  Lightness  —  V olatility,  fickle¬ 
ness.  According  to  the  flesh — 
Prom  self-seeking  and  desire  to  be 
idolized.  With  me— Instead  of  with 
God,  my  divine  director.  Yea. .  .nay 
— An  independent,  selfish  claim,  to  de¬ 
cide  affirmatively  or  negatively,  as  he 
should  see  fit,  from  worldly  motives. 

18.  Our  word  toward  you— Our 
speech,  whether  by  letter,  by  converse, 
or  by  preaching.  Not  yea  .  .  .  nay 
_ Was  not  of  our  own  fickle  human 

decision. 

19.  For — Paul  exemplifies  this  de¬ 
nial  of  selfish  fickleness,  first,  19-22, 
in  regard  to  his  preaching,  and  then, 
23 — ii,  4,  in  regard  to  the  case  in  ques¬ 
tion,  his  change  of  journey-plan.  The 
Son  of  God.  The  great  theme  and  soul 
of  all  our  preaching,  Christ,  is  the  ever 
changeless  affirmative,  the  immutable 
yea-n  Silvanus  and  Timotheus  — 
The  true  Pauline  preachers,  in  distinc¬ 
tion  from  the  Judaizers  and  other  fac- 
tionists.  Not  yea  and  nay— Fickle 
and  contradictory  ;  sometimes  affirma¬ 
tive  and  sometimes  negative.  But  in 
him  was  yea — God’s  blessed  gospel 
affirmation  resided  in  him. 

20.  St.  Paul  now  tells  of  what  the 
yea  in  Christ  was  an  affirmation, 
namely,  the  promises  of  God.  All 
the  promises  —  Literally,  How  many 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  I. 


147 


unto  the  glory  of  God  by  us. 
21  Now  he  which  establisheth 
us  with  you  in  Christ,  and  zhath 
anointed  us,  is  God ;  22  Who 

*hath  also  sealed  us,  and  b  given 
the  earnest  of  the  Spirit  in  our 
hearts. 


23  Moreover  CI  call  God  foi  a 
record  upon  my  soul, d  that  to  spare 
you  I  came  not  as  yet  unto  Cor¬ 
inth.  24  Not  for  ethat  we  have 
dominion  over  your  faith,  but  are 
helpers  of  your  joy :  for  f  by  faith 
ye  stand. 


z  1  John  2.  20,  27. - a  Eph.  1.  13 ;  4.  30;  2  Tim. 

2.  19;  Rev.  2.  17. - b  Chap.  5.  5;  Eph  1.  14.— 

cRom.  1.  9;  chap.  11.  31 ;  G-al.  1.  20;  Phil.  1.  8. 


d  1  Corinthians  4.  21;  chapter  2.  3;  12.  20; 

13.  2,  10. - el  Corinthians  3.  5;  1  Peter  5.  3. - 

./Romans  11.  20;  1  Corinthians  15.  1. 


soever  are  the  promises  of  God ,  in  him 
(Christ)  is  the  yea;  all  God’s  promises 
find  their  expression  in  Christ.  And 
in  him — By  the  best  reading,  Wherefore 
also  through  him  is  the  Amen  to  God  to 
his  glory  through  us.  As  the  yea  of 
God’s  promises  is  in  Christ,  so  our  re¬ 
sponsive  Amen  is  through  Christ  to 
God’s  glory.  Christ  is  thus  made,  by 
the  apostle,  the  medium  through  whom 
God’s  promises  become  ours,  and  our 
praises  becomes  God’s.  By  this  the 
Christine  party  are  made  to  realize  that 
they  cannot  well  represent  St.  Paul  as 
the  depredator  of  Christ. 

21.  St.  Paul  now  traces  the  gospel 
preached  by  him  and  his  colleagues  to 
its  source,  God,  to  shut  off  the  im¬ 
putation  of  his  opposers,  who  trace  it 
to  man  or  to  Satan.  And  the  seal  and 
surety  of  its  origin  in  God,  he  will 
soon,  appealing  to  the  consciousness  of 
his  brethren,  affirm  to  be  the  witness 
of  the  Spirit. 

22.  Earnest  —  The  word  appabuv 
means  that  small  part  of  the  price  paid 
down  “  to  bind  the  bargain,”  as  a  pawn 
or  pledge  left  as  security  that  the  full 
price  will  be  paid.  See  Gen.  xxxviii, 
17,  18.  The  Spirit  of  God  given  in 
our  hearts  is  a  small  advance  gift,  and 
a  pledge  of  the  eternal  gift  of  the  heav¬ 
enly  life.  Stanley  says  :  “  The  word 
was  probably  derived  by  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  from  the  language  of  the 
Phenician  traders,  as  ‘tariff,’  ‘cargo,’ 
etc.,  are  derived  in  English  and  oth¬ 
er  modern  languages,  from  Spanish 
traders.” 

2.  Paul’s  motive  for  changing  his 
plan  of  visit,  was  a  wish  not  to 
come  to  their  grief,  23— ii,  4. 

St.  Paul  most  earnestly  protests  that 
his  not  coming,  as  planned,  was  to 
spare  them,  i,  23.  Not  that  by  the  term 


spare  he  claims  to  be  lord  of  their 
faith ;  for  faith  must  be  free,  and  by  a 
free  faith  do  they  stand ;  but  by  severe 
purifying  of  their  Church  he  would 
really  aid  their  joy,  24.  But  his  spare, 
means,  that  he  determined,  even  in 
his  own  behalf,  not  to  come  with  an 
afflicting  mission  to  them.  See  ii,  1. 
This  in  his  own  behalf,  for  if  he  sad¬ 
dened  them,  his  own  sole  consolers,  he 
abolished  the  sole  source  of  his  own 
comfort,  ii,  2.  And  he  wrote  the  very 
severities  of  his  first  epistle  in  order 
that,  the  severities  being  finished  in 
the  writing,  when  he  should  come  he 
would  find  a  purified  Church,  and  no 
grief,  but  a  common  joy,  ii.  3.  His 
writing  was,  indeed,  in  tears ;  but  his 
object  in  writing  was  not  their  grief, 
but  a  manifestation  of  his  own  love  in 
bringing  them  to  purity  and  rectitude. 

23.  For  a  record  —  Literally,  as  a 
witness.  Upon  my  soul — Upon  which 
I  invoke  the  divine  penalty  in  case 
of  falsehood.  This  is  a  most  solemn 
adjuration.  It  expresses  the  deep  in¬ 
tensity  of  his  wish  to  expel  from  their 
minds  the  notion  that  his  change  of 
plan  was  from  fickleness  in  him,  or 
slight  to  them,  or  any  other  motive 
than  a  desire  to  spare  them  a  severe 
visitation.  St.  Paul  repeatedly  makes 
asseveration,  in  this  epistle,  since  his 
truth  and  rectitude  stand  impeached 
by  his  detractors  on  the  most  import¬ 
ant  of  all  subjects.  The  sacred  lofti¬ 
ness  of  these  formulae  raise  them  above 
profanity.  To  spare  you — To  avoid 
meeting  you  with  discipline. 

24.  Not — This  verse  is  interposed 
parenthetically  in  order  to  soften  the 
phrase  spare  you.  Faith — The  dis¬ 
cipline  concerned  morals,  not  faith. 
Helpers  of  your  joy — By  abstaining 
from  visit  and  discipline,  except  when 


148 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  II. 

UT  I  determined  this  with  my¬ 
self,  athat  I  would  not  come 
again  to  you  in  heaviness.  ii  For 
'*if  I  make  you  sorry,  who  is  he 
then  that  maketh  me  glad,  but  the 
same  which  is  made  sorry  by  me  ? 
3  And  I  wrote  this  same  unto  you, 
lest,  when  I  came,  CI  should  have 
sorrow  from  them  of  whom  I  ought 
to  rejoice;  d having  confidence  in 


you  all,  that  my  joy  is  the  joy  of 
you  all.  4  For  out  of  much  af¬ 
fliction  and  anguish  of  heart  I 
wrote  unto  you  with  many  tears ; 
enot  that  ye  should  be  grieved, 
but  that  ye  might  know  the  love 
which  I  have  more  abundantly  un¬ 
to  you. 

5  But f  if  any  have  caused  griel, 
he  hath  not  &  grieved  me,  but  in 
part:  that  I  may  not  overcharge 


a  Chap.  1.  23 :  12.  20,  21 ;  13. 10.— -b  Rom.  12. 15 ; 
1  Cor.  12.  26. - c  Chap.  12.  21. 


d  Chap.  7.  16;  8.  22;  Gal.  5.  10. - eChap.  7.  8, 

9, 12. — / 1  Cor.  5.  1. - 0  Gal.  4.  12. 


they  would  secure  your  purification  as 
a  Church,  and  your  joy  as  Christians. 
By  faith  ye  stand  —  Have  freely 
stood  and  still  stand ;  and  that  amid  all 
the  dangers  and  disciplines  you  have 
incurred.  And  that  continued  stand 
is  the  source  of  the  joy  of  which  I 
would  be  your  helper. 

CHAPTER  II. 

1.  But— The  break  of  the  chapter 
division  very  unfortunately  interrupts 
the  thought  of  the  paragraph  i,  2-ii,  4. 
Overleaping  the  parenthetic  verse,  i,  24, 
this  verse  1  joins  on  to  i,  23,  as  shown 
by  our  summary  at  the  beginning  of  the 
section.  Paul  had  said  that  he  with¬ 
held  his  visit  to  spare  them ;  he  now 
continues  to  say  in  what  respect  to 
spare  them.  With  myself — Rather 
fov  myself;  in  my  own  interest  as  well 
as  for  you.  Again — See  note,  xii,  14. 
Heaviness — The  Greek  for  this  word, 
and  for  sorry,  twice,  (ver.  2,)  sorrow, 
(ver.  3,)  grieved,  (ver.  4,)  grief  and 
grieved,  (ver.  5,)  sorrow,  (ver.  7,)  are 
all  radically  the  same  word,  and  should 
have  been  uniformly  translated  gnef, 
or  grieved. 

2.  If,  by  a  severe  visitation,  I  make 
you  sorry,  what  other  consoler  than 
you  shall  I  find  for  my  own  sorrows  ? 
I  need  an  overflowing  gladness  in  your 
heart  to  pour  gladness  into  mine.  But 
for  you,  and  such  as  you,  I  am  alone 
in  a  hostile  world.  Joyous  Christian 
sympathy  is  my  sole  human  life  ;  how, 
then,  can  I  dry  up  its  sources  by  sad¬ 
dening  such  as  you  ? 

3.  Wrote  this  same— This  very 
series  of  rebukes  and  corrections,  in 


my  first  epistle.  He  preferred  to  do  it 
entire  by  letter,  that  the  sorrow  might 
be  over  and  past  when  he  came  to 
make  his  visits;  having  confidence 
in  them  all,  that  the  joy  of  the  union 
of  their  apostle  with  a  purified  Church 
would  be  the  joy  of  all. 

4.  Anguish  of  heart— Arising  from 
the  scandal  of  the  Corinthian  disorders 
and  the  necessity  of  stern  discipline. 
Many  tears — Even  of  tenderness  for 
those  he  rebuked.  That  ye  should 
be  grieved — Was  the  unavoidable  re¬ 
sult,  but  not  the  object  desired.  But 
that  ye  might  have  the  moral  eleva¬ 
tion  and  high  Christian  magnanimity 
to  know  that  even  my  severity  vras 
but  a  form  of  love. 

This  whole  section  is  expressed  in 
Paul’s  most  terse  and  sententious  style, 
indicating  a  penetrative  quickness  in 
his  readers  at  understanding  his  close¬ 
ly-wrapped  meaning.  Not  less  remark¬ 
able  is  the  deep  tenderness  and  deli¬ 
cacy  of  feeling,  and  the  high  moral  plat¬ 
form  on  which  Paul  assumes  that  both 
he  and  his  Corinthian  readers  stand. 
The  same  tenderness  suffuses  his  word* 
in  regard  to  the  incestuous  offender, 
whose  image  now  individualizes  itself 
to  his  view. 

3.  The  case  of  the  incestuous, 
now  penitent,  5-11. 

5.  But  if  any — Any  one.  A  very 
delicate  introduction  of  the  offender, 
whose  crime  Paul  now  avoids  even  to 
name.  He... all — The  literal  render¬ 
ing  is :  He  hath  grieved ,  not  me ,  but  par¬ 
tially— that  I  may  not  press  too  heavily 
— you  all.  The  only  difficulty  is  in  the 
apologetic  phrase  that.  .  .heavily.  e 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  II. 


149 


you  all.  Sufficient  to  such  a 
man  is  this i 2 *  1  punishment,  which 
was  inflicted  h  of  many.  7  1  So  that 
contrariwise  ye  ought  rather  to  for¬ 
give  him ,  and  comfort  him ,  lest 
perhaps  such  a  one  should  be  swal¬ 
lowed  up  with  overmuch  sorrow, 
g  Wherefore  I  beseech  you  that 
ye  would  confirm  your  love  toward 
him.  9  For  to  this  end  also  did 


I  write,  that  I  might  know  the 
proof  of  you,  whether  ye  be  k  obe¬ 
dient  in  all  things.  10  To  whom 
ye  forgive  any  thing,  I  forgive  al¬ 
so  :  for  if  I  forgave  any  thing,  to 
whom  I  forgave  it,  for  your  sakes 
forgave  I  it  2  in  the  person  of 
Christ;  11  Lest  Satan  should  get 
an  advantage  of  us:  for  we  are  not 
ignorant  of  his  devices. 

O 


1  Or,  censure. - hi  Corinthians  5.  4,  5; 

1  Timothy  5.  20. 


i  Galatians  6. 1. - Jc  Chapter  7. 15 ;  10.  6. 

2  Or,  in  the  sight. 


understand  that  Paul  therein  declines 
the  arrogance  of  claiming  the  whole  of¬ 
fence  as  being  committed  against  him¬ 
self.  The  grieved  feelings  of  others, 
namely,  the  Corinthian  saints,  are  to 
be  taken  into  view.  The  offender  has 
wounded  not  me  alone ;  and  I  say  this 
to  avoid  the  arrogance  of  seeming  to 
regard  myself  solely. 

6.  Such  a  man — The  such  implies 
such  penitence  as  to  justify  forgive 
ness,  and  the  next  verse  shows  that 
his  sensibilities  were  liable  to  become 
extreme.  Punishment  —  Paul  avoids 
naming  the  penalty  as  well  as  the  crime. 
It  was,  probably,  suspension  of  fellow¬ 
ship  by  a  vote  of  many,  or,  more  ac¬ 
curately,  of  the  majority. 

7.  Contrariwise  —  The  reverse  of 
penalty.  Forgive  —  Literally,  favour 
him,  implying  probable  forgiveness. 
Overmuch  sorrow  —  Leading  to  de 
spair,  perhaps  to  insanity  or  suicide. 
In  all  this  is  implied  that  the  criminal 
viewed  the  judgment  of  the  Church  as 
the  judgment  of  God,  and  preventive 
of  his  salvation. 

S.  Beseech  you — As  yet  the  Church, 
though  predisposed  to  lenity  and  love, 
had  not  acted  for  his  restoration.  Con¬ 
firm —  Put  into  authoritative  form  by 
official  restoration. 

9.  For — St.  Paul  now  indicates  that 
the  entire  object  of  his  commands  in 
the  first  epistle  touching  the  incestuous 
one  is  accomplished.  Besides  the  sal¬ 
vation  and  restoration,  by  wholesome 
severity  and  mercjr,  of  the  criminal’ s 
soul,  he  also  sought  proof  whether 
the  Church  would  be  obedient  to  its 
apostle.  This  was  a  most  momentous 
test;  for,  otherwise,  they  also  were 


criminal  with  the  incestuous  criminal. 
There  were  both  a  fallen  man  and  a 
fallen  Church. 

10.  To  whom — A  general,  but  as¬ 
suming  only  the  particular,  case.  I 
forgive- also  —  Literally,  also  I.  The 
full  unity  of  the  Church  with  the  apos¬ 
tle  being  assured,  he  now  affirms  his 
full  unity  with  the  Church.  Knowing 
their  wisdom  and  rectitude,  he  ratifies 
their  action  in  advance.  In  the  per¬ 
son  of  Christ  —  Not  in  his  'presence , 
but  as  acting  for  his  person.  Christ 
doing  it  by  me,  his  representative.  So 
his  order  to  excommunicate  (1  Cor.  v,  4) 
was  in  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus. 

11.  Lest... us — Literally,  Lest  we 
should  be  overreached  by  Satan.  He 
had,  perhaps,  been  surrendered  by  ex- 
communication  to  Satan,  (see  note  on 

1  Cor.  v,  5,)  but  in  order  to  really  save 
him  from  Satan.  But  if  Satan  really 
completely  gained  him,  they  would  be 
overreached  and  cheated  of  their  pur¬ 
pose  of  saving  the  sinner.  Devices 
— How  Satan  gains  and  keeps  apos¬ 
tates  we  have  seen  illustrated  by  too 
many  instances.  We  are  not  quite 
sure  that  those  who  fall  from  grace 
will  rise  again. 

4.  St.  Paul’s  lingering  at  Troas 
and  Macedonia  to  hear  from  them 
before  he  came,  12-17. 

Many  commentators  consider  verses 
5-11  “a  digression;”  but  if  wc  consider 
the  whole  section  (i,  8-v,  21)  as  a  sur¬ 
vey  of  St.  Paul’s  apostolic  relations  to 
the  Corinthians,  verses  5-11  is  rathei 
a  parenthetic  incident  in  the  straight 
line  of  thought  than  a  digression,  and 
verse  12  may  still  be  considered  as  join¬ 
ing  on  to  verse  4. 


150 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


12  Furthermore,  1  when  I  came 
to  Troas  to  preach  Christ’s  gos¬ 
pel,  and  ma  door  was  opened  un¬ 
to  me  of  the  Lord,  13  n  I  had  no 
rest  in  my  spirit,  because  I  found 
not  Titus  my  brother ;  but  tak¬ 
ing  my  leave  of  them,  I  went  from 
thence  into  Macedonia.  14  Now 
thanks  be  unto  God,  which  always 
causeth  us  to  triumph  in  Christ, 

/Acts  16.  8;  20.  6. - ml  Cor.  16.  9. - ra-Chap. 

7.  5,  6. - o  Cant.  1.  3. - y  1  Cor.  1.  18, 

12.  When  I  came  to  Troas — Lit¬ 
erally,  But  having  come  to  Troas ,  or,  the 
Troad.  The  name  may  imply  either  the 
city  or  its  territorial  section;  but  of 
course  Paul  was  at  the  city. 

It  was  in  the  early  summer  of  the 
year  57  that  Paul  left  Ephesus  for 
Troas,  as  the  commencement  of  his 
second  tour  through  Macedonia  into 
Southern  Greece.  Probably  Tychicus 
and  Trophimus  were  with  him.  He 
may  have  gone  by  sea,  as  safer  than  the 
land  route,  with  its  “  perils  by  rob¬ 
bers.”  But  a  great  thoroughfare  passed 
from  Ephesus  via  Smyrna  and  Perga- 
mos  to  Troas.  To  preach  Christ’s 
gospel — His  purpose  was  to  establish 
Christianity,  and  he  seems  to  have 
passed  the  other  great  cities,  because  it 
was  at  the  seaport  of  Troas  he  expect¬ 
ed  Titus  to  arrive  from  Corinth,  across 
the  Aegean.  A  door  was  opened — 
Access  was  clear  for  preaching  Christ 
to  the  people,  and  founding  a  Church. 

13.  No  rest — Worn  by  the  excite¬ 
ment  of  the  riot  at  Ephesus,  anxious 
for  Titus  and  Corinth,  Paul  was  for 
several  weeks  incapacitated  for  seizing 
the  prize  of  evangelizing  Troas.  See 
on  i,  8.  Compare  this  visit  with  those 
narrated  by  Luke  in  Acts  xvi,  8-11, 
and  in  Acts  xx,  5-12,  with  our  notes. 
Into  Macedonia — Hoping,  doubtless, 
that  as  Titus  might  have  come  by  the 
land  route,  he  might  meet  his  brother 
there.  Titus,  then,  arrived  in  time,  and 
his  report  was  on  the  whole  such  that 
Paul  returns  to  the  Corinthians  the  fol¬ 
lowing  joyful  paragraph. 

14.  Causeth  us  to  triumph — Rath¬ 
er,  leadeth  us  in  triumph;  for  God  is 
the  victor ;  and  the  apostle  views  him¬ 
self  in  the  double  capacity  of  captive- 


and  maketh  manifest  °tlie  savour 
of  his  knowledge  by  us  in  ev¬ 
ery  place.  15  For  we  are  unto 
God  a  sweet  savour  of  Christ, 
Pin  them  that  are  saved,  and  <»in 
them  that  perish  :  10  r  To  the 

one  we  are  the  savour  of  death 
unto  death ;  and  to  the  other  the 
savour  of  life  unto  life. 2 * * * * *  8  And 
who  is  sufficient  for  these  things? 

q  Chap.  4. 8. - r  Luke  2. 34 ;  John  9. 39 ;  1  Pet. 

2.  7,  8. - si  Cor.  15.  10;  chap.  3.  5,  6. _ 

led,  and  of  the  joyful  priests  burning 
the  incense  that  made  the  air  and  the 
occasion  agreeable  to  the  nostrils  of 
the  spectators. 

Many  commentators,  as  well  as  the 
Vulgate  and  our  translators,  have  given 
to  the  Greek  verb  a  causative  sense — 
causeth  us  to  triumph — triumphs  us. 
St.  Chrysostom,  to  whom  Greek  was 
vernacular,  gives  it  that  sense  in  a 
spirited  passage.  “  Thanks  be  to  God 
who  triumphs  us ,  that  is,  makes  us  il¬ 
lustrious  in  the  eyes  of  all.  Christ  and 
we  lead  a  victorious  march  through  the 
world,  as  a  Roman  conqueror  leads  his 
triumphal  procession  to  the  capitol. 

15.  We — Apostles  and  preachers. 
Unto  God  —  In  God’s  view  and  pur¬ 
pose.  Sweet  savour — Odour.  Gar¬ 
lands  were  flung  and  spices  were  burned 
in  the  streets  through  which  a  trium¬ 
phal  procession  passed.  In  this  ener¬ 
getic  language  Paul  makes  the  preach¬ 
ers  themselves  the  very  odour  they 
diffuse.  Of  Christ  —  As  if  Christ 
were  a  garland  of  flowers,  and  the 
gospel  were  the  fragrance  from  it 
emitted.  Are  saved — Are  in  the  pro¬ 
cess  of  being  saved. 

16.  Savour  of  death  unto  death — 
An  odour  savouring  of,  and  tending 
unto,  and  resulting  in,  death.  Un¬ 
pardoned  prisoners,  who  were  to  be 
executed  on  the  arrival  of  the  victor 
at  the  Capitol,  were  often  in  the  pro¬ 
cession.  To  them  the  odour  was  redo¬ 
lent  of  death  and  pointed  unto  death. 
Others  were  to  be  spared ;  and  to 
them  the  incense  was  fragrant  of  life 
and  prophetic  unto  life.  The  impen¬ 
itent  hearers  of  the  gospel  represent 

the  condemned  captives.  Sufficient 

.  .  .  things  —  Literally,  and  for  these 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  II,  III. 


151 


17  For  we  are  not  as  many,  which 
* 1  corrupt  the  word  of  God :  but  as 
*of  sincerity,  but  as  of  God,  in  the 
Bight  of  God  speak  we  4  in  Christ. 

3  Or,  deal  deceitfully  with.—  t  Chap.  4.  2 ; 

1L  13;  2  Pet.  2.  3. _ 

thing#  who  is  adeguate  f  These  things 
refer  to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel, 
with  its  fearful  alternatives  of  life  and 
death  eternal.  The  apostle  began  the 
paragraph  at  verse  14  as  a  pean,  but 
it  ends  in  a  wail-  He  would  that  all 
might  be  rescued  unto  life,  but  what 
sufficiency  has  man  for  such  a  result? 

17.  For — Reason  for  this  agonized 
exclamation.  Many  —  Literally,  tlte 
many;  the  multitudes.  The  word  oft¬ 
en  signifies  the  entire  whole,  but  more 
often  the  commonalty  in  distinction  from 
the  choice  few  or  one.  Which  corrupt 
— Literally,  which  huckster.  The  verb  is 
derived  from  a  noun  signifying  a  huck¬ 
ster,  or  pedler  of  small  wares,  wines,  or 
provisions.  And  they  were  reputed  as 
guilty  of  adulterating,  tricking,  and 
cheating  for  gain.  And  so  the  pagan 
satirist,  Lucian,  says :  “  The  philoso¬ 
phers  retail  their  teachings,  like  huck¬ 
sters,  the  great  body  of  them  mixing, 
cheating,  and  dealing  false  measures. 
Paul  refers  to  the  errorists  who  were 
trying  to  make  gain  by  adulterating 
the  word  of  God — such  as  the  Juda- 
ists,  who  substituted  circumcision  for 
Christ;  the  Libertines,  who  defended 
incest;  the  Gnostics,  who  denied  the 
literal  resurrection  of  the  body.  Of — 
Out  from  sincerity,  as  from  a  pure 
fountain.  Of— Out  from  God,  as  the 
primal  source  of  our  utterance  by  his 
inspiration.  In  the  sight  of  God 
With,  therefore,  a  dread  sense  of  the 
necessity  of  pureness  and  rectitude.  In 
Christ — In  his  power,  gospel,  and  very 
being.  This  solemn  and  cumulative 
assertion  of  sincerity,  inspiration,  and 
identification  with  Christ  is  in  power- 
fid  issue  with  his  Judaic  opposers,  who, 
while  claiming  to  be  Christine ,  truly  de¬ 
preciated  Christ.  But  how  does  all  this 
furnish  reason  for  the  wail  as  indicated 
by  the  above  for.  It  furnishes  reason 
why  it  was  he  that  uttered  it.  He  felt 
the  solemn  responsibilities  implied  in 
?erses  15,  16  ;  the  hucksters  did  not. 


CHAPTER  III. 

DO  awe  begin  again  to  com¬ 
mend  ourselves?  or  need  we, 
as  some  others ,  b epistles  of  com- 

u  Chap.  1. 12 ;  4. 2. - 4  Or,  of. - aj Chap.  5. 12 ; 

10.  8, 12;  12.  11. - b  Acts  18.  27. 


CHAPTER  III. 

II.  The  Apostolic  Office,  iii,  1-vi,  1 0. 

1.  It  is  above  commendation, 
above  Mosaicism,  iii,  1-iv,  6. 

1.  Again — The  last  verse  contains 
a  powerful  self-assertion,  and  St.  Paul 
is  immediately  reminded  that  among 
the  imputations  reported  by  Titus  as 
made  against  him  was  his  self-eulogy  ; 
especially,  perhaps,  in  1  Cor.  ix,  15,  21. 
Some — His  Judaic  opponents.  Epis¬ 
tles  of  commendation — Recommen¬ 
datory  letters.  Such  letters  all  affiliated 
associations  are  obliged  to  use  to  authen¬ 
ticate  messengers,  or  members,  from 
one  locality  to  another.  Such,  for  in¬ 
stance,  are  our  “certificates  of  mem¬ 
bership”  at  the  present  day.  Com-' 
mendatory  letters  were  in  use  among 
the  Jews  also ;  and  in  the  early  Church, 
the  bishops  furnished  certifications  for 
clergy  circulating  in  other  dioceses. 
By  such  letters  was  Apollos  commend¬ 
ed  from  Ephesus  to  Corinth.  Acts 
xviii,  27.  So  Timothy  is  commended 
to  the  Corinthian  Church  in  1  Cor. 
xvi,  10,  11,  and  Titus  and  his  comrades 
in  this  epistle,  viii,  1 8,  19.  To  you— 
The  clear  implication  is,  that  his  de¬ 
tractors  came  with  such  letters  from 
somewhere.  And  the  fountain  head 
is  indicated  by  the  entire  narration  of 
Acts  xv,  1-33,  as  being  at  Jerusalem. 
See  our  notes  on  that  passage.  A  set 
of  ultra- Judaists  came  down  from  Jert  • 
salem  to  Antioch,  proclaiming  that  the 
retention  of  circumcision  by  Christians 
was  necessary  to  salvation.  St.  Paul 
says,  (Galatians  ii,  12,)  that  a  similar 
set  came  to  Antioch  from  James,  tire 
resident  apostle  at  Jerusalem.  And 
Renan,  in  his  “St.  Paul,”  talks  of  “a 
counter-mission  organized  by  James” 
against  St.  Paul,  and  assures  us  that 
James  furnished  the  Judaists  with  cre¬ 
dentials.  All  such  fancies  touching  the 
conduct  and  positiou  of  that  illustrious 
I  man  are  dispersed  by  Luke  s  narration 


152 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


mendation  to  you,  or  letters  of  com¬ 
mendation  from  you?  2cYe  are 
our  epistle  written  in  our  hearts, 
known  and  read  of  all  men  :  3  For¬ 
asmuch  as  ye  are  manifestly  de¬ 
clared  to  be  the  epistle  of  Christ 
d  ministered  by  us,  written  not 

cl  Corinthians  9.  2. - d  1  Corinthians  3.  5. - 

e  Exodus  24.  12;  34.  1. - /Psalm  40.  8;  Jeremi- 

of  his  course  towards  the  ultra-Judaic 
party  at  the  Council  of  Jerusalem. 
Acts  xv,  1-33.  The  Judaic  emissaries 
were  a  small  extreme  section,  whom 
James  refused  to  countenance.  Doubt¬ 
less  the  emissaries  that  now  had  come 
from  Jerusalem  were  of  the  same  type. 
In  about  a  year  from  the  time  of  writing 
this  epistle,  Paul  and  James  met  in  coun¬ 
cil  at  Jerusalem,  as  described  in  Acts 
xxi,  18-20,  wdiere  see  notes ;  and  James 
rejoiced  in  the  labours  and  successes 
of  our  great  apostle.  Indeed,  Luke’s 
narrative  of  the  invasion  of  Antioch 
by  the  Judaists  may  be  read  as  a  fair 
type  of  their  visitation  at  Corinth. 
The  epistles  of  commendation  they 
brought  bore,  doubtless,  the  signature, 
not  of  James,  but  of  the  ultra  clique  in 
Jerusalem. 

2.  Ye  are  our  epistle — Powerful 
emphasis  to  be  placed  on  ye  and  our. 
Bring  epistles  to  you  f  Yourselves  are 
our  epistle  !  A  lofty  turn  that  places 
him  at  once  on  the  platform  of  their 
founder-apostle.  And  by  the  imme¬ 
diate  additional  term,  written  in  our 
hearts,  he  evades  the  charge  of  arro¬ 
gance  with  a  touch  of  deep  affection. 
By  our  epistle,  he  does  not  mean  our 
letter  to  or  for  others,  but  an  epistle 
in  our  behalf,  certifying  us  to  the 
world.  But  though  written  in  his 
heart,  the  epistle  is  not  a  hidden  in¬ 
scription,  but  known  and  read  of  all 
men.  The  wide  world  knows  Cor¬ 
inth,  and  knows  it  as  a  Pauline  Christ¬ 
ian  Church. 

3.  The  italic  phrase  interpolated  by 
our  translators,  forasmuch  as  ye  are, 
seems  unnecessary.  Manifestly  de¬ 
clared — Rather,  being  manifested ,  re¬ 
ferring  to  ye  in  the  previous  verse. 
They  were  known  and  read  by  the 
world  as  being  conspicuously  Christ’s 
commendatory  letter  of  St.  Paul,  their 


with  ink,  but  with  the  Spirit  of 
the  living  God;  not  ein  tables  of 
stone,  but  fin  fleshly  tables  of  the 
heart.  4  And  such  trust  have 
we  through  Christ  to  God-ward: 
5 * * * 4 5  &Not  that  we  are  sufficient  of 
ourselves  to  think  any  thing  as 

ah  31.  33;  Ezekiel  11.  19;  36.  26;  Hebrews  8.  10. 
- g  J ohn  15.  5;  chapter  2.  16. 

founder,  to  the  world.  This  is  a  beau¬ 
tiful  enlargement  of  the  figure  of  an 
epistle,  in  previous  verse.  Epistle 
of  Christ — As  Christ  is  real  author  of 
the  Church,  so  he  is  real  furnisher  of 
the  epistle and  thus  does  Christ  au¬ 
thenticate  his  apostolic  mission  by  the 
most  powerful  of  credentials.  Let  those 
pseudo-Christians  meet  that.  Minis¬ 
tered  by  us — The  Church  was  made 
by  Christ  under  the  human  ministry  of 
the  apostle.  He  flings  in  this  phrase 

to  remind  them  that  Christ’s  epistle 
inures  to  the  honour  of  his  ministry. 
This  living  epistle  of  Christ  is  writ¬ 
ten  not,  as  the  credentials  of  the  emis¬ 
saries  from  Jerusalem  were,  with  ink. 
The  figure,  as  pushed  by  the  lively 
fancy  of  our  apostle,  becomes  very  del¬ 
icately  subtile.  The  names  of  mem¬ 

bers  may  be  written  on  the  Church 
register  with  ink ;  but  Christ  writes, 
with  the  Spirit ;  the  Christian  being 
himself  the  inscription  ;  and  he  writes 
this  live  inscription  on  the  Christian’s 
own  heart.  And  St.  Paul  supplements 
the  figure  by  adding  that  this  living  in¬ 
scription  is  written,  not,  like  the  deca¬ 
logue,  in  tables  of  stone,  as  the  Juda- 
izers  may  be  figured  as  an  inscription 
to  be  written  ;  but,  like  true  sons  of  a 
gospel  of  the  heart,  in  fleshly  tables 
of  the  heart. 

4.  Such  trust — Rather,  such  confi¬ 
dence  ;  namely,  the  bold  assurance  that 
they  are  his  epistle.  Verses  4,  5,  are 
flung  in  as  a  softener  of  all  apparent  ar¬ 
rogance  in  his  bold  assurance. 

5.  Sufficient  —  Same  word  as  in 
ii,  16.  To  think — To  think  out,  or 
excogitate  the  truths  of  the  gospel. 

Paul  here  entirely  ignores  the  imputa¬ 
tion  that  the  gospel  as  by  him  preached 
is  by  him  invented.  No,  it  originates 
with  God,  from  whom  comes  all  his 
sufficiency  even  to  preach  it. 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  III. 


153 


of  ourselves;  but  hour  sufficien¬ 
cy  is  of  God ;  6  Wlio  also  hath 

made  us  able  ‘ministers  of  kthe 
aew  testament ;  not  1  of  the  let¬ 
ter,  but  of  the  spirit:  for  mthe 
letter  killeth,  “but  the  spirit  *giv- 


- e - ■ — - - 

eth  life.  7  But  if  °the  ministra¬ 
tion  of  death,  p written  and  en¬ 
graven  in  stones,  was  glorious,  qso 
that  the  children  of  Israel  could 
not  steadfastly  behold  the  face  of 
Moses  for  the  glory  of  his  counte- 


hl  Cor.  15. 10;  Phil.  2. 13. - *lCor.  3.o;  15. 10* 

chap  5.  18 ;  Eph.  3.  7 ;  Col.  1.  25, 29 ;  1  Tim.  1.  lit 

*2-  2  Tim.  1.  11. - *Jer.  31.  31;  Matt.  26.  28; 

lieb.  8.  6,  8. - 1  Rom.  2.  27,  29;  7.  6. 


m  Rom.  3.  20;  4.  15;  7.  9-11;  Gal.  3.  10.— - 

n  John  6.  &3;  Rom.  8.  2. - 1  Or,  quickeneth 

- o  Rom.  7.  10. - v  Exod.  34.  1,  28;  Deut.  10. 

1,  &c. - q  Exod.  34.  29,  30,  35. 


6.  Able — Same  word  as  sufficient, 
verse  5.  The  new  testament — Rath¬ 
er,  of  a  new  covenant.  To  the  popular 
reader  the  phrase  the  new  testament 
suggests  the  idea  of  a  book.  But  the 
meaning  is,  that  whereas  under  Moses 
there  was  what  is  now  an  old  covenant 
or  compact  between  God  and  the  J ew- 
ish  people,  so  now,  in  the  place  of  that, 
is  substituted  a  new  covenant  or  com¬ 
pact,  by  which  God,  in  consideration  of 
Christ’s  mediation,  engages  to  pardon 
and  save  all  who  place  obedient  faith 
in  Christ.  Note  on  Luke  xxii,  20. 
Thus  has  God  made  us,  the  apostles 
and  preachers  in  the  Christian  Church, 
efficient  ministers  of  a  new  covenant. 
Not  of  the  letter — Prescribing  a  com¬ 
plex  ritual,  as  recorded  in  the  Penta¬ 
teuch,  to  be  obeyed  with  a  mechanical 
precision.  But  of  the  Spirit — Which 
Spirit,  accepted  by  our  faith,  breathes 
into  our  hearts,  and  creates  in  us  a  spirit 
of  love,  emancipated  from  rituals,  and 
running  into  the  path  of  a  free  and 
joyous  obedience.  This  letter,  how¬ 
ever  once  effective  to  salvation,  now 
pertinaciously  adhered  to,  as  by  these 
Judaists,  killeth.  That  circumcision 
prescribed  by  this  letter,  which  they 
claim  as  necessary  for  our  future  Chris¬ 
tianity,  cramps  its  true  free  life,  and 
killeth  it.  And  claimed  as  necessary 
to  the  salvation  of  the  soul,  it  crowds 
out  Christ,  and  killeth  the  soul.  It 
is  emancipation  from  their  letter  into 
the  freedom  of  the  spirit  that  alone 
giveth  life. 

This  superiority  of  the  new  over 
the  old  covenant,  St.  Paul  now  (7-18) 
illustrates  with  rich  Old  Testament 
imagery,  and  with  much  power,  against 
the  factious  advocates  of  the  old. 

7.  Ministration  of  death  —  The 
law,  so  far  as  it  designates  the  old 


testament,  or  the  old  testament  sys¬ 
tem,  revealed  not  only  wrath,  but  mer¬ 
cy;  yet  it  waited  for  the  new  testa¬ 
ment  to  reveal  clearly  the  true  source 
of  that  mercy  in  the  mediation  of 
Christ.  But  law  here  signifies  the 
decalogue,  as  is  shown  by  the  words 
engraven  in  stones.  The  decalogue 
revealed  not  mercy  ;  and  to  all  sinners 
its  ministration  was  an  administration 
of  death.  Yet  though  engraven  on 
stones,  and  of  death,  it  had  its  glory. 
Was  glorious — Literally,  was  in  glory. 
So  that — Proves  the  glory  by  the  fact 
to  be  stated.  Face  of  Moses — When 
Moses  came  down  from  Mount  Sinai, 
from  communion  with  God,  his  face 
shone  so  resplendently  with  the  divine 
glory  that  the  people  could  not  gaze 
upon  it.  Exod.  xxxiv,  29-35.  Moses, 
therefore,  vailed  his  face  to  the  people 
and  un vailed  it  before  God.  Using 
this  beautiful  image  as  a  type  of  the 
glory  of  the  dispensation  of  the  law, 
Paul  draws  a  comparison  to  show  how 
much  more  truly  glorious  is  the  (apos¬ 
tolic)  ministration  of  the  gospel.  And 
it  is  to  be  specially  noted  that  it  is  from 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  points  of  the 
Mosaic  history  that  the  genius  of  Paul 
infers  the  evanescence  of  the  Mosaic 
dispensation. 

The  glory  of  the  law  dispensation 
was  not  only  of  death,  but,  as  symbol¬ 
ized  by  the  radiance  upon  Moses’s  face, 
was  transient — was  visible  to  the  eye, 
was  vailed,  and  has  left  a  vail  on  Is¬ 
rael’s  heart.  The  gospel  ministration 
is  of  the  spirit,  of  justification,  perma¬ 
nent,  open,  freedom,  unfolding  in  evo¬ 
lutions  of  glory.  To  the  Gentile  Co¬ 
rinthians,  anxious  for  freedom  from  the 
Jewish  ritual,  as  well  as  to  the  Jews 
who  sympathized  with  the  progressive 
spirit  of  Paul,  this  comparison  must 


154 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


nance;  which  glory  was  to  be  done 
away;  8  How  shall  not  rthe  min¬ 
istration  of  the  Spirit  be  rather 
glorious  ?  9  For  if  the  ministra¬ 

tion  of  condemnation  be  glory, 
much  more  doth  the  ministration 
6  of  righteousness  exceed  in  glory. 
10  For  even  that  which  was  made 
glorious  had  no  glory  in  this  re¬ 
spect,  by  reason  of  the  glory  that 

r  Gal.  3.  5. - s  Rom.  1.  17 ;  3.  21. - 1  Chap. 

7.  4 ;  Eph.  6. 19. 

have  been  very  welcome.  To  the  Ju- 
daists  it  must  have  appeared  very  pow¬ 
erful  and  very  unacceptable.  To  be 
done  away — As  figured  by  its  eva¬ 
nescence  upon  Moses’s  face. 

9.  Righteousness — The  same  word 
as  is  in  Romans  translated  justifica¬ 
tion  ;  meaning  the  pardon  of  sin  and 
the  being  construed,  through  Christ, 
as  righteous. 

10.  The  very  fact  that  the  old  min¬ 
istration  was  destined  to  be  surpassed, 
was  a  respect  or  point  in  which  it  was 
not  glorious.  Even  that— Old  minis¬ 
tration.  In  this  respect — Or  point; 
namely,  by  reason  of  a  more  excelling 
glory  to  come  to  the  new.  Its  glory 
is  shaded  in  anticipation  of  its  future 
eclipse. 

1 1.  Remaineth — And  never  will  be 
done  away,  or  give  place  to  another 
ministration.  The  permanent  is  much 
more  glorious  than  is  the  transient. 
St.  Paul  here  seems  to  predict  the  his¬ 
toric  permanence  of  the  Christian  dis¬ 
pensation  as  a  fixture  for  centuries. 
The  Mosaic  dispensation,  though  it 
had  lasted  more  than  a  thousand  years, 
was  transitory  in  comparison  with  the 
Christian  ages.  This  view  stands  in 
apparent  contradiction  of  any  assump¬ 
tion  that  the  second  advent  of  Christ 
was  at  hand. 

12.  Such  hope  —  Of  a  ministra¬ 
tion  of  excelling  and  permanent  glory. 
Plainness  of  speech— The  glory  of 
the  cause  justifies  bold  and  unambig¬ 
uous  statement  in  its  advocates.  They 
need  shrink  at  no  opposition,  nor  fear 
the  bluster  of  the  Judaists. 

13.  Vail  —  The  emblem  of  conceal¬ 
ment,  and  the  sign  of  the  mystery  of 


excelleth.  11  For  if  that  which 
is  done  away  teas  glorious,  much 
more  that  which  remaineth  is  glo¬ 
rious.  12  Seeing  then  that  we 
have  such  hope,  lwe  use  great 
2  plainness  of  speech:  13  And 
not  as  Moses,  u which  put  a  vail 
over  his  face,  that  the  children  of 
Israel  could  not  steadfastly  look 
to  vthe  end  of  that  which  is  abol- 


2  Or,  boldness. - u  Exod.  34.  33,  35. - v  Roin. 

10.  4;  Gal.  3.  23. _ 

the  old  in  contrast  with  the  transpa¬ 
rency  and  freedom  of  speech  under  the 
new.  The  new  testament  was  truly 
concealed  in  the  old  one :  Christ  was 
vailed  under  types  and  shadows ;  but 
now  he  is  revealed  in  person,  and  de¬ 
clared  with  great  plainness  of  speech. 
Could  not... look  to  the  end— By 
the  end  many  able  commentators  un¬ 
derstand  Christ,  who  is  “the  end  of  the 
law  for  righteousness.”  And  this  the 
mystic  vail,  symbolized  by  that  or. 
Moses’s  face,  so  shades  Christ  that  tht 
Jews  could  not  behold  him.  And 
see  next  verse — that  vail  still  remains, 
concealing  Christ  from  the  Jews,  wlic 
recognise  not  that  the  old  is  abol¬ 
ished,  and  that  its  end  is  Christ.  But 
the  true  view,  as  Alford,  and  Stan¬ 
ley,  and  other  late  commentators  have 
shown,  will  appear  by  a  connexion  of 
our  translation  of  Exod.  xxxiv,  33,  in 
accordance  with  the  Septuagint  and 
Vulgate,  by  a  substitution  of  when  for 
“  till.”  It  will  then  appear  that  Moses 
spoke  to  the  people  with  his  radiant 
face  un vailed,  but  vailed  his  face  when 
he  ceased  speaking,  so  as  to  conceal 
the  evanescence  and  cessation  of  the 
radiance.  “  The  vailed  prophet  of  Klio- 
rasan,”  in  Moore’s  Lalla  Rookli,  always 
kept  his  face,  which  was  really  a  hid¬ 
eous  visage,  concealed  from  the  people 
under  pretence  that  it  was  too  glorious 
for  mortal  sight.  Moses  showed  his 
face  while  radiant  with  the  glory,  and 
vailed  it  as  the  glory  ceased.  It  was, 
then,  the  cessation  of  the  radiance  which 
St.  Paul  here  calls  the  end  of  the 
abolished;  and  which  he  figures  as 
an  image  of  the  cessation  of  the  glory 
of  the  abolished  old  covenant. 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  III. 


-f  ^  ^ 

loo 


ished  :  14  But  w  their  minds  were 
blinded :  for  until  this  day  remain- 
eth  the  same  vail  untaken  away 
,n  the  reading  of  the  old  testa¬ 
ment;  which  vail  is  done  away  in 
Christ.  15  But  even  unto  this 
day,  when  Moses  is  read,  the  vail 
is  upon  their  heart.  16  Never- 

w  Isa.  6.  10;  Matt.  13.  11,  14;  John  12.  40; 
Acts  28.  26;  Rom.  11.  7,  8,  25;  chap.  4  4.- — 
x  Exod.  34.  34;  Rom.  11.  23,  26. - l/Isa.  2o.  7. 

14.  But  their  minds  were  blind¬ 
ed —  Rather,  their  perceptive  faculties 
were  calloused.  As  if  the  retina  of  their 
mind’s  eye  was  glazed,  so  as  to  blind 
their  spiritual  perceptions.  What  they 
could  not  see  was,  that  the  glory  of  the 
old  covenant  was  as  certainly  transient 
as  the  glory  on  its  founder’s  face,  being 
preparatory  for  a  higher  glory  in  a 
second  founder,  Christ.  St.  Paul  does 
not,  however,  mean  that  it  was  a  blind¬ 
ness  in  them  not  to  see  that  the  fading 
on  Moses’s  face  was  a  showing  of  the 
transitory  nature  of  the  old  covenant. 
He  does  not  mean  to  affirm  that  the 
evanescence  of  the  facial  glory  was  a 
divinely  intended  type  of  fading  Mo¬ 
saicism.  He  uses  it  simply  as  a  vivid 
illustration  furnished  by  himself.  The 
mind  of  the  Jew  in  Moses’s  day  was 
blinded  so  as  not  to  see  that  the  Mo¬ 
saic  dispensation,  in  its  whole  structure 
and  nature,  was  a  preparation  and  a 
type  to  merge  into  its  future  anti¬ 
type.  Remaineth  the  same  vail  — 
The  same  nonperception  of  the  fading 
of  the  old  covenant  imaged  by  the 
same  vail  that  concealed  the  evanes¬ 
cence  of  the  facial  radiance,  remain¬ 
eth.  The  same  vail  has  passed  from 
Moses’s  face  to  overspread  the  Jewish 
heart  in  the  reading  of  the  old  tes¬ 
tament  at  this  day.  Done  away — 
The  spiritual  ignorance  being  removed 
in  Christ. 

15.  When  Moses,  instead  of  being 
now  personally  seen,  is  read  in  his 
record,  the  vail  is  upon  their  heart  j 

so  that  they  can  neither  feel  nor  see 
that  the  glory  has  evanesced  from  the 
face  of  the  old  covenant. 

16.  Nevertheless — St.  Paul  relieves 
the  dark  view  with  a  ray  of  light. 
As  the  vail  was  once  upon  Moses,  so  it  | 


tlieless,  x  when  it  shall  turn  to  the 
Lord,  y  the  vail  shall  be  taken  away. 
17  Now  zthe  Lord  is  that  Spirit: 
and  where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
is ,  there  is  liberty.  18  But  we 
all,  with  open  face  beholding  aas 
in  a  glass  bthe  glory  of  the  Lord, 
c  are  changed  into  the  same  image 

z  Verse  6;  1  Cor.  15.  45. - a  1  Cor.  13.  12. - 

b  Chap.  4.  4,  6;  1  Tim.  1.  11. - c  Rom.  8.  29; 

1  Cor.  15.  49;  Col.  3.  10. 

is  now  on  the  Jewish  heart ;  but  as 
when  Moses  went  in  to  the  Lord  the 
vail  “was  taken  off,”  (Exod.  xxxiv,  34,) 
so  when  the  Jewish  heart  shall  turn 
to  the  Lord,  the  vail  shall  be  taken 
away. 

17.  That  Spirit — Rather,  the  Spirit. 
The  Lord  is  the  spirit ,  in  opposition  to 
the  letter,  verse  6 ;  he  giveth  life 
by  unvailing  the  letter  and  inspiring 
it  with  vivifying  power.  Liberty — 
Emancipation  from  the  killing  dominion 
of  the  letter  into  the  glorious  liberty 
of  the  sons  of  G-od. 

18.  Thus  emancipated  by  the  spirit 
of  evangelic  liberty  from  the  vail  upon 
the  heart,  (which  was  also  a  vail  upon 
the  eyes,)  we,  the  free  and  freshly  un- 
Judaized  Christians,  with  open — Or, 
more  accurately,  unvailed  faces,  behold 
the  glory  of  the  Lord.  Happier  than 
Israel,  to  whom  even  Moses  was  vailed, 
we  behold  the  glory  of  Jesus  himself 
without  a  vail.  Yet  not,  indeed,  as 
yet,  his  living  person ;  but  his  glorious 
image  in  the  gospel,  as  in  a  mirror. 
The  ancient  mirror  was  not  glass,  but 
polished  metal.  Are  changed — Are 
metamorphosed,  transformed,  translig- 
ured.  It  takes  a  degree  of  likeness  of 
nature  for  one  being  to  see  and  realize 
another.  Man  can  understand  man  as 
brute  cannot  understand  man  or  man 
brute.  We  possess  some  assimilation 
to  Jesus,  even  in  order  to  discern  him 
truly  in  the  gospel ;  and  the  more  we 
gaze  in  sympathy  upon  him  the  more 
we  cognise  him  and  become  like  him, 
which  again  increases  our  perceptive 
power,  and  thus  there  is  a  constant  in¬ 
teraction  and  progress.  Into  the  same 
image — As  Moses,  looking  upon  the 
glory  of  Jehovah,  had  his  face  irradi¬ 
ated  with  the  same  glory.  From 


156 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


from  glory  to  glory,  even  as * *  3 4  by 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord. 


CHAPTER  IY. 


THEREFORE,  seeing  we  have 
atliis  ministry,  bas  we  have  re¬ 
ceived  mercy,  we  faint  not ;  2  But 
have  renounced  the  hidden  things 


of  dishonesty,  not  walking  in  craf¬ 
tiness,  cnor  handling  the  word  of 
God  deceitfully;  but,  dby  manifes¬ 
tation  of  the  truth,  e  commending 
ourselves  to  every  man’s  conscience 
in  the  sight  of  God.  3  But  if  our 
gospel  be  hid,  fit  is  hid  to  them 
that  are  lost:  4  In  whom  sthe 


3  Or,  oj  the  Lord  the  Spirit. - a  Ch.  3. 6. - 

b  1  Cor.  7.  25;  1  Tim.  1. 13. - 1  Or.  shame ,  Rom. 

1.  16;  6.  21. - c  Chap.  2.  17;  1  Thess.  2.  3,5. 


rfChap.  6. 4, 7;  7.  H.- 
1.  18;  chap.  2.15;  2  Thess. 2. 10. 
14.  30;  16. 11;  Eph.  6. 12. 


■e  Chap.  5. 11. — f\  Cor 
-a  John  12.31* 


glory — By  sanctification  on  earth.  To 
glory — By  glorification,  conformity 
with  the  glorified  image  of  Christ,  in 
heaven.  This  is  better  than  to  read : 
From  the  causative  glory  of  the  im¬ 
age  in  the  mirror  to  the  caused  glory 
we  acquire  from  it.  By  the  Spirit  of 
the  Lord — Which  verse  6  vivifies  with 
both  sanctifying  and  glorifying  life  ; 
life  spiritual  and  life  eternal.  This  en¬ 
tire  imagery,  in  which  St.  Paul  expresses 
the  power  of  evangelic  liberty  (as  op¬ 
posed  to  the  letter  slavery  of  the  Juda- 
ists)  of  glorifying  the  believer  into  the 
glorious  image  of  Jesus,  is  eminently 
beautiful.  But  no  reader  who  would 
appreciate  its  full  richness  must  stop 
here,  (though  induced  so  to  do  by  the 
unfortunate  chapter  division,)  but  trace 
its  continuity  through  to  iv,  6. 

CHAPTER  IY. 

The  section  to  chap,  v,  6  is  the  after¬ 
part,  in  strictest  connection,  of  iii,  1-18. 
This  unfaltering  boldness  is  the  same 
as  the  plainness  of  speech  in  iii,  12, 
and  both  arise  from  the  transcendent 
glory  of  the  gospel  Paul  proclaims. 

1.  This  ministry — The  ministry  of 
ever-increasing  glory  just  described, 
shed  from  the  image  of  Christ  as  beam¬ 
ing  from  the  gospel.  Faint  not — We 
falter  not  from  timidity  before  the 
sons  of  the  letter,  the  Corinthian 
Jew-Christians,  upon  whose  heart  still 
rests  the  vail. 

2.  Hidden  things  of  dishonesty 
— Dishonesty  is  here  the  old  English 
word  for  dishonour  or  shame ;  and  this 
whole  phrase  means  concealed  deeds 
qf  shame.  It  refers  not  to  obscene 
practices,  but  either  to  secret  parti¬ 
san  managements  imputed  to  Paul,  or, 
more  probably,  to  the  methods  by 


which  the  Jerusalem  party  obtained 
a  foothold  in  the  Corinthian  Church. 
Paul’s  unvailed  gospel  is  too  open  and 
above-board  for  such  secrecies.  Craf¬ 
tiness —  Unscrupulousness ;  the  con¬ 
duct  of  a  party  capable  of  any  thing  and 
of  every  thing.  Handling  the  word 

.  ..deceitfully  —  The  same  as  ii,  17, 
corrupting  the  word  of  God ,  that  is, 
adulterating  it  with  that  obsolete  Ju¬ 
daism  which  belittled  Christ.  Mani¬ 
festation — Not  only  taking  off  the  vail, 
but  showing  in  clear,  strong  light  the 
truth.  Every  man’s  conscience — 
Literally,  every  conscience  of  men;  the 
universal  human  conscience. 

3.  Hid — It  is  a  marked  defect  that 
our  translators  failed  to  preserve  the  ex¬ 
act  sense  of  this  word,  which  is  vailed, 
and  so  have  lost  the  connexion  for  the 
English  reader.  Paul’s  whole  stress 
has  been,  (iii,  7-18,)  that  while  the  old 
covenant  to  which  the  Judaists  hung 
so  pertinaciously  was  a  vailed  one,  and 
a  vail  is  on  the  Jews’  heart  in  reading 
it,  our  gospel  is  an  unvailed  outbeam- 
ing  of  the  truth  and  of  the  glorious 
face  of  Jesus  the  Messiah.  But,  he 
now  says,  if  our  gospel  is  vailed ,  it  is 
vailed  to  the  intrinsically  blinded.  It 
is  a  vail  created  by  the  glaze  or  scales 
on  their  own  retinas.  To  them  that 
are  lost — Literally,  to  them  that  are 
being  lost:  or,  who  are  perishing.  The 
participle  is  present,  and  would  include 
present  as  well  as  future  perdition. 
But  we  believe  the  truer  rendering  to 
be,  If  our  gospel  is  vailed,  it  is  vailed 
by  those  perishing  things  with  which 
the  god  of  this  world  blinded  the  eyes 
of  the  unbelieving. 

4.  Blinded  is  aoristic,  and  would 
seem  to  refer  specially  to  the  time 
when  Jesus  was  personally  visible  1/ 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


157 


cod  of  this  world  hhatli  blinded 
Ike  minds  of  them  which  believe 
not,  lest  1 * * * 5 6  the  light  of  the  glorious 
gospel  of  Christ,  kwho  is  the  im¬ 
age  of  God,  should  shine  unto 


/.  jcu  d  in-  John  12.  40;  chap.  3. 14. - ^Chap. 

l  8,  ion— John  1. 18;  12.45;  Phil.  2,  6;  Col. 


them.  5  1  For  we  preach  not  our¬ 
selves,  but  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord; 
and  m  ourselves  your  servants  for 
Jesus’  sake.  6  For  God,  "who 
commanded  the  light  to  shine  out 


1.  15;  Heb.  1.  3. - 1 1  Cor.  1.  13,  23;  10.  33. - • 

m  1  Cor.  9.  19;  chap.  1.  24. - n  Pen.  1.  3. 


men  on  earth.  The  perishing  things 
would,  in  the  specific  case  of  the  Ju- 
daists,  be  the  Mosaic  ritual  and  tradi¬ 
tions,  through  adhering  to  which  Christ 
is  either  rejected  or  reduced  to  mere 
humanity.  The  same  process,  how¬ 
ever,  of  blindness  from  the  god  of  this 
world,  is  constantly  recurring  from 
perishing  mundane  things  of  every 
kind.  God  of  this  world— It  is 
hardly  wonderful  that  the  Marcionites, 
or  ultra- Paulines,  who  rejected  not  on¬ 
ly  the  ritual  and  circumcision  of  the 
Old  Testament,  but  even  its  Jehovah 
as  an  evil  deity,  quoted  this  as  a  chief 
proof-text.  The  ablest  of  the  patris- 
tical  commentators,  Tertullian,  Augus¬ 
tine,  Chrysostom,  and  others,  refuted 
them,  as  Alford  remarks,  by  a  violation 
of  grammar,  referring  god  to  the  true 
God,  and  translating  unbelievers  of  this 
world.  The  process  by  which  the  god 
of  this  world  blinds  men  is  described 
by  Jesus  in  John  v,  44.  Them  which 
believe  not  —  This  blinding  is  not 
the  antecedent  but  the  consequent  of 
their  free  unbelief.  Evidence  was  at 
first  ample ;  faith  was  in  their  full 
power ;  the  rejection  of  Christ  was 
free  and  voluntary,  and  the  yielding  to 
the  blinding  sway  of  the  god  of  this 
world  which  followed  was  a  self -sur¬ 
render  to  falsehood  and  wickedness  of 
the  most  guilty  kind.  This  was  the 
exact  history  of  the  Jewish  rejection 
of  Christ  as  recorded  in  the  gospels. 
At  first  the  Jews  paused  and  deliber¬ 
ated  ;  they  then  rejected ;  and  then, 
to  them,  blinded  by  the  god  of  this 
world,  the  gospel  was  vailed,  and 
they  were  given  over  to  crucify  Him 
whom  they  had  rejected.  The  phrase 
god  of  this  world  was  not,  perhaps, 
unknown  in  Jewish  literature.  01- 
shausen  quotes  from  Schoettgen  the 
words  of  Jalkut  Ruberic:  “God  the 
first  is  God  the  living,  god  the  second 
Is  Sammael.”  In  John’s  gospel  Satan 


is  thrice  called  “  Prince  of  this  world,” 
xii,  31;  xiv,  30;  xvi,  11.  World,  in 
John,  is  Kdapog  —  the  space  world;  m 
the  present  text  it  is  anvv,  or  time- 
world  ;  the  dispensation  extending  to 
the  second  advent.  Lest—  The  error 
of  the  Jews,  and  of  Pauls  Judaistic- 
Christian  opponents,  was  the  ignoring 
the  divine  in  Christ ;  the  former  utter¬ 
ly  rejecting  him  as  an  impostor,  the 
latter  accepting  him  as  a  mere  human 
continuator  of  Mosaicism.  .  St.  Paul 
now  shows  them  what  a  divinity  they 
rejected.  The  light. .  .Christ  Lit¬ 
erally,  the  illumination  of  the  gospel  of 
the  glory  of  Christ.  Compare  note  on 
iii,  18.  The  god  of  this  world,  blind¬ 
ing  their  eyes,  shuts  out  the  incoming 
rays  from  the  gospel,  or  glad  news  of 
Christ’s  glory.  How  great  that  glory 
is,  St.  Paul  now  declares.  Image.  . . 
God — As  our  bodily  eyes  behold  the 
image  of  the  firmament,  with  the  sun 
or,  perhaps,  the  stars,  reflected  in  the 
clear  surface  of  a  placid  lake,  so  does 
the  image  of  God,  viz.,  Christ,  disclose 
itself  in  the  gospel.  From  that  image 
pours  a  light  of  glory  ;  but  upon  these 
seared  eyes  in  vain.  The  god  of  this 

world  has  glazed  their  retinas,  and  that 
glaze  is  a  vail  upon  the  gospel.  To  the 

eye  of  a  hardened  unbelief,  the  true 

Christ  is  invisible. 

5.  Preach  not  ourselves — Literal¬ 
ly,  Proclaim  not  ourselves.  The  pro¬ 
fessed  party  of  Christ  might,  in  fact, 
think  so  little  of  Christ  as  to  have  am¬ 
ple  room  for  proclaiming  themselves; 
but  Paul’s  ideal  of  Christ  left  no  room 
for  any  rival  or  substitute.  Christ  is 
the  Lord,  and  we  are  servants.  For 
Jesus’  sake — On  his  account,  and  in 
order  to  the  extension  of  his  gospel. 

6.  For — To  assign  the  reason  why 
we  are  ready  thus  to  humble  our¬ 
selves,  God  has  wrought  in  our 
hearts  an  illumination  as  wonderful  as 
his  first  speaking  mundane  light  into 


158 


If.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


of  darkness,  £hath  0  shined  in  our 
hearts,  to  give  Pthe  light  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in 
the  face  of  Jesus  Christ. 

7  But  we  have  this  treasure  in 
9  earthen  vessels,  r  that  the  excel- 
lencv  of  the  power  may  be  of  God, 
and  not  of  us.  8  We  are  8troub 
led.  on  every  side,  yet  not  cl  is 
tressed ;  we  are  perplexed,  but  3  not 
in  despair;  9  Persecuted,  but  not 

2  Greek,  is  he  who  hath. - o  2  Pet.  1.  19.- 

I  Verse  4;  1  Pet.  2.  9. - q  Chap.  5. 1.— — r  1  Cor. 

2.  5;  chap.  12.  9. - sChap.  7.  5. - 3  Or,  not  al¬ 

together  without  help ,  or,  means. 


forsaken;  ‘cast  down,  but  not  de¬ 
stroyed;  10  u  Always  bearing 
about  in  the  body  the  dying  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  '  that  the  life  also 
of  Jesus  might  be  made  manifest 
in  our  body.  11  For  we  which 
live  w  are  always  delivered  unto 
death  for  Jesus’  sake,  that  the  life 
also  of  Jesus  might  be  made  man¬ 
ifest  in  our  mortal  flesh.  12  So 
then  x  death  worketh  in  us,  but  life 

t  Psa.  37.  24. - u  1  Cor.  15.  31 ;  chap.  1.  5,  9 ; 

Gal.  6.  17;  Phil.  3.  10. - rRom.  8.  1/;  2  lim. 

2.  11;  1  Pet.  4.  13. - a?Psa.  44.  22;  Rom.  8.  o«>; 

1  Cor.  15.  31. - ccChap.  13.  9. 


existence.  Out  of  darkness,  such  as 
was  once  in  our  hearts.  An  allusion 
to  Gen.  i,  3.  Shined.  .  .God— Liter¬ 
ally,  God  hath  shined  into  our  heart  even 
to  a  radiation  ( into  our  hearts)  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God.  And  that 
radiation  into  our  hearts  of  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  glory  of  God  comes  from 
the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  image 
of  God,  appearing  in  the  gospel. 

2.  Antithesis  of  apostolic  trials 
and  triumphs  resulting  in  glory, 
iv,  7-v,  5. 

In  the  divine  glow  of  martyrly  enthu 
siasm  of  this  passage— a  passage  which 
doubtless  did  much  towards  rousing  the 
Christian  heroism  of  the  martyr  age— 
Paul  draws,  in  a  series  of  antitheses, 
the  sublime  contrast  between  the  more 
than  golden  treasure  and  the  earthen 
vessels  in  which  it  was  contained— 
a  contrast  meeting  in  contact  in  his 
own  person.  By  the  glorifying  power 
of  the  treasure  the  vessel  could  bear 
unbroken  all  the  raps  the  world  could 
administer.  The  striking  sentiment  of 
White  field  runs  through  the  whole,  that 
“a  minister  is  immortal  until  his  work 
is  done ;”  and  then,  it  may  be  added,  he 
is  doubly  immortal.  Paul  views  his  pres¬ 
ervation  as  essentially  a  sort  of  bodily 
immortalization.  The  life,  life  of  Je¬ 
sus,  which  conserves  and  immortalizes 
his  present  body  amid  daily  deaths,  is 
the  same  divine  vitality  as  will  produce 
his  resurrection  and  glorification ;  and 
his  own  very  suffering  and  death  are 
transfigured  into  a  oneness  with  the 
divine  martyrdom  of  Jesus,  the  dying 
of  the  Lord. 


Through  the  whole  lofty  passage  the 
Corinthian  opponents  entirely  sink  from 
view;’  and  do  not  reappear  until  x,  1. 

7.  Treasure. .  .vessels — The  divine 
gold  gives  even  now  its  own  lustre 
and  imperishability  to  the  brittle  clay. 
Excellency  of  the  power. .  .of  God 
— The  fragility  of  the  clay  proves  that 
it  is  divinized.  Its  natural  weakness 
proves  that  it  survives  by  God’s  power. 

8,  9.  We  are  troubled  —  Tightly 
pressed.  Yet  not  distressed  —  Not 
crushed  together.  Perplexed — Du¬ 
bious,  but  not  desperate.  Persecuted 
— Pursued,  (as  by  a  huntsman,)  but  not 
by  God  abandoned  to  his  power.  Cast 
down — Prostrated,  but  not  destroyed. 

10.  Always  bearing  a  virtual  mar¬ 
tyrdom  in  the  body ;  which  martyr¬ 
dom  is  truly  one  with  the  dying  of 
the  Lord;  that  the  death-defying 
life  of  Jesus  might  be  made  manifest. 

11.  For  —  Explanatory  of  the  last 
verse.  Wb,  apostles,  which  live,  are 
daily  martyred  in  possibility,  that  the 
divine  conserving  life  of,  or  from,  Je¬ 
sus,  may  appear  by  our  very  immortal¬ 
ized  mortality. 

12.  So  then— Thus  far  both  sides  of 
the  antithesis  have  united  in  the  apos¬ 
tles.  In  this  verse  they  are  divided  be¬ 
tween  the  apostles  and  the  Corinthians. 
The  death  side  is  effective  to  magnify¬ 
ing  God’s  power  in  us,  but  the  life  side, 
alone  in  you.  The  life  in  you  is  mani¬ 
fested  not  by  supernatural  conservation 
amid  martyrdoms,  for  those  you  do  not 
encounter ;  but  as  vitalizing  you^  even 
now  with  a  resurrection  life  from  Christ. 
See  verse  14. 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  IY. 


159 


in  you.  13  We  having  ^the  same 
spirit  of  faith,  according  as  it  is 
written,  ZI  believed,  and  therefore 
have  I  spoken;  we  also  believe, 
and  therefore  speak;  14  Know¬ 
ing  that  ahe  which  raised  up  the 
Lord  Jesus  shall  raise  up  us  also 
by  Jesus,  and  shall  present  vs  with 
you.  15  For  ball  things  are  for 
your  sakes,  that  ctlie  abundant 


V  Rom.  1.  12;  2  Pet.  1.  1. — -sPsa.  116.  10  - 

a  Horn.  8.  11 ;  1  Cor.  6. 14. - b  1  Cor.  3.  21 ;  chap. 

1.  6;  Col.  1.  24;  2  Tim.  2.  10. _ 


grace  might  through  the  thanks¬ 
giving  of  many  redound  to  the 
glory  of  God.  16  For  which 
cause  we  faint  not;  but  though 
our  outward  man  perish,  yet  d  the 
inward  man  is  renewed  day  by 
day.  17  For  eour  light  affliction, 
which  is  but  for  a  moment,  work- 
eth  for  us  a  far  more  exceed¬ 
ing  and  eternal  weight  of  glory ; 

cChap.  1.  11;  8.  19;  9.  11,  12. - d  Rom.  7.  22; 

Eph.  3.  16 ;  Col.  3. 10 ;  1  Pet.  3.  4. - e  Matt.  5. 12 ; 

Rom.  8.  18;  1  Peter  1.  6;  5.  10. 


13.  We— Apostles.  The  same... 
faith — As  the  psalmist  who  wrote  the 
quoted  words.  Spirit  of  faith — Not 
merely  temper  of  faith,  but  the  divine 
Spirit  with  our  spirit  inspiring  assur¬ 
ance,  at  the  same  time  attesting  itself. 

I  believed  .  .  .  spoken — Essentially 
quoted  from  Psa.  cxvi,  10,  where  the 
exact  Hebrew  is,  “I  believe,  for  I 
spoke:”  the  connexion  between  speak¬ 
ing  and  faith  is  in  both  psalmist  and 
apostle  the  same.  Firm  faith  is  in¬ 
stinctively  vocal;  it  seeks  to  express 
the  great  truth  it  realizes — to  create 
the  same  blessed  realization  in  others. 
We  also  inherit  the  inspired  faith  and 
readiness  for  the  same  giving  of  our 
testimony  as  the  saints  of  the  Old 
Testament. 

1 4.  Raised  up — The  same  reasoning 
as  in  chap,  xv,  that  the  resurrection  of 
Christ  is  the  basis  and  assurance  of  ours. 
The  spirit  of  faith,  of  the  last  verse, 
is  a  knowing,  in  this.  Raise  up  us 
also... with  you — A  decisive  proof 
that  St.  Paul  did  not  expect  the  second 
advent  before  his  own  death.  On  the 
contrary,  he  expected  that  both  him¬ 
self  and  the  Corinthians  would  pass 
through  death  and  the  resurrection. 

15.  With  you,  I  say,  (see  last  verse,) 
for  all  things  in  the  glorious  provi¬ 
sions  made  through  Christ’s  death, 
and  insured  by  his  resurrection,  are 
not  only  for  us  apostles,  but  also  for 
your  sakes.  A  divine  reason  is  now 
given  why  these  provisions  are  not 
limited  to  apostles,  but  flow  over  to 
embrace  the  whole  Church:  namely, 
in  order  that  (literally)  the  abounding 
grace  may,  through  the  thanksgiv¬ 
ing  of  a  greater  number,  redound  to 


God’s  glory.  The  greater  the  number 
saved  the  more  immense  the  gratitude, 
and,  in  climax,  the  more  superabound- 
ing  the  glory  thence  accruing. 

16.  For  which  cause — From  this 
embracement  of  you  all  in  the  glories 
of  Christ’s  resurrection.  Faint  not — 
Falter  not  (note  verse  1)  through  fear, 
despondency,  or  endurance  of  hardship 
and  wear-out.  But  the  reverse,  though 
our  outward,  bodily,  man  perish,  by 
hardship  and  wear-out,  the  inward, 
spirit,  is  renewed,  so  as  to  administer 
a  refreshment  and  indestructibility  for 
the  time  being  to  an  earthly  vessel. 
Day  by  day — Each  day  has  its  waste 
and  repair.  Nevertheless  the  renewal 
does  not  fully  replace  the  waste,  for 
the  earthly  is  slowly  or  rapidly  tran¬ 
sitory.  The  machine  will  run  down  or 
be  violently  struck  down.  Still,  as  the 
cessation  is  in  the  outward  man,  and 
the  renewal  is  in  the  inward,  the  foun¬ 
tain  of  energy  will  empower  the  in¬ 
ward  to  survive  the  wreck  of  the 
outward. 

17.  For  our  light  affliction — Lit¬ 
erally,  the  immediate  lightness  of  our 
affliction.  Worketh  —  The  contin¬ 
uous  present  is  working.  This  very 
affliction,  while  wasting,  is,  through 
the  power  of  Christ,  working  out  a  di¬ 
vine  result.  The  wonderful  result  is  a 
weight  of  glory ;  a  glory  so  massive, 
so  solid,  that  it  is  a  weight.  The 
darkness  of  Egypt  was  so  dense  that 
it  could  be  “felt.”  The  celestial  glory 
is  so  dense  that  it  can  be  weighed. 
This  weight  of  glory  is  not  a  tran¬ 
sient  radiance,  but  outlasts  the  sun ; 
is  eternal.  It  never  grows  any  light¬ 
er  or  thinner.  And  as  to  amount,  the 


160 


II.  CORTNTIIIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


18  'While  we  look  not  at  the  I  the  things  which  are  seen  are  tem- 
things  which  are  seen,  but  at  the  poral;  but  the  things  which  are 
things  which  are  not  seen:  e for  not  seen  are  eternal. 

/Rom.8.24;  chap.5.7;  Heb.11.1. - j7Matt.25.46;  Luke  16.  25,  26  ;  2Thess.  2. 16;  I  John  2. 16,17,2-5. 


apostle  troubles  the  energies  of  the 
Greek  language  to  express  it.  It  is 
vneppoXyv  dg  vneppolyv,  if  any 
body  knows  what  that  is.  Good 
scholars  view  this  as  a  Hebraism,  ac¬ 
cording  to  which  intensity  is  expressed 
by  repetition  of  the  same  word,  as  if 
it  were  aboundingly  abounding.  So 
verse  16,  day  by  day,  is  in  St.  Paul’s 
Hebraized  Greek,  day  day.  So  Theo- 
phylact,  quoted  in  Bloomfield’s  “Recen- 
sio  Svnoptica,”  renders  it  vxepQoXiKCjg 
vneppoTanbv,  surpassingly  surpassing. 
But  we  cannot  help  suspecting,  though 
we  find  no  suggestion  of  the  kind  in 
our  commentators,  that  the  idea  of  pro¬ 
gression  is  expressed  in  the  preposi¬ 
tion,  upon  an  abounding  to  an  abound¬ 
ing  :  taking  stand  upon  one  abound¬ 
ing  and  mounting  up  to  another.  W  e 
might  then  freely  render  it,  “  is  work¬ 
ing  out  an  abounding  upon  abounding 
eternal  weight  of  glory.”  The  abound¬ 
ing  does  not  qualify  the  verb,  (as  Mey¬ 
er  and  Alford,)  but  it  qualifies  eternal 
weight,  which  is  a  unit  which,  so  far 
from  diminishing,  is  ever  more  and 
more  increasing  and  over-swelling.  It 
is  ever  abounding  and  superabounding 
The  phrase,  then,  if  we  view  it  cor¬ 
rectly,  suggests  the  idea  of  eternal  pro¬ 
gression  in  glory. 

18.  Look  —  The  expressive  Greek 
word  signifies  to  look  at  a  mark ,  to  fix  our 
gaze  upon  a  definite  object  or  prospect. 
Seen,  by  the  bodily  eye,  the  eye  of  the 
outward,  (ver.  16,)  and  which  can  see 
only  the  outward.  Not  seen  —  Me 
must  see  the  unseen  if  we  would  see 
the  true  and  the  real.  Our  eyes  arc 
material,  and  can  see  only  material 
things.  Seen — Are  visible.  Tempo¬ 
ral — An  expressive  Greek  word  again, 
for  a  season ,  season-lasting.  The  visi¬ 
bles  are  temporaries :  the  invisibles 
— the  great  unseen,  the  stupendous 
frame-works,  beheld  only  by  the  eye 
of  the  inward,  (ver.  16,)  are  eternal, 
ceonic ,  belonging  to  the  aeons ,  cycles, 
ages,  time-worlds,  of  the  invisible.  As 


opposed  to  the  temporal,  which  is 
limited,  they  are  unlimited.  Revela¬ 
tion  contemplates  the  settlements  of 
the  judgment  day  as  finalities;  and  if 
the  rolling  ceo'ns  make  any  change, 
revelation  knows,  certainly  says ,  noth¬ 
ing  about  them.  See  on  Matt,  xxv,  46. 

It  is  deeply  true  that  our  eyes  can 
see  nothing  but  the  changing.  And 
science  states  this  fact  more  intensely 
than  popular  observation.  Astronomy 
beholds  the  visible  universe  as  ever 
moving  with  amazing  rapidity.  The 
laws  by  which  these  changes  work  are, 
indeed,  held  by  science  to  be  immuta¬ 
ble;  but  no  eye,  no  telescope,  can  see 
these  laws;  they  are  inward,  and  be¬ 
held  only  by  the  eye  of  the  inward. 
And  bv  the  eye  of  the  inward  i.t  is 
seen  that  the  universal  outward  is 
completely  ruled  by  the  inward.  But 
as  laws  are  nothing  in  themselves,  ex¬ 
cept  by  the  force  that  moves  things  in 
accordance  with  laws ,  so  the  inward 
eye  perceives  that  force,  in  order  to 
act  harmoniously  in  accordance  with 
rational  law,  must  spring  from  an  in¬ 
finitely  rational  Source,  which,  as  the 
primal  spring  of  all  force,  must  be  Al¬ 
mighty.  Thus  most  truly  does .  our 
philosopher-apostle  declare  that  it  is 
the  seen  which  is  transient,  and  the 
not  seen  which  is  permanent  —  nay, 
eternal. 

Blessed  are  they  whose  spiritual  in¬ 
ward  can  see  that  the  world  unvailed 
by  revelation  is  included  in  the  real 
and  the  eternal ;  and  that  the  blessed 
eternal  is  theirs.  So  far  as  the  spirit 
of  faith  animates  them,  they  realize 
that  our  bodily  frames  may  safely  and 
cheerfully  be  allowed  to  dissolve  in 
earnest  duty  under  the  eye  of  the  Mas¬ 
ter.  Whether  our  outward  shall  dis¬ 
appear  by  decay  or  death,  a  serene  hope 
unfolds  an  unfading  future  before  the 
eye  of  the  soul.  That  future,  from 
the  standpoint  of  a  frail  present,  the 
apostle  is  now  about  to  contemplate  in 
the  next  chapter 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  V. 


161 


CHAPTER  Y. 

OR  we  know  that  if  aour  earth¬ 
ly  house  of  this  tabernacle  were 
dissolved,  we  have  a  building  of 

a  Job  4.  19;  chap.  4.  7;  2  Pet.  1. 13, 14. 

CHAPTER  Y. 

1.  For — In  accordance  with  the  glo¬ 
rious  truths  stated  iv,  17,  18.  Know 
• — The  spirit  of  faith,  iv,  13,  is  again 
(as  in  iv,  14)  a  know.  We  say  know 
of  very  different  degrees  of  certainty. 
Most  men  think  that  seeing-  -for  in¬ 
stance,  a  material  object,  a  marble  pil¬ 
lar,  or  an  iron  statue — is  the  strong¬ 
est  possible  knowing.  But  the  unseen 
laws  of  nature,  as  every  philosopher 
understands,  are  objects  of  as  certain 
knowing  as  any  lump  of  matter  what¬ 
ever.  Earthly  house — What  in  chap, 
iv,  7  was  earthly  vessel ,  is  now  earthly 
house.  It  is  an  ancient  and  beautiful 
conception  that  our  body  is  a  house, 
and  the  soul  is  its  resident.  This  con¬ 
ception  is  so  universal,  and  so  conso¬ 
nant  with  the  feeling  of  our  conscious¬ 
ness,  that  materialism  is  rejected  by 
the  best  impulses  of  our  nature.  House 
of. .  .tabernacle  —  The  this  supplied 
by  the  translators  may  be  omitted,  and 
the  phrase  then  would  be  equivalent  to 
a  house  of  tabernacle ,  a  tabernacle  resi¬ 
dence.  Paul’s  expectation  was,  that  the 
new  body  would  be,  in  glory,  very  much 
what  the  temple  was  to  the  old  taber- 
aacle.  Dissolved  —  Gone  to  pieces. 
We  have  —  Not  (as  Meyer,  Alford, 
Stanley,  and  others)  we  will  have  at 
death,  but  we  now  have  in  reversion, 
to  be  received  at  the  resurrection.  So, 
in  2  Tim.  iv,  8,  St.  Paul  says,  “  There  is 
laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of  righteous¬ 
ness,  which  the  Lord,  the  righteous 
judge,  shall  give  me  at  that  day.” 
The  new  house,  like  the  crown,  he 
has  now  in  heaven ;  not  that  he  be¬ 
lieves  that  his  resurrection  body  now 
literally  exists  in  heaven,  any  more 
than  he  believed  that  there  was  a 
physical  crown  for  him  in  heaven. 
Both  crown  and  house  are  merely 
conceptional  images.  The  house  in 
heaven  is  the  over- vestment  of  immor¬ 
tality,  the  glorifying  formative  power. 
or  mould,  which  is  to  model  the  resur- 
VoL.  IV.— 11 


God,  a  house  not  made  with  hands, 
eternal  in  the  heavens.  2  For  in 
this  bwe  groan,  earnestly  desiring 
to  be  clothed  upon  with  our  house 

b  Rom.  8.  23. 


rection  body  to  the  image  of  Christ, 
who  is  the  image  of  God,  just  as  the 
“crown”  is  the  glory  of  the  glorified. 
A  house  —  A  more  dignified  Greek 
word  than  that  for  house  in  ver.  1 — an 
edifice.  Not. .  .with  hands — It  is,  in¬ 
deed,  true,  that  our  first  bodies  are  also 
formed  without  hands,  but  Paul  speaks 
not  in  comparison  with  former  bodies, 
but  with  other  edifices,  which  are  hand- 
built.  Eternal  —  Note  iv,  18.  In 
the  heavens  —  Opposed  to  earthly 
in  ver.  1.  It  may  mean  that  the  con¬ 
ceptual  edifice  is  now  in  heaven,  or 
will  be  after  resurrection.  We  prefer 
the  latter  meaning  from  the  position 
of  the  clause  after  eternal. 

2.  In  this — Tabernacle ;  that  is,  hut 
or  cottage.  Desiring  to  be  clothed 

— Wishing  to  be  rid  of  the  corruption 
of  our  bodies,  and  to  be  clothed,  to  be 
overclad,  with  immortality.  The  Greek 
verb  for  clothed  has  a  double  preposi¬ 
tion,  superinvestured.  The  soul  in  the 
resurrection  is  clothed  with  a  body, 
which  body  is  over-clothed  with  the  in¬ 
vestiture  of  immortality  from  above. 
The  transition  of  figure  from  building 
to  clothing  is  very  easy,  for  our  clothes 
are  but  a  tighter  house:  one  is  a  habit , 
and  the  other  a  habitation.  There  is  no 
reference  here  to  an  intermediate  dis¬ 
embodied  state ;  not  because  Paul  did 
not  believe  in  one,  but  because,  view¬ 
ing  the  resurrection  to  be  the  true  ulti¬ 
mate  of  hope,  he  overleaps  in  thought 
and  wish  all  that  lies  between  him  and 
it.  Our  house . . .  from  heaven — Not, 
as  above  remarked,  that  St.  Paul  really 
supposed  his  resurrection  body  would 
come  from  heaven,  but  that  the  gift 
or  over- vestment  of  immortality  would. 
So  in  Matt,  xxl,  25  it  is  asked,  “Tlio 
baptism  of  John,  whence  was  it?  from 
heaven,  or  of  men  ?  ”  So  John  iii,  27, 
“  Except  it  be  given  him  from  heaven ,” 
that  is,  from  God.  Bloomfield  quotes 
Theopliylact  as  saying,  “Not  that  the 
body  descends  from  heaven,  but  that 


162 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.D.  58. 


which  is  from  heaven:  3  If  so  be 
that c  being  clothed  we  shall  not  be 
found  naked.  4  For  we  that  are 
in  this  tabernacle  do  groan,  being 
burdened :  not  for  that  we  would 
be  unclothed,  but  d  clothed  upon, 
that  mortality  might  be  swallowed 

cRev.  3. 18;  16. 15. - d  1  Cor  15.  53  ,  54. 

e  Isa.  29.  23 ;  Eph.  2.  10. 


up  of  life.  5  Now  ehe  that  hath 
wrought  us  for  the  selfsame  thing 
is  God,  who  also  f  hath  given  unto 
us  the  earnest  of  the  Spirit. 

0  Therefore  we  are  always  con¬ 
fident,  knowing  that,  whilst  we 
are  at  home  in  the  body,  we  are  al>- 


/'Romans  8.  23 ;  chapter  1.  22 :  Ephesians 
1.  14 ;  4.  30. 


we  have  thence  ttjv  ti)q  utydapmug  x<LPLVi 
the  gift  of  immortality.” 

3.  If  so  be  — By  the  best  reading, 
since  it  will  be,  the  apostle  expresses 
no  doubt.  Clothed ..  .not.  .  .naked 
—  Commentators  who,  like  Meyer,  Al¬ 
ford,  and  Stanley,  are  haunted  with  the 
phantasm  of  Paul’s  expectation  of  an 
immediate  advent,  make  sad  work  here. 
St.  Paul,  say  they,  here  expresses  the 
hope  that  he  may  not  die,  and  so  be 
found  naked,  disembodied  spirit ;  but 
may  live  until  the  resurrection  change 
of  1  Cor.  xv.  He  did,  no  doubt,  pre¬ 
fer  the  resurrection  state  to  the  disem¬ 
bodied,  for  he  held  it  to  be  that,  con¬ 
summation  of  glory  which  the  inter¬ 
mediate  state  delays.  That  delay, 
though  a  higher  glory  than  belongs  to 
earth,  is  inferior  to  the  final  glory.  .  It 
is  imparadised,  but  not  heavenly,  bliss. 
It  is  a  state  of  disorganization,  pro¬ 
duced  by  sin,  and  under  the  shadow  of 
death  waiting  for  that  day  to  which 
St.  Paul’s  wish  darts  at  once,  when 
mortality  shall  be  swallowed  up  of 
life,  ver.  4.  The  disembodied  spirit  is 
as  unprepared  to  enter  the  liea\  enly 
mansions  beyond  the  resurrection  as 
an  undressed  person  to  enter  a  parlour. 

4.  Do  groan — Not  only  from  the 
pressure  of  our  mortal  burden,  but  also 
for  the  future  consummation.  Not 
qualifies  would.  For  that — Because 
that.  Be  unclothed—^Rather,  to  un¬ 
clothe  ourselves,  to  put  off  our  raiment. 
But  clothed— But  to  superinvest  our¬ 
selves.  The  middle  voice  of  the  Greek 
verb  makes  the  act  of  clothing  and  un¬ 
clothing  our  own.  We  groan  because 
we  do  not  wish  to  divest  ourselves, 
but  to  superinvest  ourselves.  He  did 
not  wish  to  be  divested  of  even  a  frail 
body,  but  to  be  overclad  with  immor¬ 
tality  and  renewal  upon  it.  Death  and 


naked  spiritual  being  are  not  in  them¬ 
selves  desirable,  especially  in  compar¬ 
ison  with  the  final  life ;  yet  the  bliss 
that  makes  the  condition  they  bring 
more  desirable  than  this  corrupt  state, 
he  will  soon  show.  Yers.  6-9.  Mor¬ 
tality — The  mortal  element  or  quality, 
of  our  body.  Swallowed  up— For¬ 
ever  lost  in  life;  the  comprehensive 
term  for  all  that  is  blessed  in  man’s 
highest  destiny.  See  on  1  Cor.  xv,  33. 

5.  Wrought  us  — By  constituting 
our  nature,  and  by  all  the  provisions 
of  grace,  nreparing  us.  For  the  self¬ 
same  thing  — The  glorious  resurrec¬ 
tion.  Is  God  —  Repeatedly  does  our 
apostle,  in  dealing  with  his  Gentile 
Corinthians,  who  but  lately  were  wor- . 
shipping  “dumb  idols,”  trace  Clnis- 
tianity  up  to  the  one  sole  Supreme. 
Earnest — Note  on  chap,  i,  22.  Spirit 

_ Proof  that  God  alone  is  author  of 

this  grace,  since  he  has  given  his  Spirit 

within  us  to  attest  it. 

3.  Resulting  apostolic  clearness 
and  confidence  before  Christ  and 

before  men,  6-13. 

6.  Therefore  —  Inasmuch  as  from 
God’s  pledge  in  our  hearts  that  we  are 
by  him  destined  for  the  resurrection 
glqry.  "\A7" e  are  alw^ays  confident 
—  That  is,  cheerful  and  courageous, 
although  a  disembodied  state  will  in¬ 
tervene.  Knowing — That  this  inter¬ 
mediate  state,  being  with  Christ,  is  su¬ 
perior  to  our  present  bodilv  state,  and 
is,  in  the  broader  sense  of  the  word, 
heaven.  At  home— The  image  of  the 
house  still  retained.  Absent — Abroad. 
So  that  he  has  a  double  home,  a  bodily 
and  a  spiritual,  the  latter  being  the  pref¬ 
erable,  because  being  in  the  presence 

of  the  Lord.  .  . 

Yet  for  our  disembodied  spirit  this 
presence  of  the  Lord  is  less  com- 


A.  I).  58. 


CHAPTER  Y. 


163 


6ent  from  the  Lord:  7  For  £we 
walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight:  8  We 
are  confident,  I  say ,  and  h  willing 
"atlier  to  be  absent  from  the  body, 
and  to  be  present  with  the  Lord. 

g  Rom.  8.  24,  25;  1  Cor  18. 12 ;  chap  4. 18 ;  Heb. 
11.  1. - h  Phil.  1.  23. - 1  Or,  endeavour. 

plete  than  in  our  resurrection  state. 
While  we  live  on  earth,  vailed  by  the 
body,  although  Christ  is  “  with  ”  us 
perpetually,  (Matt,  xxviii,  20,)  behold¬ 
ing  us  with  perfect  sight,  yet  we  are 
scarce  “with”  him,  as  we  see  him  not, 
except  figuratively,  with  the  eye  of 
faith,  and  with  conception  rather  than 
with  perception.  When  this  vail  of 
flesh  is  by  death  removed,  our  spirits 
are  “with  Christ,”  (Phil,  i,  23 ;)  we  lit¬ 
erally  behold  him  with  true  percep¬ 
tion;  yet  we  behold  him  pneumati¬ 
cally  or  spiritually;  that  is,  as  spirit 
sees  spirit,  rather  than  corporeally ;  and 
to  the  spirit’s  eye  distance  in  space  may 
be  no  obstacle.  For  the  glorified  body 
of  Christ  is  now  in  the  highest  heavens, 
(Heb.  vii,  26,)  at  the  right  hand  of  God, 

(Eph.  i,  20,)  rather  than  in  the  paradise 
of  the  blessed  spirits.  It  is  not  until 
after  our  resurrection,  when  we  shall 

be  like  him  (1  John  iii,  2)  in  the  glorified 

body,  that  we  shall  “see  him  as  he  is;  ” 

shall  “  see  as  we  are  seen,”  and  “  know 

as  we  are  known.”  1  Cor.  xiii,  12. 

7.  For — Reason  why  we  realize  the 
superiority  of  our  Christ-home ;  our 
oye  of  faith  sees  what  our  eye  of  body 
does  not.  We  walk — The  Christian’s 
progress  through  the  world.  By — 
Rather,  through ,  the  preposition  of  in¬ 
strumentality,  faith;  being  the  candle 
through  whose  light  we  are  thus  able 
to  walk  aright.  By  sight — Rather, 
■iccording  to  appearance ;  that  is,  to  the 
bodily  eye.  Faith  enables  us  to  walk 
in  disregard  of  material  and  worldly 
interests. 

8.  Are  confident  —  Free  from  dis¬ 
heartening  misgivings.  Rather — The 
whole  passage  is  an  important  exhibit 
of  Paul’s  view:  1.  Of  the  soul,  as  being 
an  independent  entity,  the  central  per¬ 
sonality  ;  2.  Of  the  need  of  the  body  to 
the  wholeness  and  unity  of  the  human 
person  ;  3.  Of  the  real  existence  of  an 
intermediate  conscious  state  of  the  soul 


9  Wherefore  we  1 * * * * * 7 8  labour,  that, 
whether  present  or  absent,  we  may 
be  accepted  of  him.  10  ‘For  we 
must  all  appear  before  the  judg¬ 
ment  seat  of  Christ ;  k  that  every 

i  Matt.  25.  31,  32;  Rom.  14.  10. - &Rom.  2.  6; 

Gal.  6.  7;  Eph.  6.  8;  Col.  3.  24,  25;  Rev.  22.  12. 

between  death  and  resurrection ;  4.  Of 
the  superior  happiness  of  that  disem¬ 
bodied  state  to  our  present  state  in  the 
body,  yet  of  its  inferior  happiness  to 
the  resurrection  glory ;  and,  5.  That  a 
main  element  of  the  happiness  of  that 
intermediate  state  is  the  attainment  of 
some  association  with  Christ. 

9.  Wherefore — In  the  view  of  our 
cheering  hope  of  a  future  blessedness 
with  and  from  Christ.  We  labour 
— Rather,  we  are  emulous ,  ambitious. 
Present  —  As  we  hope  soon  to  be. 
Absent  —  As  we  know  not  how  long 
we  shall  be.  Be  accepted — Accepted 
absent  in  order  that  we  may  be  accepted 
present ;  that  is,  accepted  now  in  the 
body  in  order  that  our  soul  may  be  ac¬ 
cepted  when  it  leaves  the  body  for  the 
land  of  spirits. 

10.  We  strive  thus  to  be  accepted, 
for  we  must  stand  before  his  throne. 
Appear — Rather,  must  be  manifested. 
We  must,  at  Christ’s  judgment,  be  en¬ 
tirely  exposed  to  view  in  all  our  moral 
history  and  character.  Same  Greek 
word  as  made  manifest  in  verse  11. 
The  judgment  seat  —  The  bema  of 
Christ.  The  bema  was  the  seat  of 
the  Roman  judge,  visible  at  the  end  of 
the  court  room,  high  above  the  level 
of  the  audience.  It  was  before  such  a 
bema  that  Jesus  himself  was  arraigned. 
Matt,  xxvii,  19.  And  curiously  enough, 
St.  Paul  himself  was  arraigned  before 
the  bema  of  the  Roman  Gallio  at  Cor¬ 
inth.  Acts  xviii,  12.  And  St.  Paul  is 
the  only  Mew  Testament  writer  who  ap¬ 
propriates  the  word  to  a  Christian  use, 
as  he  does  in  Rom.  xiv,  10  and  this  pas¬ 
sage.  Instead  of  the  judicial  bema ,  the 
regal  throne  is  the  word  more  ordina¬ 
rily  used.  Matt,  xxv,  31 ;  Rev.  xx,  11 ; 
Dan.  vii,  9.  See  Stanley  on  the  pas¬ 
sage.  All .  . .  every  one — The  pres¬ 
ence  is  of  all,  the  analysis  and  reward 
is  of  each  individual.  There  is  no 
overlooking;  the  one  in  the  vast  whole. 


164 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


one  may  receive  the  things  done  in 
his  body,  according  to  that  he  hath 
done,  whether  it  he  good  or  bad. 
11  Knowing  therefore  1  the  terror 
of  the  Lord,  we  persuade  men ;  but 
,n  we  are  made  manifest  unto  God ; 

l  Job  31.  23;  Heb.  10.  31 ;  Jude  23. 

Receive  —  Receive  compensatively. 
The  things  done  in  his  body — The 

great  body  of  modern  commentators 
approve  the  sense  given  to  these 
words  by  our  translators.  The  best 
ancient  ones,  Tertullian,  Chrysostom, 
and  others,  would  render:  Each  may 
receive  through  (the  instrumentality  of) 
his  body  the  things  according  to  that 
he  hath  done.  The  meaning,  then, 
would  be,  that  the  body  is  present  at 
the  resurrection  to  receive  recompense 
for  what  the  body  has  done.  Grammat¬ 
ically,  this  rendering  avoids  a  very 
awkward  pleonasm,  done,  done.  The 
objection  that  the  apostle  has  all  along 
hitherto  spoken  of  our  present  body, 
and  would  not  mention  the  resurrec¬ 
tion  body,  without  some  distinctive 
term,  seems  trifling.  The  resurrection 
state  is  the  scene  of  the  whole  verse, 
and  the  body  there  must,  of  course, 
be  the  resurrection  body.  In  either 
interpretation  the  preposition  of  in¬ 
strumentality  through  the  body  is  a 
striking  intimation  that  Paul  holds  the 
soul  to  be  the  person,  and  the  body — 
whether  brain,  hands,  or  feet — to  be  its 
organ  in  wickedness  or  righteousness. 
Whether  .  .  good  or  bad — Does  this 
imply  that  the  all  includes  the  right¬ 
eous  and  wicked?  Meyer  says  there 
may  be  a  judgment  of  lower  grading  in, 
as  well  as  of  exclusion  from,  the  heav¬ 
enly  kingdom.  True,  but  not  as  here, 
where  a  positive  reception  of  compen¬ 
sation  for  bad  is  stated.  The  all  evi¬ 
dently  includes  here  those  who  receive 
penal  evil  for  wickedness,  the  wicked, 
and  implies  a  universal  judgment. 

11.  Terror  of  the  Lord  —  Rather, 
not  terror  of  the  Lord,  but  our  fear 
of  him.  Therefore  —  In  view  of  the 
scenes  of  the  judgment.  We  per¬ 
suade  men  —  Of  what?  the  question 
is  asked.  We  should  suppose  there 
could  be  but  one  reply.  If  it  was 


and  I  trust  also  are  made  manifest 
in  your  consciences.  12  For  nwe 
commend  not  ourselves  again  unto 
you,  but  give  you  occasion 0  to  glory 
on  our  behalf,  that  ye  may  have 
somewhat  to  answer  them  which 


raChap.  4.  2. - nChap.  3. 1. - eChap.  1.  14. 

from  fear  of  the  Lord  he  persuaded 
men,  he  certainly  persuaded  them  to 
act  as  the  fear  of  the  Lord  would  im¬ 
pel;  namely,  to  act  just  as  Paul  did 
under  that  motive,  ver.  9,  namely,  to  la¬ 
bour,  whether  present  or  absent,  to 
he  accepted  of  him.  To  what  would 
the  fear  of  a  future  judgment  per¬ 
suade  men  other  than  to  secure  the 
favour  of  the  Judge  ?  And  wThat  mo¬ 
tive  more  likely  to  persuade  men  to 
such  course  than  fear  of  the  judg¬ 
ment  ?  This  is  essentially  the  view  of 
Beza,  Grotius,  and  others.  But  Chry¬ 
sostom,  Meyer,  Alford,  and  others,  in¬ 
terpret  it,  We  persuade  men  of  our  own 
integrity.  Manifest — The  antithesis 
is,  Under  conscious  fear  of  Christ’s 
judgment,  we  persuade  men  to  be 
acceptable  to  him,  and  are  ourselves 
unconcealed  and  manifest  before  God. 
He  has  said,  verse  10,  that  we  must  be 
manifest  before  the  bar  of  Christ ;  in 
view  of  that  he  ever  holds  himself  now 
manifest  to  God,  and  he  hopes  he  is  no 
less  made  manifest  to  the  judgment 
of  his  brethren,  the  Corinthians.  The 
meaning,  then,  is,  that  from  fear  of 
our  final  Judge  we  persuade  men,  and 
have  kept  ourselves  transparent  to  the 
eye  of  God.  Manifest  in  your  con¬ 
sciences — Paul’s  trust  is,  that  he  hau 
maintained  the  same  unconcealed  pu¬ 
rity  patent  to  the  consciences  of  the 
Corinthians  that  he  has  maintained  to 
God.  And  t  is  to  that  transparent 
character,  botn  of  himself  and  the  gos¬ 
pel  he  preaches,  that  he  looks  for  his 
vindication  from  the  imputations  of  his 
Judaic-Christian  assailants. 

12.  For — Rather,  hut ;  as  if  the  self- 
commending  were  the  opposite  of  the 
visible  transparency.  Again — Chap, 
iii,  1.  Give  you  —  By  our  manifest 
purity.  In  appearance — In  personal 
impressiveness.  In  heart — In  genuine 
piety. 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  Y. 


165 


glory  2  in  appearance,  and  not  in 
heart.  13  For  p  whether  we  be  be¬ 
side  ourselves,  it  is  to  God :  or  wheth¬ 
er  we  be  sober,  it  is  for  your  cause. 

2  Greek,  in  the,  face. - j>  Chap.  11. 

13.  Beside  ourselves — The  Greek 
word  is  the  one  from  which  our  term 
ecstasy  is  derived.  See  note  on  Acts 
x,  10.  The  apostle  here,  apparently, 
ironically  alludes  to  the  sneers  of  his 
assailant.  His  extraordinary  conver¬ 
sion,  his  visions  of  Christ,  his  trances, 
as  well  as  his  sublimated  heroism  of 
character,  were  the  pretext  for  impu¬ 
tations  of  madness.  So  Festus  sub¬ 
sequently  charged.  See  Acts  xxvi,  24. 
And  so  at  the  present  day  an  insensible, 
dying  world  esteems  all  intense  feel¬ 
ing  in  regard  to  eternity  as  fanaticism. 
Revivals  of  religion  they  will  condemn 
as  periods  of  madness.  Yet  over  some 
great  commercial  crisis  these  very  men 
— nay,  whole  communities,  peoples,  and 

nations  —  are  excited  in  everv  nerve 

« 

and  fibre  to  an  all  but  frenzy.  If  we 
could  have  once  in  four  years  a  revival 
in  religion  as  great  as  we  have  a  re¬ 
vival  in  politics  at  every  presidential 
election,  we  should  think  the  millenni¬ 
um  was  dawning.  To  God — It  is  the 
mania  of  a  perfect  consecration  to  the 
Divine.  For  your  cause — In  order 
to  bring  the  gospel  of  salvation  to  you. 

4.  Apostolic  scheme  of  Christ’s 
death,  and  of  our  renewal  and  rec¬ 
onciliation,  14-19. 

Paul  now,  in  the  following  section,  ex¬ 
plains  the  ground  of  his  fervour  which 
they  styled  craziness.  The  impulse  of 
Christ’s  love  compels  him  to  make  the 
expiation,  renovation,  and  reconcilia¬ 
tion  his  overwhelming  theme. 

14.  Love  of  Christ — Christ’s  love 
to  us,  not  ours  to  him  ;  his  love  sub¬ 
limely  displayed  in  his  death  for  us. 
Fph.  iii,  19 ;  Rom.  viii,  35,  37.  Con¬ 
st  raineth  us — Compels  me  by  com¬ 
pression,  as  if  it  were  the  powerful 
pressure  of  a  physical  force.  The 
madness  which  these  Jew-Christians 
charge  upon  me  is  the  powerful  pres¬ 
sure  of  the  love  of  Christ  impelling  me, 
by  the  power  of  his  death,  to  a  com¬ 
plete  devotion  to  your  salvation.  And 
this  charge  of  madness  is  the  keynote 


14  F  or  the  love  of  Christ  con- 
straineth  us  ;  because  we  thus 
judge,  that  ^  if  one  died  for  all, 
then  were  all  dead:  15  And  that 

1, 16, 17 ;  12.  6,  11. - q  Rom.  5.  15. 

to  the  entire  passage,  (13-vi,  11,)  show¬ 
ing  the  intense  power  of  the  theme 
that  made  Paul’s  life  one  long  impulse 
of  grand  excitement.  Thus  judge — 
The  judgment  comprehends  vv.  14,  15 
If — Omitted  by  the  best  authorities. 
Read,  ive  thus  judge  that  one  died  for 
all ,  therefore  all  died.  How  it  is  here 
that  all  died  commentators  differ.  We 
think  the  correct  reference  is  to  that 
death  which  all  died  in  Adam,  (Rom. 
v,  15,)  for  which  Christ’s  death  is  a 
divine  substitute.  St.  Paul  assumes 
Christ's  death  as  proof  that  all  died,  by 
sin,  from  the  life  of  God;  a  death  be¬ 
ginning  in  spiritual  death,  and  reach¬ 
ing  to  bodily  death  and  second  death. 
That,  literally  and  historically,  this 
complete  death  has  not  yet  been  com¬ 
pleted  of  our  whole  race,  nor,  in  fact, 
of  an}r  of  our  race,  and  will  not  be 
completed  till  the  second  death  is  in¬ 
flicted,  is  true.  But  then  conceptually 
St.  Paul  views  that  great  death,  being 
in  process  of  accomplishment  through 
ages,  as  one  great  accomplished  fact. 
Yet  is  it  not  so  accomplished  but  that 
the  death  of  Christ  may  take  its  place, 
and  so  forestall  and  supersede  its  liter¬ 
al  accomplishment.  Paul’s  reasoning  is, 
that  nothing  less  than  our  death  could 
require  Christ’s  death.  If  he  died,  it 
was  because  we  ail  died.  The  render¬ 
ing,  were  all  dead,  is  justified  by  Col. 
iii,  3,  where  the  same  tense  is  used. 

Another  interpretation,  adopted  by 
Alford,  is,  Christ  died  for  all,  thereforo 
all  died,  too,  to  sin ;  and  thence  is  de¬ 
duced  that  all  must  live  the  new  life. 
But  died  and  live  are  here  used  so 
repeatedly  of  literal  death  and  life  that 
it  appears  arbitrary  not  so  to  interpret 
this  clause.  That  the  all  here  for 
whom  Christ  died  means  the  entire 
race  is  plain,  unless  we  deny  that  tho 
whole  human  race  died  in  Adam. 

1 5.  That— Omit,  as  unnecessarily  sup¬ 
plied  by  the  translators.  And  he  died 
for  all  for  this  purpose,  that  those  liv¬ 
ing  through  his  death  should  conse- 


166 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


lie  died  for  all,  rthat  they  which 
live  should  not  henceforth  live  un¬ 
to  themselves,  but  unto  him  which 
died  for  them,  and  rose  again. 
16  8  Wherefore  henceforth  know 
we  no  man  after  the  flesh  :  yea, 
though  we  have  known  Christ  af- 

r-Rom.  6.  11,  12;  14.  7,  8;  1  Cor.  6.  19;  Gal. 

2.  20 ;  1  Thess.  5.  10 ;  1  Pet.  4.  2. - s  Matt,  12.  50 ; 

John  15. 14;  Gal.  5.  6;  Phil.  3.  7, 8;  Col.  3.  11. - 

t  John  6.  63. 

crate  life  to  him.  Live. .  .live  unto 
themselves — Both  lives  signify  one 
literal  conscious  life.  As  Christ  bought 
our  life  by  his  death,  so  the  life  we 
live  is  rightfully  Ins.  And  it  was  this, 
St.  Paul’s  living  a  life  that  belonged 
to  Christ,  that  subjected  him  to  the 
charge  of  being  beside  himself,  ver.  13. 
For  them — The  preposition  for  does 
not  necessarily  in  itself  signify  instead 
of ;  but  it  acquires  that  meaning,  as  it 
often  does,  from  the  context.  Christ’s 
death  as  the  substitute  for  ours  is  the 
very  reason  why  our  life  is  rightfully 
his.  Rose  again — This  does  not,  as 
Meyer  argues,  show  that  if  Christ  died 
as  our  substitute  he  rose  as  our  sub¬ 
stitute.  Paul’s  clear  meaning  is,  Christ 
died  in  our  stead,  and  rose  again. 

1 6.  Henceforth  —  After  the  full, 
constraining  effect  of  Christ’s  death 
upon  us.  After  the  flesh — In  contrast 
with  after  the  spirit.  Romans  viii,  1. 
After  the  unregenerate  nature.  Under 
the  power  of  the  Spirit  resultant  from 
Christ’s  death,  the  renovated  man  (see 
next  verse)  sees  things  in  a  new  as¬ 
pect.  In  his  renewal  all  things  else 
appear  renewed.  As  consecrated  to 
Christ  he  is  a  devoted  being ;  in  the 
full  assurance  of  faith  things  eternal 
are  the  sole  realities,  and  things  of  time 
become  transient  and  subordinate ;  and 
in  the  full  assurance  of  hope  he  sees 
that  the  priceless  benefits,  the  eternal 
results  of  Christ’s  death  and  resurrec¬ 
tion,  are  his.  He,  therefore,  henceforth 
knows  no  thing  and  no  man  after  the 
flesh.  And  St.  Paul  means  to  say,  that 
his  own  living  in  the  full  realization  of 
this  renewed  state  is  the  cause  why  he 
is  held  by  fleshly  men  as  beside  him¬ 
self,  ver.  13,  Christ  after  the  flesh — 
Supremely  does  the  eye  of  the  renewed 


ter  the  flesh,  1  yet  now  henceforth 
know  we  Mm  no  more.  17  There¬ 
fore  if  any  man  u  be  in  Christ,  *he 
is  va  new  creature:  wold  things 
are  passed  away;  behold,  all  things 
are  become  new.  1  §  xVnd  all  things 
are  of  God,  xwho  hath  reconciled 

wRom.  8.  9;  16.  7;  Gal.  6.  15. - 3 Or,  let  him 

be. - v  Gal.  5.  6  ;  6.  15. - w  Isa.  43.  18,  19; 

65.  17;  Eph.  2.  15;  Rev.  21.  5. - a*  Rom.  5.  10; 

Eph.  2.  16;  Col.  1.  20;  1  John  2.  2;  4.  10. 

man  behold  Christ  in  a  new  light. 
Rationalism  may  pronounce  him  only 
“  a  great  religious  genius ;  ”  Judeo- 
Christianism  may  hold  him  a  mere 
prophet-reformer ;  but  the  man  who 
has  truly  felt  the  power  of  his  death 
beholds  Christ  as  the  divine  though  hu¬ 
man,  the  dying  yet  ever-living,  source 
of  our  transcendent  life.  The  phrase 
known  Christ  after  the  flesh,  does 
not  in  itself  necessarily  signify  to  have 
seen  Christ  while  he  lived  on  earth. 
There  is  no  valid  reason  for  supposing 
that  Paul  ever  so  saw  the  living  Jesus. 
And  yet  it  is  difficult  to  avoid  suppos¬ 
ing  that  he  here  does  allude  to  some 
boast  of  his  opposers,  that  they  had  seen 
and  heard  the  personal  Jesus. 

17.  Therefore  —  Rather,  so  that  — 
in  accordance  with  these  new  aspects. 
The  newness  which  the  man  sees  in  all 
things  else  is  truly  in  himself.  For  as, 
according  to  ver.  14,  all  are  dead  from  the 
primitive  Edenic  life,  and,  verse  1 5,  are 
made  alive  by  Christ’s  death,  so  this  see¬ 
ing  all  things  as  new  is  the  effect  of  that 
new  consciousness  of  a  renovated  life. 
All  things  are  become  new — Visi¬ 
bly  to  us,  because  we  are  new.  And  this 
our  consciousness  of  renewal  is  a  gleam 
of  the  grand  regeneration  initiated  by 
the  cross  of  Christ  and  consummated 
at  Rev.  xxi,  1.  To  say,  with  Meyer 
and  others,  that  this  is  rabbinical  lan¬ 
guage,  is  pitiable.  It  comes,  as  phrase , 
from  Isa.  lxv,  17 ;  as  thought ,  it  comes 
from  the  great  fact  that  Christ’s  cross, 
conditionally,  regenerates  the  man  and 
brings  forth  a  new  world.  To  compare 
with  this  the  language  of  the  rabbins, 
that  a  proselyte  was  a  new  creature, 
belittles  the  great  truth. 

18.  Of  God — See  note,  ver.  6  Know, 
O  ye  late  polytheistic  Corinthians,  that 


A.  L).  58. 


CHAPTER  V. 


167 


us  to  himself  by  Jesus  Christ,  and 
hath  given  to  us  the  ministry  of 
reconciliation  ;  19  To  wit,  that 

v  God  was  in  Christ,  reconciling 
the  world  unto  himself,  not  im¬ 
puting  their  trespasses  unto  them ; 

v  Rom.  3.  24,  25. - 4Gr.  put  in  us. z  Job  33. 

this  whole  system  of  Christian  regen¬ 
eration  is  firmly  fastened  to  the  throne 
of  God.  Hath  reconciled  us — Con¬ 
ditionally.  For  in  ver.  1 9  that  reconcil¬ 
ing  is  a  process  still  in  progress,  and  in 
ver.  20,  it  depends  upon  the  will  of  the 
transgressor  whether  he  will  be  rec¬ 
onciled  or  not.  It  is  the  divine  side, 
therefore,  which  St.  Paul  here  desig¬ 
nates  ;  none  the  less  implying  the  hu¬ 
man  side  as  condition  to  completion. 
And  this  reconciliation,  when  com¬ 
pleted,  is  same  with  the  renovation  of 
vv.  16, 17,  and  fruit  of  the  substitution¬ 
al  death  of  vv.  14,  15.  Ministry  — 
Same  Greek  word  as  applied  to  deacon- 
ship, ,  Acts  vi,  1,  note.  We  are  the  min¬ 
isters,  and  in  ver.  20  the  ambassadors, 
of  the  reconciliation.  The  us,  twice 
used  in  this  verse,  designates  St.  Paul 
himself,  yet  is  inclusive  of  the  apostles 
by  implication.  Yet  no  permanent 
limitation  is  implied,  for  the  world  is 
included  as  being  reconciled.  Ver.  19. 

19.  In  Christ — By  indwelling  and 
identification;  so  that  what  Christ  does, 
as  reconciler,  God  does  through  him. 
The  reconciliation  implies  previous  op¬ 
position  on  both  sides.  By  it  men  who 
“  were  enemies”  (Romans  v,  10)  have 
their  enmity  removed  ;  and  by  it  God, 
whose  “  wrath  is  revealed  from  heav¬ 
en,”  (Romans  i,  18,)  is  enabled  to  cease 
imputing  “their  trespasses  unto  them.” 
Man’s  enmity  is  the  hostility  of  the 
criminal  to  righteousness;  God’s  enmity 
is  the  severity  of  righteousness  against 
the  unrighteous.  Note  on  Rom.  i,  18. 
The  enmity  of  wrong  towards  right  is 
terrible ;  but  the  enmity  of  right  to¬ 
wards  wrong  is  infinitely  more  terrible, 
for  it  has  Omnipotence  as  its  supporter 
and  executioner.  The  death  of  Christ, 
vv.  14,  15,  the  symbol  and  substitute  for 
its  executive  infliction,  is  the  token  of 
God’s  readiness  to  pardon  ;  our  consent 
lo  be  reconciled  to  God,  ver.  20,  and 


and  hath  4  committed  unto  us  the 
word  of  reconciliation. 

20  Now  then  we  are  z  ambassa¬ 
dors  for  Christ,  as  a  though  God  did 
beseech  you  by  us  :  we  pray  you 
in  Christ’s  stead,  be  ye  reconciled 

23 ;  Mai.  2.  7 ;  chap.  3.  6 ;  Eph.  6.  20. a  Ch.  6. 1. 

to  receive  not  the  grace  of  God  in 
vain,  are  the  condition  of  the  appro¬ 
priation  of  the  power  of  that  death  in 
our  individual  behalf.  Imputing .  . . 
unto  them— Charging  to  men’s  account 
and  holding  them  liable  for  trespasses. 
Word — The  divine  proposal  from  God 
to  man  of  reconciliation. 

5.  Consequent  style  of  apostolic 
appeal  to  men  to  be  reconciled, 
v,  20-vi,  2. 

These  appeals,  in  the  second  person 
plural,  must  not  be  mistaken  for  ex¬ 
hortations  by  Paul  to  the  Corinthian 
Church  to  be  reconciled  to  God.  They 
are  a  statement  to  the  Corinthians  what 
is  the  hortatory  result,  that  is,  what 
the  resultant  mode,  of  exhorting  men, 
derived  from  the  scheme  of  reconcilia¬ 
tion  exhibited  in  vv.  14-19.  Their  ap¬ 
peal  to  the  world  (verse  19)  is,  Christ 
has  died  to  reconcile  you,  therefore  be 
ye  reconciled.  And  this  ye  is  ad¬ 
dressed,  not  to  the  Corinthians,  but  to 
the  world. 

20.  We  are  ambassadors  —  They 
have  an  embassy  from  the  government 
of  God  to  the  rebellious  anarchy  of  men. 
For  —  May,  intrinsically,  mean  either 
in  behalf  of  or  in  the  stead  of  The 
context  here  indicates  the  latter  mean¬ 
ing.  An  ambassador  is  the  represen¬ 
tative  and  substitute  of  his  sovereign. 
And  so  it  is  God  who  beseeches  by  us. 
As  Christ  died  in  our  stead,  (ver.  14,)  so 
we  are  ambassadors  in  his  stead.  We 
pray — A  striking  thought  that  God’s 
ambassador  prays ,  in  his  stead,  to  man 
for  reconciliation.  A  powerful  proof 
that  God  lias,  in  a  true  sense,  done  all 
he  can ,  and  man  must  do  the  rest.  Be 
ye  reconciled  to  God  —  A  passive 
active.  Take  that  course  by  which 
God  will  reconcile  you  tc  himself. 
Take  one  path  and  he  will;  take  the 
other  path  and  he  never  will,  the 
blame  being  your  own. 


168 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


to  God.  21  For  k  lie  hath  made 
him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no 
sin  ;  that  we  might  he  made  1  the 
righteousness  of  God  in  him. 

&  Isaiah  53.  6,  9,  12;  Galatians  3.  13;  1  Peter 
2.  22,  24;  1  John  3.  5. 

21.  For — Giving  a  reason  for  the 
beseech  of  the  previous  verse,  one  of 
the  tersest  statements  of  the  atonement 
ever  uttered.  A  different  side  of  the 
same  subject  is  given  vv.  14,  15.  But 
there  it  is  part  of  the  apostolic  state¬ 
ment,  here  it  comes  in  to  the  consequent 
appeal.  He — Referring  to  God.  Sin 
— This  word  some  commentators  have 
interpreted  to  mean  a  sin-offering,  by 
a  Hebraism,  as  in  Exod.  xxix,  14  the 
Hebrew  word  for  “  sin-offering”  is  lit¬ 
erally  sin.  But  here,  as  the  antithetic 
word  righteousness  signifies  righteous 
persons ,  it  is  clear  that  sin  signifies  a 
sinner.  It  is  very  possible  that  the  above 
Hebraism  may  have  suggested  the  an¬ 
tithesis.  It  is  a  very  concentrated  ex¬ 
pression  to  make  Christ  conceptually 
the  very  embodiment  of  sin.  It  can 
only  mean  that  Christ,  in  our  stead,  en¬ 
dured  a  suffering  (not  a  punishment  to 
him)  so  morally  equivalent  to  our  pun¬ 
ishment,  that  it  may  take  its  place  and 
we  be  exempted.  Who  knew  no  sin 
— A  beautiful  description  of  perfect  in¬ 
nocence.  The  Greek  negative  for  no 
implies  a  no  under  the  estimation  or 
opinion  of  some  one;  and  the  question 
is,  in  whose  opinion  does  the  word  im¬ 
ply  that  Jesus  was  sinless.  Alford  says 
in  Jesus’  own ;  but  we  father  agree  with 
Meyer,  that  God’s  opinion  is  meant.  It 
was  the  divine  view  that  the  innocent 
one  should  suffer,  and  that  Christ  was 
that  sinless  one.  It  was  a  sinless  one 
who  was  to  suffer,  in  order  that  his  suf¬ 
ferings  go  not  to  expiate  his  own  sin, 
but  accrue  for  the  sins  of  others.  Right¬ 
eousness — The  embodiment  of  God’s 
righteousness.  This  means  not,  that 
Christ’s  righteousness  of  character  is 
imputed  to  us  as  if  it  were  ours. 
Such  a  transfer  could  not  take  place. 
One  man  cannot  be  literallv  guiltv  of 
another's  sin,  nor  innocent  by  another’s 
goodness.  One  man  indeed  may  be  par¬ 
doned  because  another  has  suffered.  Da¬ 
mon  may  be  released  because  Pythias 


CHAPTER  VI. 

WE  then,  as  a  workers  together 
with  him,  '  beseech  you  also 
c  tlmt  ye  receive  not  the  grace  of 

l  Rom.  1.  17;  5.  19;  10.  3. - a  \  Cor.  3.  9. 

b  Chap.  5.  20. - cHeb.  12.  15. 

suffers  for  his  crime ;  but  it  would  be 
only  as  emotional,  and  not  literal,  lan¬ 
guage  that  we  would  then  say  that  Pyth¬ 
ias  became  a  criminal,  or  became  trea¬ 
son,  and  that  his  innocence  was  imputed 
to  Damon.  So  it  is  not  literal  but  emo¬ 
tional  or  conceptual  language  when  we 
say,  that  Christ  became  sin  for  us,  or 
that  his  righteousness  is  imputed  to  us. 
The  language  used  by  some  religionists 
in  describing  Christ  as  a  sinner  is  repul¬ 
sive  to  any  reflective  mind.  Thus  Lu¬ 
ther  uses  words  which  seem  not  blas¬ 
phemous  purely  because  the  blasphe¬ 
mous  intention  was  wanting.  “The 
prophets  did  foresee  in  spirit  that  Christ 
should  become  the  greatest  transgres¬ 
sor,  murderer,  thief,  rebel,  and  blas¬ 
phemer  that  ever  was  or  could  be !  ” 
“Whatsoever  sins  I,  thou,  and  we,  all 
have  done,  or  shall  do  hereafter,  they 
are  Christ’s  own  sins,  as  verily  as  if  he 
himself  had  done  them.”  Surely  it  is 
absurd  to  say  this.  It  was  because  of 
Christ’s  very  innocence  that,  his  suffer- 
ings  being  accepted  in  lieu  of  our  pun¬ 
ishment,  God  is  pleased  to  pardon  us. 
And  when  it  is  then  said  that  we  are 
righteousness,  it  is  not  meant  that  we 
are  literally  innocent,  never  having  com¬ 
mitted  sin,  for  that  cannot  be :  it  is 
meant  that  we  are  held  constructively 
righted ,  and  judicially  treated  as  never 
having  sinned ;  as  every  pardoned  -per¬ 
son  is.  In  him — Antithesis  to  for  us. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

1.  We — Apostles.  The  statement  of 
the  gospel-appeal  to  men  (v,  20-vi,  2) 
is  here  continued.  Workers  togeth¬ 
er —  Co-operators  here,  as  ambassa¬ 
dors  in  v,  20.  With  him — In  italics, 
as  being  supplied  by  the  translators. 
Commentators  differ  whether  it  should 
be  with  him,  God,  or  with  you,  Co¬ 
rinthians,  or  with  Christ,  or  with  the 
apostles  all  conjointly.  But  the  paral¬ 
lelism  with  v,  20  indicates  with  God. 
Beseech — As  in  v,  20.  Receive  not 


A.  I>.  58. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


169 


God  in  vain.  2  (For  lie  saith,  dI 
have  heard  thee  in  a  time  accept¬ 
ed,  and  in  the  day  of  salvation  have 
I  succoured  thee  :  behold,  now  is 
the  accepted  time ;  behold,  now  is 
the  day  of  salvation.) 

3 e  Giving  no  otfence  in  any  thing, 

d  Isa.  49.  8;  61.  2;  Ezek.  16.  8;  Heb.  4.  7. - 

e  Rom.  14.  13;  1  Cor.  9.  12;  10.  32. - 1  Gr.  com- 

—  Past  tense.  We  beseech  you  that 
yyu  shall  not  have  received.  Erasmus, 
quoted  by  Meyer,  renders,  “That  ye 
may  not  so  transgress  as  that,  having 
once  been  exempted  from  your  sins, 
ye  may,  by  relapsing  into  your  former 
life,  have  received  the  grace  of  God  in 
vain.’  ’  In  vain  —  By  damnation  be¬ 
cause  of  total  apostasv. 

2.  He— God,  in  the  previous  verse, 
who  offers  the  grace.  Saith — In  Isa. 
xlix,  8 ;  nearly  according  to  the  Septua- 
gint.  It  is  in  Isaiah  a  clearly  Messi¬ 
anic  passage ;  but  the  thee  addressed 
by  Jehovah  is  the  Messiah  himself. 
God  promises  him  (by  a  Hebraism  in 
the  past  tense)  an  accepted  day  for  the 
work  of  redemption.  Paul  quotes  it  to 
his  readers  as  proof  that  the  day,  the 
now,  is  the  time  for  them  to  avail  them¬ 
selves  of  that  redemption.  Heard 
thee — See  John  xi,  41,  42,  with  notes. 
Day  of  salvation — The  period  when, 
redemption’s  work  being  wrought,  it  is 
offered  to  men.  Behold — The  apos¬ 
tle’s  earnest  comment  repeated,  calling 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  offer  is 
but  for  a  period,  and  that  period  now. 
Not,  as  Meyer,  that  the  period  is  brief 
by  the  supposed  immediate  advent  to 
judgment ;  but  that  during  this  our 
Messianic  age  each  man’s  share  of  the 
acceptable  period  is  short — but  a  day. 
Accepted — The  above  word  accept¬ 
ed,  repeated  with  a  strengthening  pre¬ 
fix,  well-accepted.  Accepted — That  is, 
by  God  himself  as  the  time  of  mercy¬ 
giving. 

5.  Such  appeals  to  men  for  rec¬ 
onciliation  are  sustained  by  a  liv¬ 
ing  example  of  purity  amid  calum¬ 
ny,  3-10. 

3.  Giving  — Overleaping  verse  sec¬ 
ond  as  parenthetic,  this  participle  co¬ 
ordinates  with  beseech  in  verse  l,and 


that  the  ministry  be  not  blamed : 
4  But  in  all  things  1  approving  our¬ 
selves  fas  the  ministers  of  God, 
in  much  patience,  in  afflictions,  in 
necessities,  in  distresses,  5  s  In 
stripes,  in  imprisonments,  in  2 3  tu¬ 
mults,  in  labours,  in  watchings,  in 

mending ,  chap.  4.  2. — f  1  Cor.  4.  1. - ^Chap. 

11.  23,  &c. 2  Or,  in  tossings  to  and  fro. 

v,  20.  The  ministry — The  preach¬ 
er’s  rank  and  office.  Care  less  for  the 
men  than  for  the  saving  power  of  their 
apostleship. 

4.  Ministers — In  the  nominative. 
As  ministers  approving  ourselves.  This 
passage,  in  parallelism  with  iv,  8-12, 
and  xi,  23-27,  furnishes  strikingly  de¬ 
tailed  pictures  of  apostolic  sufferings, 
more  or  less  applicable  to  St.  Paul 
and  his  personal  coadjutors,  exhibited 
either  as  single  points,  or  still  more, 
doubled  in  contrasts.  Paul’s  pre-emi¬ 
nence,  as  stated  in  the  latest  of  the  three, 
is  his  certificate  of  apostleship.  The 
present  list  is  a  fervent  climax,  begin¬ 
ning  in  particulars,  and  rising  until  it 
bursts  forth  in  the  apostrophe  of  ver.  11, 
which  becomes  a  turning  point  in  the 
epistle.  The  climax  is  also  a  triad. 
First,  a  list  of  external  endurances, 
vv.  4,  5  ;  then  a  series  of  internal  traits 
and  endowments,  vv.  6,  7 finally,  anti¬ 
thetic  contrasts  of  depreciations  and  ex¬ 
cellences  meeting  in  the  apostolic  char¬ 
acters,  vv.  8-10,  and  rising  in  fervour 
of  description.  Much  patience  — 
Much  endurance,  much  firm  undergoing. 
Afflictions  —  By  persecution  and  op¬ 
pression.  Necessities  —  Compulsions 
against  will.  Distresses  —  Compres¬ 
sions  into  narrownesses  and  straits. 
The  tenor  of  this  list,  thus  far,  is  that 
of  hard  pressures.  The  following  are 
of  more  active  sufferings. 

5.  Stripes — See  note  xi,  24.  Impris¬ 
onments  —  As  at  Philippi ;  narrated 
in  Acts.  Alford  says :  “  He  may  have 
been  imprisoned  in  Antioch  in  Pisidia, 
Acts  xiii,  50 ;  and  at  Lystra,  xiv,  19 ; 
and  at  Corinth,  xviii,  12,  14;  and  we 
cannot  tell  what  may  have  befallen 
him  during  his  journeys,  Acts  xv,  41 ; 
xvi,  6 ;  xviii,  23.”  Tumults — Excite¬ 
ments  and  mobs  raised  against  him. 


170 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


fastings ;  6  By  pureness,  by  knowl¬ 
edge,  by  long-suffering,  by  kind¬ 
ness,  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  love  un¬ 
feigned,  7  h  By  the  word  of  truth, 
by  'the  power  of  God,  by  k  the  ar¬ 
mour  of  righteousness  on  the  right 
hand  and  on  the  left,  §  By  honour 
and  dishonour,  by  evil  report  and 

h  Chap.  4.  2 ;  7.  14. - i\  Cor.  2.  4. - fcChap. 

10.  4;  Eph.  6.  11,  13;  2  Tim.  4.  7. - i  Chap.  4.  2; 

5.  11;  11.  6.  _ 

Luke’s  history  in  Acts  abounds  with 
narratives  of  such  movements  wherever 
Paul  went.  Labours — The  travellings, 
the  toils  for  self-support,  and  the  ar¬ 
duous  preachings  and  cares  for  the 
Churches.  Watchings  —  Sleepless¬ 
nesses.  Fastings — Not  voluntary  re¬ 
ligious  fastings — for  he  is  here  enumer¬ 
ating  severities  necessarily  suffered — 
but  compulsory  hungers.  The  thus  far 
enumerated  sufferings  Alford  holds  to 
be  properly  embraced  under  the  term 
patience,  or  endurance,  with  which 
the  catalogue  commences. 

6.  The  high  qualities  of  the  men 
who  thus  suffer,  by  which  they  entitle 
themselves  to  acceptance,  are  now  enu¬ 
merated.  Pureness — From  all  false 
deeds  or  motives.  Knowledge — Full 
possession  of  the  Christ-history,  with 
all  the  truths  embraced  in  it.  Holy 
Ghost  —  Whose  indwelling  is  mani¬ 
fested  by  our  sanctity  of  spirit.  With 
this  verse  closes  the  list  of  subjective 
traits.  Next  comes  a  manifestive  list. 

7.  Word  preached,  of  gospel  truth. 
Power  of  God  —  Supernatural  effi¬ 
ciency  both  in  word  and  deed ;  proph¬ 
ecy  and  miracle. 

In  the  two  following  verses  (8,  9) 
we  have  the  contradictions,  meeting  in 
the  persons  of  the  apostles,  between 
the  views  taken  by  their  enemies  and 
the  views  taken  by  their  own  self- 
knowledge.  In  verse  10  we  have  the 
opposite  sides  as  truly  seen  by  them¬ 
selves. 

8.  By  honour — From  God  and  the 
Christian  world.  And  dishonour  — 
From  heathendom,  Judaism,  and  Jew¬ 
ish  Christianity. 

9.  As  unknown — Ignored  and  un¬ 
recognised.  Yet  well  known  —  To 
those  who  have  accepted  the  gospel, 


good  report:  as  deceivers,  and  yet 
true;  9  As  unknown,  and  1  yet 
well  known;  m as  dying,  and,  be¬ 
hold,  we  live;  nas  chastened,  and 
not  killed;  10  As  °sorrowful,  yet 
alvvay  rejoicing;  as  poor,  yet  mak¬ 
ing  many  rich ;  as  having  nothing, 
and  yet  possessing  all  things. 

ml  Cor.  4.  9;  chap.  1.  9;  4.  10,  11. - n-Psa. 

118.  18. - oActs  5.  41;  16.  25;  Rom.  5.  23 ;  9.  2; 

12.  15;  15.  13;  Phil.  4.  4;  1  Pet.  1.  6,  8;  4.  13. 

and  every-where  spoken  against  by 
those  who  ignore  us.  Behold,  we  live 
— A  triumphant  retort ;  we  are  not  so 
dead  as  you  think  us.  Chastened — 
Chastised ;  whipped,  but  not  to  death. 

10.  Sorrowful . . .  rejoicing — An  an¬ 
tithesis  true  on  both  sides.  Poor  in 
pennies;  making. .  .rich in  something 
better  than  money.  Having  nothing 
for  this  world ;  possessing  all  things 
for  the  world  to  come.  As  the  climax 
of  this  description,  stroke  after  stroke, 
rises,  the  glow  of  the  apostle’s  feeling 
rises,  and  his  heart,  and  mouth  too,  be¬ 
ing  full  to  overflowing,  he  breaks  out 
in  the  following  apostrophe,  and  that 
starts  an  entire  new  strain  of  the 
epistle. 

- ♦♦♦ - 

PART  SECOND. 

THE  EXHORTATION 

To  Unite  in  his  Collections  for 
Jerusalem,  vi,  11- ix,  16. 

1.  Direct  exhortation  to  large¬ 
ness,  separateness,  and  sanctifica¬ 
tion,  vi,  11-vii,  1. 

With  a  soul  swelling  with  his  survey 
of  the  gospel  of  reconciliation  as  given 
in  v,  13-vi,  2,  and  of  his  recital  of  the 
history  of  his  struggles  to  bring  that 
gospel  to  them,  Paul  calls  upon  his  Co¬ 
rinthians  to  fall  back  upon  the  gran¬ 
deur  and  purity  of  that  gospel.  His 
special  assailants  are  out  of  view.  He 
addresses  the  Corinthians  as  being  the 
unit  he  had  once  left  them,  and  seeks 
to  rally  them  back  to  first  principles. 

He  conjures  them  to  as  large  a  heart 
as  his  own,  vv.  11-13;  to  separate  from 
all  their  old  unrighteous  associations, 
and  to  become,  according  to  the  blessed 
promise,  the  true  sons  and  daughters  of 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


171 


1 1  O  ye  Corinthians,  our  mouth 
is  open  unto  you,  Pour  heart  is  en¬ 
larged.  12  Ye  are  not  straitened 
m  us,  but  Qye  are  straitened  in  your 
own  bowels.  13  Now  for  a  recom¬ 
pense  in  the  same,  (r  I  speak  as  unto 

p  Chapter  7.  3. - ?  Chapter  12.  15. r  1  Co¬ 
rinthians  4.  14. - s  Deuteronomy  7.  2,  3 ;  1  Co- 

the  Lord  Almighty,  vv.  14-18 ;  nay,  to 
claim  the  higher  promises,  and  rise  to  a 
perfected  holiness,  vii,  1.  Corinthians 
—  An  emphatic  and  joyous  vocative. 
By  pronouncing  their  name  he  would 
aim  to  reach  their  hearts.  Twice  else¬ 
where  Paul  thus  calls,  out  of  the  regu¬ 
lar  address,  his  audience  by  name ;  the 
Galatians  indignantly,  the  Philippians 
affectionately.  Gal.  iii,  1;  Phil,  iv,  15. 
Mouth.  .  .open  —  Being  filled  by  the 
fulness  of  our  heart.  In  the  recital 
of  our  sufferings  in  your  behalf  we  are 
aroused  to  a  freedom  of  boundless  ut¬ 
terance  to  your  very  souls.  Heart  is 
enlarged — Is  broadened  in  its  area,  so 
as  to  admit  you  through  its  wide  doors 
into  its  roomy  home. 

12.  Straitened  —  Narrowed;  as  be¬ 
ing  closely  squeezed  by  a  narrow  en¬ 
trance  or  small  apartment.  In  us — 
In  our  hearts.  The  Corinthians  were 
tightened,  but  not  by  or  in  the  narrow¬ 
ness  of  the  apostolic  soul.  Straitened 
in  your  own  bowels — Narrowed  and 
contracted  in  your  own  affections.  The 
apostle  is,  indeed,  aroused  to  free,  bold, 
copious  plainness  of  declaration.  Bow¬ 
els — The  inwards  or  intestines,  which, 
being  often  excited  by  aroused  feeling, 
become  the  physical  term  for  the  feel¬ 
ing  or  its  abode. 

13.  A  recompense  in  the  same — 

A  reciprocity  in  the  largeness  of  affec¬ 
tion.  I  speak  of  mutuality  in  love 
as  unto  my  children — As  a  parent 
claims  the  natural  love  of  its  child,  so 
I  claim  your  Christian  love.  Be .  . . 
enlarged — Let  a  richer  Christian  love 
expand  your  hearts,  so  as  to  return  to 
your  founder-apostle  a  recompense  of 
equal  love.  Let  large,  full  heart,  flow 
out  to  large,  full  heart. 

14.  St.  Paul  trusts  now,  by  warming 
the  affections  of  his  Corinthians,  first 
to  draw  them  into  separation  from  sin, 
vi,  14- vii,  1,  and  to  bring  them  to  an 


my  children,)  be  ye  also  enlarged, 
14  s  Be  ye  not  unequally  yoked  to¬ 
gether  with  unbelievers:  for  1  what 
fellowship  hath  righteousness  with 
unrighteousness  ?  and  what  com¬ 
munion  hath  light  with  darkness  ? 

rinthians  5.  9 ;  7.  39. - 1 1  Samuel  5.  2, 3 ;  1  Kings 

18.  21 ;  1  Corinthians  10.  21 ;  Ephesians  5.  7, 11. 

acceptance  of  himself,  vii,  2.  Be  ye 
not — The  richer  your  Christian  affec¬ 
tions  the  easier  your  separation  from  a 
wicked  world.  As  Christ,  his  gospel, 
his  Church,  his  apostles,  and  holy  hap¬ 
piness,  fill  your  hearts  with  abound¬ 
ing  satisfaction,  withdrawal  from  earth¬ 
ly  idols  becomes  spontaneous.  Une¬ 
qually  yoked  —  An  allusion,  doubt¬ 
less,  to  Deuter.  xxii,  10,  where  an  ox 
and  an  ass  are  forbidden  to  be  yoked 
together.  To  be  unequally  yoked 
is,  therefore,  to  be  connected  with  an 
unfitting  associate.  There  will  be  pull¬ 
ing  different  ways,  and  danger  for  a 
Christian  to  be  pulled  into  danger  and 
ruin.  This  unequal  yoking,  this  bind¬ 
ing  of  the  Christian  with  the  loose 
thinker  and  free  liver,  is  a  source  of 
myriads  of  apostasies  and  destructions. 
Marriage  is  not  specially  indicated,  but 
it  is  eminently  included  as  the  most 
striking  instance  of  yoking  in  life.  A 
false  marriage  of  Christian  with  unbe¬ 
liever  is  often  a  disaster  for  eternity. 
Righteousness  with  unrighteous¬ 
ness — This  antithesis  is  truly,  if  seen 
with  a  true  eye,  the  greatest  possible 
contrast  in  the  universe.  There  are 
many  opposites  known  or  conceivable, 
but  the  greatest  possible  of  all  oppo¬ 
sitions  is  that  between  absolute  right 
and  absolute  wrong.  But  as  the  eye 
of  the  ethical  man  is  apt  to  be  dim  and 
dull,  Paul  immediately  addresses  anoth¬ 
er  contrast,  the  most  powerful  conceiv¬ 
able,  to  the  bodily  eye  —  light  with 
darkness.  This  image  is  known  among 
all  religions  which  in  any  degree  incul¬ 
cate  the  idea  of  holiness. 

In  a  series  of  intense  questions,  five 
in  number,  St.  Paul  arrays  before  the 
minds  of  the  Corinthians  a  series  of 
images  to  impress  them  with  a  vivid 
sense  of  the  absolute  contrariety  be¬ 
tween  a  pure  Christianity  and  a  world 
of  wickedness.  The  images  are  drawn 


172 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


15  And  what  concord  hath  Christ 
with  Belial  ?  or  what  part  hath 
lie  that  believeth  with  an  infidel  ? 

16  And  what  agreement  hath  the 
temple  of  God  with  idols  ?  for  u  ye 
are  the  temple  of  the  living  God ; 
as  God  hath  said,  VI  will  dwell  in 

u  1  Corinthians  3. 16 :  6. 19 ;  Ephesians  2.  21, 22 ; 

Hebrews  3.  6. - v  Exodus  29.  45;  Leviticus  26. 

12;  Jeremiah  31. 33;  32.  38;  Ezekiel  11.  20;  36.  28; 

f  rom  ethics,  from  nature,  from  the  antith¬ 
esis  of  Christ  and  Belial,  from  faith,  and 
from  the  sanctity  of  God’s  temple.  It 
is,  doubtless,  by  a  summary  rehearsal 
of  those  lessons  of  holiness  with  which 
his  preaching  had  often  impressed  these 
converts  from  heathenism,  that  he  is 
here  recalling  them  to  first  principles. 

In  the  five  words  used  to  designate 
the  denied  connexion  between  the  con¬ 
tracted  objects,  namely,  fellowship, 
communion,  concord,  part,  agree¬ 
ment,  Meyer  sees  proof  of  Paul’s  com¬ 
mand  of  copious  Greek.  But  Stanley 
remarks  that  there  is  no  special  fitness 
of  each  to  its  own  place ;  they  might 
be  interchanged. 

15.  Christ  with  Belial — The  con¬ 
trast  presented  in  its  living  representa¬ 
tives,  the  heads  of  the  kingdom  of  light 
and  of  darkness.  Belial  —  Used  in 
Judges  xix,  22;  xx,  13;  and  1  Sam. 
xxv,  25,  where  see  notes.  It  there 
signifies  worthlessness ;  but  in  later  lit¬ 
erature  came  to  be  an  appellative  for 
Satan.  Bloomfield  says  :  “  Like  the 

Hebrew  ^3,  who  will- do-no- one- 

any-good;  that  is,  who  will  do  evil  to 
any  one,  the  author  of  all  evil,  the  evil 
spirit,  the  devil.’'  Believeth.  .  .infi¬ 
del —  From  the  head  personages  the 
contrast  is  now  brought  down  to  the 
human  individuals.  The  great  bound¬ 
ary  line  between  the  good  and  bad  in 
the  universe,  between  light  and  dark¬ 
ness,  between  Christ  and  Satan,  cuts 
relentlessly  between  the  Christian  and 
the  unchristian. 

16.  Temple.  .  .idols — The  contrast 
embraces  the  Church  collectively,  of 
which  the  temple  is  the  structural 
image.  St.  Paul  does  not  present  the 
contrast  as  between  a  temple  of  the 
true  God  and  one  of  idolatry ;  but  of  a 


them,  and  walk  in  them;  and  I 
will  be  their  God,  and  they  shall 
be  my  people.  17  w  Wherefore 
come  out  from  among  them,  and 
be  ye  separate,  saitli  the  Lord,  and 
touch  not  the  unclean  thing;  and 
I  will  receive  you,  18  *  And  will 

37.  26,  &c. ;  Zechariah  8.  8;  13.  9. - w  Isaiah 

52.  11 ;  chapter  7.  1;  Revelation  18.  4. - x  Jere¬ 

miah  31.  1,  9;  Revelation  21.  7. 

holy  temple  with  an  unholy  idol  in  it. 
The  J ews  preferred  to  rebel  against  the 
power  of  imperial  Rome  rather  than 
to  allow  an  ensign  of  paganism  to  be 
brought  into  the  temple.  Ye  are  the 
temple  —  Thus  bringing  emphatically 
home  the  force  of  the  illustration. 
Living  God  —  In  contrast  with  all 
other  temples,  which  are  of  gods  that 
do  not  live.  God  hath  said — We  have 
the  word  of  the  very  living  God  him¬ 
self  for  it,  as  recorded  in  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment.  In  accordance  with  Jewish  modes 
of  quoting  the  Old  Testament  St.  Paul 
blends  together  the  tenor  of  a  num¬ 
ber  of  different  passages,  like  a  painter 
forming  a  picture  by  dipping  his  brush 
in  his  colours  to  finish  with  a  variety  of 
touches.  I  will  dwell — In  this  verse 
we  ^have  the  promise ;  in  the  next,  the 
command  finishing  off  with  promises, 
carried  into  the  final  verse.  The  words 
of  this  verse  refer  to  Lev.  xxvi,  11,  12, 
with  a  fragment  of  Ezek.  xxxvii,  26. 
It  is  the  promise  of  God  to  be  present 
with  his  faithful  Church. 

17.  Wherefore — In  order  to  secure 
the  fulfilment  of  these  promises  they 
must  be  a  faithful  and  not  an  apos¬ 
tate  Church.  Come  out — The  earnest 
warning  of  Jehovah  (to  his  people  to 
come  out  from  Babylon)  applied  to  tne 
Christian  Church  to  come  out  from  the 
uncleanness  of  an  unregenerate  world. 
This  injunction  requires  not  hatred 
against  the  wicked  as  men,  but  avoid¬ 
ance  of  participation  in  their  works  as 
sinners,  or  in  such  associations  with 
them  as  imply  a  countenancing  of  their 
sins.  The  unclean  thing — The  thing 
defiled  with  sin,  by  whose  touch  you 
would  yourself  be  defiled.  I  will  re¬ 
ceive  you — Namely,  into  favour  and 
fellowship  with  myself,  and  to  all  the 
joys  of  my  salvation. 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


173 


\>e  a  Father  unto  you,  and  ye  shall 
be  my  sons  and  daughters,  saitli 
the  Lord  Almighty. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

AVING  “therefore  these  prom- 

a  Chap.  6.  17, 18 ; 

18.  A  Father — Such  a  fatherhood  as 
is  conditioned  upon  our  regenerate  son- 
sliip.  2  Sam.  yii,  14.  The  quotation 
applies  the  promise  to  David — to  all  the 
people  of  God.  Daughters — Isaiah 
xliii,  6.  Saith  the  Lord  Almighty 
— In  the  Hebrew,  2  Sam.  vii,  14,  it  is 
the  Lord  of  Hosts.  On  these  prom¬ 
ises  St.  Paul  grounds  his  exhortation 
to  a  completed  holiness  in  the  hrst 
verse  of  the  following  chapter. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

1.  Having — This  verse  completes 
the  last  section,  and  should  belong  to 
the  sixth  chapter.  These  promises — 
In  the  Greek  the  position  of  these 
words  in  the  sentence  renders  them 
emphatic,  these  glorious  promises.  Paul 
refers  to  the  promises  of  the  last  verse 
of  the  previous  chapter,  in  which  Je¬ 
hovah  promises  us,  upon  our  departure 
from  sin,  that  we  shall  be  his  sons 
and  daughters.  Let  us  cleanse  our¬ 
selves — Let  us  exert  our  active  pow¬ 
ers  to  our  own  purification ;  yet  through 
the  gracious  power  derived  from  God. 
Filthiness  —  Pollution,  soiling,  stain¬ 
ing.  The  flesh  and  spirit — Sins  of 
the  flesh  are  those  that  arise  from 
man’s  animal  or  corporeal  nature,  as 
gluttony,  intemperance,  licentiousness ; 
sins  of  the  spirit  are  those  that  come 
from  man’s  intellectual  nature,  as  pride, 
scepticism,  falsehood,  idolatry,  etc.  By 
the  former,  man  is  allied  to  brutes ;  by 
the  latter,  to  devils.  Yet  both  these 
classes  of  sins  the  apostle  stigmatizes 
as  filthiness.  They  defile  the  purity 
of  man’s  nature.  He  thereby  stands 
before  the  perfectly  pure  God  spotted 
with  guilt.  Perfecting — The  positive 
process  of  which  the  purifying  is  the 
negative.  To  perfect  is  to  bring  to  com¬ 
pletion  or  normal  maturity.  Fear — 
That  sentiment  that  deters  and  drives 
from  sin,  but  can  never  bring  us  to  lioli- 


ises,  dearly  beloved,  let  us  cleanse 
ourselves  from  all  filthiness  of  the 
flesh  and  spirit,  perfecting  holi¬ 
ness  in  the  fear  of  God. 

2  Receive  us;  we  have  wronged 
no  man,  we  have  corrupted  no  man, 

1  John  3.  3. 

ness  without  the  mingling  and  predom¬ 
inance  of  love. 

On  this  passage  we  may  note  that  a 
perfected  holiness  is  here  represented 
as  a  possible  attainment ;  that  it  is  the 
result  of  a  properly-directed  activity, 
and  that  its  attainment  is  not  to  be  de¬ 
layed  until  death,  but  is  to  be  realized 
and  possessed  during  the  Christian’s 
life. 

2.  Paul’s  exhortation  to  accept¬ 
ance  of  his  apostleship,  2-16. 

a.  From  his  purity  and  tender  affec¬ 
tion ,  2-4. 

2.  Receive  us  —  Accept  and  ac¬ 
knowledge  me  (with  my  colabourers)  as 
your  founder-apostle.  Paul  blends  tho 
elevation  of  the  Corinthians  to  a  high 
platform  of  holiness  with  this  accep¬ 
tance.  In  his  review  of  his  gospel 
scheme,  v,  13-21.  and  of  his  apostolic 
elevation,  in  vi,  1—1 1,  a  sublime  piety 
is  the  claim.  In  the  earnest  exhorta¬ 
tion  of  vi,  1 1— vii,  1,  this  is  the  view: 
that  Paulinism  is  pre-eminently  a  holy 
Christianity.  This  appeal,  receive  us, 
therefore  means,  do  you  on  this  high 
plane  receive  us  who  present  and 
occupy  that  plane.  Let  us  stand  in 
union  on  the  same  high  level  of  an 
exalted  Christianity.  Have .  . .  have 
. .  .  have — The  Greek  aorist  tense  re¬ 
quires  these  three  haves  to  be  omitted. 
The  three  verbs  then  left,  all  point  to 
a  particular  period ;  namely,  (like  a 
similar  passage  at  xi,  1-9,)  the  period 
of  St.  Paul’s  first  visit  to  Corinth  and 
first  founding  that  Church.  Acts  xviii, 
1-18.  We  have  wronged  no  man. 
This  passage  makes  beautiful  reference 
to  the  magnanimous  appeal  of  Samuel 
to  Israel,  as  he  closed  his  prophetic  of¬ 
fice,  asserting  the  purity  of  his  adminis¬ 
tration,  (1  Sam.xii,  3,)  “Witness  against 
me  before  the  Lord,  and  before  his 
anointed :  whose  ox  have  I  taken  ?  ot 
whose  ass  have  I  taken  ?  or  whom  have 


174 


A.  D.  58. 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


bwe  have  defrauded  no  man.  3  I 
speak  not  this  to  condemn  you : 
for  CI  have  said  before,  that*  ye 
are  in  our  hearts  to  die  and  live 
with  you .  4  d  Great  is  my  bold¬ 

ness  of  speech  toward  you,  e  great 
is  my  glorying  of  you :  f  I  am  tilled 
with  comfort,  I  am  exceeding  joy- 

frActs  20.  33;  chapter  12.  17. - c  Chapter  6. 

11,  12. - $  Chapter  3. 12. - el  Corinthians  1.  4; 

chapter  1. 14. - /Chapter  1.  4;  Philippians  2. 17 ; 

I  defrauded  ?  whom  have  I  oppressed  ? 
or  of  whose  hand  have  I  received  any 
bribe  to  blind  mine  eyes  therewith?” 
St  Paul  refers,  no  doubt,  to  the  insin¬ 
uations  of  his  detractors  at  Corinth. 
Wronged — By  any  kind  of  injustice. 
Corrupted— By  any  false  or  demoral¬ 
izing  doctrine ;  as  the  word  signifies  in 

1  Cor.  xv,  33.  Defrauded  —  In  any 
money  matters.  Comp.  Acts  xx,  33,  34. 
St.  Paul  here  intimates  that  his  holi¬ 
ness  consisted  not  purely  in  religious 
emotions,  but  also  in  plain,  downright 
equity  of  dealing.  Piety  without  hon¬ 
esty  is  a  poor  article.  Sublimated  re¬ 
ligious  professions  are  a  sad  deception 
unless  sustained  by  true,  square,  consci¬ 
entious  dealing  in  the  shop,  the  store, 
the  market,  or  the  exchange.  Piety 
has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  money.  It 
is  in  a  true  sense  a  “  cash  article.” 

3.  Condemn  you— The  apostle  is 
checked  in  his  self-assertion  by  a  deli¬ 
cate  fear  lest  he  should  seem  to  retain 
in  his  heart  a  lurking  feeling  of  resent¬ 
ment  at  the  Corinthians  for  listening 
for  even  a  moment  to  the  insinuations 
of  his  traducers  in  his  absence.  Con¬ 
demn — Blame,  impute  wrong.  Said 
before — Above,  at  vi,  12.  To  die  and 
live — So  prominent  with  Paul  is  the 
readiness  and  liability  for  death  that  it 
stands  as  first  and  most  probable.  It 
contradicts  the  favourite  fancy  of  Al¬ 
ford  and  others,  that  he  expected  not  to 
die,  but  to  live  until  the  second  advent, 
and  undergo  the  resurrection  “change.” 
Die. .  .with  you — If  it  is  to  be  mar¬ 
tyrdom,  I  could  lay  my  neck  upon  the 
same  block ;  if  by  quiet  death,  upon  a 
simultaneous  pillow.  Live — He  could 
spend  his  days,  so  far  as  affection  was 
concerned,  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Aerocorinthus,  in  the  bosom  of  his 


ful  in  all  our  tribulation.  5  For, 
s  when  we  were  come  into  Mace¬ 
donia,  our  flesh  had  no  rest,  but 
h  we  were  troubled  on  every  side ; 

1  without  were  fightings,  within 
were  fears.  6  Nevertheless  k  God, 
that  comforteth  those  that  are  cast 
down,  comforted  us  by *  1 * * * 4 5 6  the  coming 

Colossians  1.  24. - g  Chapter  2. 13. - h  Chapter 

4.  8. - i  Deuteronomy  32.  25. - A;  Chapter  1.  4. 

- £See  chapter  2.  13. 

dear  Corinthian  Church.  So  did  James, 
at  Jerusalem  ;  and  John,  at  Ephesus. 

But  Paul  was  by  mission  the  great  itin¬ 
erant.  He  could  stay  in  one  place  only 
by  imprisonment,  as  at  Cesarea  and  at 

Home. 

4.  Great — Paul  cannot  directly  ad¬ 
dress  the  Corinthians  (as  at  vi,  1)  with¬ 
out  breaking  into  exultation.  Bold¬ 
ness — The  fearlessness  of  a  friendship 
that  dares  say  any  thing  it  pleases. 
Great . . .  glorying — A  climax ;  as  is 
also  comfort  and  exceeding  joyful. 
Paul  was  lovingly  bold  in  speaking  to 
them,  and  boastful  in  speaking  of  them. 
He  spake  to  them  in  fearless  love ;  he 
spake  to  them  in  (if  we  may  so  say) 
holy  pride.  Tribulation  —  In  every 
crisis  of  danger  and  damage,  joy  over 
his  Corinthian  Church  was  a  cheer  and 
an  exultation. 

b.  Ilis  affection  instanced  by  his  anx¬ 
iety  until  he  heard  from  them ,  and  joy  at 
hearing  of  their  loyalty ,  5-16. 

St.  Paul  instances  his  love  for  his 
Corinthians  by  calling  to  mind  (as  in 
ii,  12-14,  and  i,  8-10)  his  intense  sus¬ 
pense  until  he  heard  from  them,  and 
their  heart  towards  him,  by  Titus. 

5.  Into  Macedonia  —  His  next 
stage  and  stopping  place  after  passing 
through  Troas,  (ii,  12.)  whence  he  is 
writing  tliis  epistle.  Our  flesh — Our 
bodily  and  nervous  system  ;  in  distinc¬ 
tion  from  spirit,  ii,  13.  Fightings — 
Of  the  assailing  Jews  and  heathens. 
Fears — Anxieties  for  news  from  you. 

6.  Those  that  are  cast  down  — 
In  a  word  the  lowly ,  whether  in  spirit, 
position,  or  magnitude.  And  beauti¬ 
ful  is  the  characteristic  ascribed  here 
by  our  apostle’s  faith  to  God;  the  God 
that  consoles  the  lowly.  Men  are  apt 
to  fancy  that  God  is  too  great  to  mind 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


175 


of  Titus;  7  And  not  by  his  com¬ 
ing  only,  mbut  by  the  consolation 
wherewith  he  was  comforted  in 
you,  when  he  told  us  your  earnest 
desire,  your  mourning,  your  fer¬ 
vent  mind  toward  me;  so  that  I 
rejoiced  the  more.  8  For  though 
I  made  you  sorry  with  a  letter,  I 
do  not  repent,  "though  I  did  re¬ 
pent:  for  I  perceive  that  the  same 
epistle  hath  made  you  sorry,  though 
it  were  but  for  a  season.  9  Now 
I  rejoice,  not  that  ye  were  made 
sorry,  but  that  ye  sorrowed  to  re- 

m  Acts  11.  23;  Rom.  1.  12;  Col.  2.  5;  1  Thesa- 

3.  8;  2  John  4. - ttChap.  2.  4. - lOr,  accord- 

i ng  to  God. _ 

small  things.  But  inability  to  care  for 
the  very  smallest  as  well  as  the  great¬ 
est  would  not  be  greatness,  but  a  defect 
of  greatness.  God  is  truly  so  great,  so 
truly  omnipresent,  omniscient,  and  om¬ 
nipotent,  that  he  can  take  as  perfect  a 
care  of  the  smallest  thing  in  immensity 
or  in  eternity  as  if  that  thing  were  the 
only  thing  in  all  the  universe  that  he 
had  to  take  care  of.  Our  humblest 
prayer,  our  lightest  thought,  our  most 
secret  sin,  are  as  perfectly  known  to 
him  as  if  there  were  nothing  else  to 
know.  And  so  our  apostle  believes 
with  undoubting  faith  that  God  is  the 
consoler  of  his  humble  sorrows.  By 
— Rather,  in.  The  coming  —  The 
very  presence  of  Titus  was  refreshing 
to  his  spirit,  apart  from  the  message  he 
brought. 

7.  The  consolation  wherewith  he 
was  comforted — Titus  received  con¬ 
solation  from  the  Corinthians ;  and 
that  same  consolation  was  transferred 
to  St.  Paul’s  heart.  So  that  Paul  was 
consoled  with  the  same  consolation 
that  Titus  was  by  them.  Desire — 
Their  longing  for  Paul’s  presence  in 
Corinth.  Mourning  —  For  the  sin 
vvhigh  Paul  rebuked  in  them  in  his  first 
epistle.  Fervent  mind — Your  zeal 
in  my  behalf ;  that  is,  your  readiness 
to  maintain  my  cause  and  sustain  my 
gospel.  The  more — For  his  message 
in  addition  to  his  personal  presence. 

8.  A  letter — Rather,  the  letter ; 
namely,  his  first  epistle.  I  did  re¬ 
pent — His  human  feelings,  produced 


pentance:  for  ye  were  made  sorry 
1  after  a  godly  manner,  that  ve  might 
receive  damage  by  us  in  nothing. 
10  For  0  godly  sorrow  worketh  re¬ 
pentance  to  salvation  not  to  be  re¬ 
pented  of:  p but  the  sorrow  of  the 
world  worketh  death.  11  For  be¬ 
hold  this  self-same  thing,  that  ye 
sorrowed  after  a  godly  sort,  what 
q carefulness  it  wrought  in  you,  yea, 
what  clearing  of  yourselves,  yea, 
what  r  indignation,  yea,  what  fear, 
yea,  what  vehement  desire,  yea, 
what  zeal,  yea,  what  revenge!  In 

o  2  Sam.  12.  13;  Matt.  26.  75. - v  Prov.  17.  22. 

- q  1  Cor.  12.  25. r  2  Sara.  12.  5,  7 ;  Neh.  5.  6 ; 

Job  42. 6. _ _ 

by  disease,  so  subdued  him  that  he  re¬ 
gretted  his  having  written  even  an  in¬ 
spired  epistle.  But  God,  who  inspired, 
so  overruled  as  to  enable  him  to  see 
that  all  was  rightly  done.  For — This 
sentence  seems  somewhat  parenthetic. 
I  perceive — I  now  fully  understand 
from  the  statement  of  Titus. 

8.  Now — Earnestly  emphatic.  Now 
— .After  all  that  has  past  and  I  see  the 
whole  at  a  glance. 

9.  To  repentance — Over  their  sor¬ 
row  alone  he  could  not  rejoice ;  but 
over  a  sorrow  merging  into  repentance 
he  could  rejoice.  Sorry  after  a  godly 
manner  —  Literally,  sorry  according  to 
God.  A  sorrow  that  has  reference  to 
God  in  contradistinction  from  a  sorrow 
that  regards  the  world. 

1 0.  Godly  sorrow  —  Sorrow  in 
view  of  God,  his  law  and  judgment. 
Not  to  be  repented  of — An  unre- 
pentable  repentance.  Death  —  Not 
only  a  visible  death,  by  a  wasting  of 
the  body,  but  an  eternal  death,  from 
the  impenitent,  worldly,  godless  sorrow. 
Sad  destiny,  when  temporal  sorrow  does 
but  work  an  eternal  sorrow ! 

11.  Thing  —  Fact,  circumstance. 
Carefulness — Where  there  heretofore 
had  been  carelessness,  viz.,  in  not  ex¬ 
pelling  the  adulterous  offender.  Clear¬ 
ing — From  his  guilt ;  either  by  show¬ 
ing  to  Titus  that  you  had  no  responsi¬ 
bility  for  it,  or  by  promptly  proceeding 
to  expel  it.  Indignation — At  the  sin. 
Fear — Of  the  divine  penalt}''  from  the 
apostle’s  interdict.  Desire — Longmg 


176 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


all  things  ye  have  approved  your¬ 
selves  to  be  clear  in  this  matter. 

12  Wherefore,  though  I  wrote  un¬ 
to  you,  I  did  it  not  for  his  cause 
that  had  done  the  wrong,  nor  for 
his  cause  that  suffered  wrong, 5  but 
that  our  care  for  you  in  the  sight 
of  God  might  appear  unto  you. 

13  Therefore  we  were *  1  comforted 
in  your  comfort :  yea,  and  exceed¬ 
ingly  the  more  joyed  we  for  the  joy 
of  Titus,  because  his  spirit  uwas 
refreshed  by  you  all.  14  For  if  I 
have  boasted  any  thing  to  him  of 
you,  I  am  not  ashamed;  but  as  we 
spake  all  things  to  you  in  truth, 


a  Chap.  2.  4. - 1  Rom.  12.  15;  1  Cor.  12.  26;  Phil. 

2.  28. - u  Rom.  15.  32. 


for  Paul’s  presence.  Zeal — Earnest 
purpose  to  punish  the  transgressor. 
Revenge — Used  here  in  a  good  sense 
for  justice  against  the  guilty.  Clear 
— Free  from  blame  in  the  final  result. 

1 2.  His  cause  that  had  done  the 
wrong — The  incestuous  transgressor. 
Tl3at  suffered — The  father.  Here  St. 
Paul  assures  them  that  it  was  not  to 
right  the  parties  that  he  wrote’  but  to 
right  the  Church.  There  were  count¬ 
less  adulterers  in  Corinth,  but  Paul  did 
not  interfere  with  them,  as  they  be¬ 
longed  not  to  the  Church,  and  so  did 
not  corrupt  it.  Our  care — Literally, 
that  your  zeal  for  us  might  be  manifested 
among  you  before  God.  His  object  was 
to  inspire  among  them  a  genuine  Paul¬ 
ine  zeal  before  God. 

13.  Your  comfort. .  .joy  of  Titus 
— Paul  sympathized  with  both  Corinth 
and  Titus.  Their  comfort  was  his 
comfort;  Titus’s  joy  was  his  joy. 

14.  Boasted. .. ashamed  —  Paul 
takes  care  to  offer  Titus  to  their  High 
respect.  Titus  had  justified  his  highest 
boasts. 

16.  Confidence  —  In  this  word  is 
the  final  seal  of  settlement  of  all  mis¬ 
givings  between  St.  Paul  and  his  Co¬ 
rinthians.  The  agonies  of  suspense  and 
distrust  are  all  over,  and  their  hearts 
are  one.  He  will  meet  them  again  as 
their  assured  apostle.  And  he  will 
now  exhibit  his  confidence  in  their 


even  so  our  boasting,  which  I  made 
before  Titus,  is  found  a  truth. 
15  And  his  2  inward  affection  is 
more  abundant  toward  you,  whilst 
he  remembereth  vthe  obedience  of 
you  all,  how  with  fear  and  trem¬ 
bling  ye  received  him.  16  I  rejoice 
therefore  that  WI  have  confidence 
in  you  in  all  things. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

OREOVER,  brethren,  we  do 
you  to  wit  of  the  grace  of  God 
bestowed  on  the  churches  of  Mace¬ 
donia;  2  How  that,  in  a  great 
trial  of  affliction,  the  abundance  of 


2Gr.  bowels;  chap.  6.  12. - v  Chap.  2.  9;  PhiL. 

2.  12. - w‘2  Thess.  3.  4;  Philem.  8,  2i. 


fidelity  by  moving  them  to  open  their 
pockets,  and  give  a  generous  lead  in 
furnishing  funds  for  the  poor  saints  at 
Jerusalem. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

3.  And  he  exhorts  them  to  make 
a  liberal  contribution,  viii,  1-ix,  15. 

a.  By  the  Macedonian  example ,  1-8. 

St.  Paul,  as  above  remarked,  hoped 
to  win  the  Corinthians  to  himself  only 
by  bringing  them  to  a  higher  plane  of 
piety ;  and  as  they  have  so  done  and 
come  into  his  full  confidence,  as  noted 
last  verse,  he  now  draws  them  out  to 
self-sacrifice  in  behalf  of  Christianity. 
“No  man,”  said  Captain  Webb,  our 
early  soldier  preacher,  “  is  fully  con¬ 
verted,  until  he  is  converted  in  the 
pockets.” 

1.  Do  you  to  wit  —  Make  you  to 
know.  Grace — Without  overlooking 
or  slighting  the  human  excellence  of 
the  liberality,  St.  Paul  thankfully  first 
refers  to  the  divine  side  of  the  blessed 
movement.  Though  human  freedom 
concurred  and  acted,  yet  divine  grace 
opened  the  way  and  inspired  the  action. 
Macedonia — Where  the  apostle  was 
now  writing  this  epistle,  surrounded 
by  the  brethren  in  whose  large-heart- 
edness  he  is  now  exulting. 

2.  Affliction — Persecutions,  as  nar¬ 
rated  in  the  first  epistle  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians.  Abundance  —  Nominative, 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


177 


their  joy  and  a  their  deep  poverty 
abounded  unto  the  riches  of  their 
'liberality.  3  For  to  their  power, 
I  bear  record,  yea,  and  beyond 
their  power  they  were  willing  of 
themselves  ;  4  Praying  us  with 

much  entreaty  that  we  would  re¬ 
ceive  the  gift,  and  take  upon  us 
bthe  fellowship  of  the  ministering 
to  the  saints.  5  And  this  they  did , 
not  as  we  hoped,  but  first  gave 
their  own  selves  to  the  Lord,  and 
unto  us  by  the  will  of  God.  6  In¬ 
somuch  that  c  we  desired  Titus, 

a- Mark  12.  44. - 1  Gr.  simplicity,  chap.  9. 11. 

- b  Acts  11.  29;  24.17;  Rom.  15.  25,  26;  1  Cor. 

16. 1,  3,  4;  chap.  9.  1. - c  Verse  17;  chap.  12. 18. 

together  with  poverty,  to  abounded. 
Their  joy  in  the  midst  of  persecution, 
and  their  very  depth  of  poverty,  (re¬ 
sulting  largely  from  their  persecution,) 
nevertheless  overflowed  in  liberality. 
The  Church  at  Philippi,  where  St.  Paul 
writes  this,  commenced  existence  with 
the  jailer  and  Lydia,  pillars,  and  Luke, 
soon  after  as  its  pastor.  Persecution 
afflicted  and  impoverished  it ;  but  Paul 
rejoices  to  exhibit  its  bright  example 
to  the  rich  Church  of  Corinth  for  lib¬ 
erality. 

The  passage  3-5  makes  meaning  as 
translated,  but  not  the  true  Greek  mean¬ 
ing.  Strike  out  the  italic  phrases  in¬ 
serted  by  the  translator,  strike  out 
that  we  would  receive,  a  false  read¬ 
ing,  and  bring  the  word  gave,  in 
thought,  to  the  beginning  of  the  sen¬ 
tence,  and  we  have  the  following  :  For 
I  testify  that  they  voluntarily ,  according 
to  their  power ,  and  above  their  power , 
gave,  with  much  entreaty  imploring  of 
us  the  privilege  and  the  fellowship  in  the 
contribution  to  the  saints',  and,  not  merely 
as  we  hoped ,  but  more ,  they  first  gave 
themselves  to  the  Lord  and  to  us,  through 
God's  will.  And  so  read,  every  word 
is  an  additional  touch  to  the  richness 
of  the  picture  of  Macedonian  liberality. 
Their  voluntariness — surpassing  their 
ability  —  begging  the  opportunity  of 
giving  as  a  grace  and  a  fellowship, 
is  all  based  in  the  fact  that  they  had 
already  given  themselves  to  Jesus,  and 
®o  to  Jesus’  faithful  apostle,  in  ac- 

Vol.  IV.— 12 


that  as  he  had  begun,  so  he  would 
also  finish  in  you  the  same *  2 * * * 6 7 8 9  grace 
also.  7  Therefore,  as  d  ye  abound 
in  every  thing ,  in  faith,  and  utter¬ 
ance,  and  knowledge,  and  in  all 
diligence,  and  in  your  love  to  us, 
see  ethat  ye  abound  in  this  grace 
also.  8  f  I  speak  not  by  com¬ 
mandment,  but  by  occasion  of  the 
forwardness  of  others,  and  to  prove 
the  sincerity  of  your  love. 

0  For  ye  know  the  grace  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  £  that,  though 
he  was  rich,  yet  for  your  sakes  he 

2  Or,  gift,  verses  4,  19. - d  1  Cor.  1.  5;  chap. 

12.  13. - e  Chap.  9.  8. - fl  Cor.  7.  6. - g  Matt. 

8.  20 ;  Luke  9.  58 ;  Phil.  2.  6,  7. 

cordance  with  the  divine  will.  Sole¬ 

ly  blessed  is  that  giving  which  comes 

from  a  surrendered  heart ;  and  a  close 

test  of  the  heart  is  a  rich  readiness  to 

give. 

6.  Titus. .  .begun.  .  .finish — Titus 
was  bearer  of  the  first  epistle  to  Cor¬ 
inth,  and  he  appears  to  have  initiated 
a  fulfilment  of  1  Cor.  xvi,  1-3,  in  regard 
to  collections.  Incited  by  the  gener¬ 
osity  of  the  Macedonians,  Paul  decides 
that  Titus  is  the  man  to  complete  the 
contribution  in  Corinth ;  as,  having  wit¬ 
nessed  the  bright  Macedonian  example, 
he  was  prepared  to  rouse  Corinth  to  a 
joyous  emulation. 

7.  Abound  .  .  .  faith  .  .  .  utterance 
. .  .  knowledge  —  The  gifts  of  the  Co¬ 
rinthians,  so  fully  commemorated  in  the 
first  epistle,  (1  Cor.  xii,  8,  9,)  were  an 
ample  reason  why  they  should  not  fail 
in  the  noble  gift  of  generous  liber¬ 
ality. 

8.  By  commandment  —  Rather, 

with  commandment.  He  does  not  com¬ 
mand  but  recommend  this.  To  prove 
—  To  test,  to  give  occasion  for  self¬ 
manifestation. 

b.  By  Christ's  example ,  and  their  will¬ 
ing  mind ,  9-12. 

9.  For — Inasmuch  as,  being  Christ¬ 
ians,  you  assume  Christ  as  your  su¬ 
preme  example.  Ye  know  —  For 
hough  no  gospel  was  as  yet  written, 
the  life  of  Christ  was  known  to  every 
trained  Christian.  Rich — With  that 
glory  which  he  had  before  the  world 


178 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58 


became  poor,  that  ye  through  his 
poverty  might  be  rich.  10  And 
herein  hI  give  my  advice:  for ‘this 
is  expedient  for  you,  who  have 
begun  before,  not  only  to  do,  but 
also  to  be  3  k  forward  a  year  ago. 
11  Now  therefore  perform  the  do¬ 
ing  of  it;  that  as  there  was  a  readi¬ 
ness  to  will,  so  there  may  be  a  per¬ 
formance  also  out  of  that  which 
ye  have.  12  For  1  if  there  be  first 
a  willing  mind,  it  is  accepted  ac¬ 
cording  to  that  a  man  hath,  and 
not  according  to  that  he  hath  not. 

h  1  Cor.  7.  25. - i  Prov.  19.  17;  Matt.  10.  42; 

1  Tim.  6.  18,  19 ;  Heb.  13.  10. - 3  Greek,  will¬ 
ing. - k  Chap.  9.  2. 

was.  John  xvii,  5.  Became  poor  — 
By  the  assumption  of  a  despised  and 
distressed  humanity.  Rich  —  With 
an  eternal  glory  after  this  world  has 
passed  away.  Herein  is  a  divine  model 
for  human  imitation.  This  text  implies 
Christ’s  existence  before  his  assump¬ 
tion  of  humanity. 

10.  Advice-^-Not  commandment, 

verse  8*  This — Advising  and  not  com¬ 
manding.  Expedient — Rather,  befit¬ 
ting ;  befitting  because  they  had,  a 
year  ago,  begun  not  only  to  do,  but 
to  be  determined  in,  the  benefaction. 

11.  Perform — Finish,  complete  the 
actual  doing.  Let  not  the  perform¬ 
ance  merge  into  a  mere  readiness  to 
will.  There  are  a  great  many  who  are 
always  ready  to  do  good,  but  somehow 
their  good  never  gets  done.  Paul  wants 
not  the  readiness  but  the  money. 

12.  A  willing  mind — A  readiness; 
and  this  readiness,  by  a  sort  of  person¬ 
ification,  is  the  subject  of  all  the  verbs. 
Literal  rendering:  If  there  be  a  readi¬ 
ness,  it  is  accepted  according  to  what 
it  hath,  not  according  to  what  it  hath 
not.  A  man  can  be  required  to  do  only 
as  he  has  power;  unless  he  has  flung 
his  power  away.  And  with  the  same 
proviso  a  man  can  be  required  to  will 
only  what  he  has  power  to  will. 

c.  By  assurance  of  fair  proportion - 
ment ,  13-15. 

13.  Eased. .  .burdened  —  There 
was  to  be  a  reciprocity,  an  exchange 
of  liberalities,  when  needed.  Proud 


IS  For  I  mean  not  that  m other 
men  be  eased,  and  ye  burdened: 
14  But  by  an  equality,  that  now 
at  this  time  your  abundance  may 
be  a  supply  for  their  want,  that 
their  abundance  also  may  be  a  sup¬ 
ply  for  your  want ;  that  there  may 
be  equality:  15  As  it  is  written, 
n  He  that  had  gathered  much  had 
nothing  over;  and  he  that  had  gath¬ 
ered  little  had  no  lack. 

10  But0  thanks  be  to  God,  which 
put  the  same  earnest  care  into  the 
heart  of  Titus  for  you.  17  For 

l  Mark  12.  43,  44';  Luke  21.  23. - m  Acts  4.  34 ; 

Roin.  15.  2(5,27. - n  Exod.  16. 18. - o  Ezra  7.  27  ; 

Neh.  2.  12;  Jer.  31.  31;  Col.  3. 17. _ 

Corinth  might  again  be  laid  in  ashes, 
and  poor  Jerusalem,  who  now  begs 
her  aid,  might  be  her  benefactor. 

14.  An  equality — A  mutual  equal¬ 
ization  of  subsistence.  The  surplus 
of  the  prosperous  was  ever  to  overflow 
to  supply  the  needs  of  the  unfortunate. 
Thus  should  the  great  Christian  repub¬ 
lic  become  a  mutual  aid  association. 
This  was,  in  fact,  an  essential  exten¬ 
sion,  over  the  whole  Church,  of  tho 
primitive,  falsely  so  called,  community 
of  goods,  first  existing  at  Jerusalem. 
See  notes  on  Acts  ii,  4.  Lucian,  the 
pagan  satirist,  keenly  describes  the 
Christian  readiness  of  mutual  aid. 

15.  Written — Exod.  xvi,  18.  The 
apostle  gives  nearly  the  words  of  the 
Septuagint.  They  are  quoted  by  him 
simply  as  a  felicitous  description  of  the 
equalization.  As  Jehovah  provided  a 
cheerful  equalization  of  the  manna,  so 
that  there  was  neither  surplus  nor 
lack,  so,  under  Christ,  through  Christ¬ 
ian  beneficence,  there  may  be  neither 
unequal  wealth  nor  want. 

d.  And  ti'usty  ronveyers ,  16-24. 

St.  Paul,  in  view  of  possible  imputa¬ 
tions,  is  profoundly  careful  that  his  own 
fingers  shall  never  touch  the  collected 
funds.  He  nominates  men  to  act,  but 
they  are  men  above  suspicion,  and  by 
all  approved.  It  must  be  wholly  a  pub¬ 
lic  transaction,  not  only  above  wrong, 
but  above  suspicion. 

16.  Same  earnest  care — Rather, 
zeal ;  namely,  zeal  the  same  as  Paul’s 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


179 


indeed  lie  accepted  Ptlie  exhorta¬ 
tion  ;  but  being  more  forward,  of 
his  own  accord  he  went  unto  you. 
18  And  we  have  sent  with  him 
*  the  brother,  whose  praise  is  in 

p  Verse  6. - q  Chap.  12. 18. - r  1  Cor.  16.  3,  4. 

in  behalf  of  the  charity.  Put  .  . 
heart — He  recognises  the  zeal  as  the 
moving  of  the  blessed  Spirit  in  Titus’s 

heart. 

17.  Accepted  the  exhortation  — 

That  is,  the  above  invitation ,  verse  6. 
The  past  tense  of  the  verbs  of  this  en¬ 
tire  paragraph  (vv.  1 6-24)  represent  the 
present  time,  as  Paul  really  speaks  as 
from  the  time-point  of  their  reading  his 
letter.  Went  unto  you — Has  come 
to  you  with  this  epistle,  in  view  of  the 
collections,  both  from  my  invitation 
and  his  more  forward  readiness. 

18.  We  have  sent  —  With  this 
epistle  and  in  regard  to  the  collections. 
The  brother — The  long  debated  ques¬ 
tion  who  this  brother  was,  has,  we 
think,  been  completely  set  at  rest  by 
Baynes  in  his  “  Horse  Lucanse.”  See 
notes  on  Luke  xxiv,  13 ;  Acts  vi,  9  ; 
and  xiii,  1.  The  proofs,  both  negative 
and  affirmative,  ail  centre  upon  Luke. 
First  we  may  exclude  Barnabas,  Silas, 
and  Mark,  for  all  the  probabilities  are, 
that  none  of  these  three  were  in  pres¬ 
ent  association  with  him,  but  that  they 
were  at  a  distance  from  Macedonia, 
and  so  could  not  have  been  sent  from 
there.  We  may  also  exclude  Trophi¬ 
mus,  named  by  Alford,  for,  1.  Paul’s  ac¬ 
quaintance  with  him  commenced  after 
this  time,  Acts  xx,  4 ;  and,  2.  Trophi¬ 
mus  does  not  appear  at  this  time  to 
have  had  any  notoriety  in  the  gospel 
throughout  all  the  Churches.  Pos¬ 
itively  in  favour  of  Luke:  1.  He  was 
in  all  probability,  as  appears  from  our 
notes  above  quoted,  here  at  Philippi. 

2.  A  few  months  after  writing  this, 
Paul,  in  his  epistle  to  Rome  from  Cor¬ 
inth,  sends  Lucius’  greetings ;  from 
which  it  is  clear  that  Luke  did  go  to 
Corinth  at  or  shortly  after  the  send¬ 
ing  of  this  epistle.  Note,  Acts  xiii,  1. 

3.  How  intimate  Luke  was  with  Paul, 
now  and  later,  appears  from  the  fact 
that  when  Paid  and  company  departed 


the  gospel  throughout  all  the 
churches;  19  And  not  that  only, 
but  who  was  also  r  chosen  of  the 
.  churches  to  travel  with  us  with 
this  4  grace,  which  is  administered 

4  Or,  gift ,  verses  4,  6,  7;  chap.  9.  8. 

from  Corinth  with  the  contributions  in 
route  through  Macedonia  to  Jerusalem, 
j  Paul,  even  in  separating  from  the  rest 
j  of  his  retinue,  took  Luke  with  him. 
j  Acts  xx,  5,  6.  Trophimus  was  in  the 
company  left.  4.  The  phrase  in  the 
gospel  has  its  weight.  For  even  if 
we  do  not  insist,  with  Mr.  Baynes,  that 
Luke  had  already  written  his  Gos¬ 
pel  at  Antioch,  and  if  we  admit  that 
Luke’s  written  Gospel  is  not  here  des¬ 
ignated,  we  can  assuredly  claim  that 
the  word  gospel  always  has  a  tinge  of 
reference  to  the  Christ-history  as  the 
basis  and  true  embodiment  of  the 
Christian  scheme  and  doctrine.  It  is 
undoubtedly  true  that  Luke’s  genius 
was  decidedly  historical,  and  as  a 
teacher  at  Antioch,  (Acts  xiii,  1,)  the 
gospel  and  pentecostal  history  were 
doubtless  peculiarly  the  base  of  his 
teachings.  That  in  this  department 
he  was  famous  among  the  Churches  is 
probable ;  and  certainly,  taken  in  con¬ 
nexion  with  the  fact  of  the  subsequent 
actual  publication  of  his  gospel,  we 
think  the  great  force  of  this  phrase 
must  be  confessed.  5.  The  superscrip¬ 
tion  at  the  end  of  the  epistle,  though 
by  no  means  decisive,  has  its  weight 
in  favour  of  Luke.  6.  In  favour  of 
Luke  are  Origen,  Primasius,  Jerome, 
Whitby,  Wordsworth,  and  others. 

19.  Chosen  of  the  Churches  — 
The  brother  is  not  now  merely  nomi¬ 
nated  by  St.  Paul  and  sent  by  his  au¬ 
thority.  Were  that  the  case,  cavillers 
might  insinuate  a  plot.  But  he  is 
named  by  Paul  as  by  the  Macedonian 
Churches  elected.  Luke’s  position  with 
those  Churches  we  have  indicated  in 
our  note  on  Acts  xvi,  10.  To  travel 
with  us  —  To  carry  the  benefactions 
from  Corinth  to  Jerusalem.  With 
this  grace — The  charitable  contribu¬ 
tion.  To  the  glory  —  Depends  not 
upon  administered  but  upon  chosen. 
The  brother  was  for  this  mission  chos- 


180 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


by  us  8  to  the  glory  of  the  same 
Lord,  and  declaration  of  your  ready 
mind  :  20  Avoiding  this,  that 

no  man  should  blame  us  in  this 
abundance  which  is  administered 
by  us:  21  Providing  for  honest 
things,  not  only  in  the  sight  of  the 
Lord,  but  also  in  the  sight  of  men. 
22  And  we  have  sent  with  them 
our  brother,  u  whom  we  have  of¬ 
tentimes  proved  diligent  in  many 
things,  but  now  much  more  dili- 

8  Chap.  4.  15. - ^  Rom.  12.  17;  Phil.  4.  8;  1  Pet. 

2. 12. - u  Phil.  2.  20,  22. 

en,  literally,  to  subserve  the  glory  of 
the  same  Lord,  and.  .  .your  ready 
mind. 

20.  Avoiding  —  Refers  to  we  in 
ver.  18.  This  abundance — In  regard 
to  the  large  amount  of  money  collected 
and  administered,  that  is,  distributed 
at  Jerusalem. 

21.  Honest — In  its  old  sense  hon¬ 
ourable — above  wrong  and  above  sus¬ 
picion.  In .  . .  sight  of  men — Guard¬ 
ing  wisely  not  only  against  evil,  but 
against  the  appearance  of  evil. 

22.  Our  brother  —  Mr.  Baynes 
makes  it  clear  that  St.  Paul  here  des¬ 
ignates  Erastus.  He  was  sent  b}r 
Paul  with  Timothy  to  Macedonia.  The 
result  of  their  labours  there  before  St. 
Paul’s  arrival  is  described  in  vv.  1-6. 
Erastus  soon  after  this  is  at  Corinth, 
(Rom.  xvi,  23,)  and  took  his  residence 
there,  2  Tim.  iv,  20.  It  is,  indeed,  ob¬ 
jected  that  the  Erastus  of  Rom.  xvi,  23 
could  not  have  been  Paul’s  compan¬ 
ion  at  Ephesus,  inasmuch  as  he  was 
chamberlain  of  the  city.  But  how 
long  he  had  laboured  with  Paul  at 
Ephesus  is  not  said  ;  and  in  being  sent 
around  by  Macedonia,  he  was  only 
going  by  a  circuitous  route  home  to 
Corinth.  Chamberlain  means  treas¬ 
urer,  financier ;  and  this  will  accord 
with  Paul’s  eulogy,  that  he  had  been 
diligent  in  many  things  j  that  is, 
efficient  in  many  business  matters.  Or 
it  may  be  thought  that  Paul,  in  giv¬ 
ing  his  greetings  to  Rome,  mentions 
Erastus’  official  rank  as  formerly  hav¬ 
ing  been  city  treasurer.  More  dili¬ 
gent.  .  .confidence  in  you — Striking 


gent,  upon  the  great  confidence 
which  bI  have  in  you.  23  Wheth¬ 
er  any  do  inquire  of  Titus,  he  is 
my  partner  and  fellow  helper  con¬ 
cerning  you  :  or  our  brethren  be 
inquired  of  they  are  v  the  mes¬ 
sengers  of  the  churches,  and  the 
glory  of  Christ.  24  Wherefore 
show  ye  to  them,  and  before  the 
churches,  the  proof  of  your  love, 
and  of  our  w  boasting  on  your  be¬ 
half. 


5  Or,  he  hath. - cPhilippians  2.  25. - icChap. 

7.  14 ;  9.  2. 

out  the  I  have ,  inserted  by  the  transla¬ 
tors,  we  translate  the  passage,  but  now 
much  more  energetic  from  his  much  confi¬ 
dence  in  you.  Erastus  was  all  the  moro 
suitable  for  raising  collections  at  Cor¬ 
inth  from  the  fact  that  being  himself 
a  Corinthian  he  had  full  confidence  of 
success. 

23.  Inquire  of  Titus — In  regard  to 

Titus.  To  all  questioning  die  standing 
of  Titus,  Paul  gives  his  own  certifica¬ 
tion.  Titus  is  last  mentioned,  but  the 
only  one  named.  The  others  were  but 
messengers,  he  partner  and  fellow 
helper.  How  faithfully  he  laboured 
and  discharged  the  responsible  duties 
committed  to  him  by  the  apostle,  is 
evident  from  Paul’s  epistle  to  him  at 
Crete.  Our  brethren — The  other  two, 
Luke  and  Erastus ;  or  rather,  as  with- 
out  the  Greek  article,  in  general, 
brethren  of  ours.  Messengers — Greek, 
apostles;  the  word  being  used,  however, 
in  its  broader  sense  of  messengers ; 
a  class  by  whom  the  intercourse  be¬ 
tween  the  different  Churches  of  the 
Christian  republic  was  maintained. 
Glory  of  Christ — Persons  whose  life 
is  devoted  to  the  honour  of  Jesus. 

24.  Show... to  them  —  Literally, 
Show  befoi'e  all  the  Churches ,  in  their 
behalf  the  exhibition  of  your  love  and  of 
our  boasting  of  you.  Paul  desired  that 
his  own  friends  in  Corinth  would  make 
such  public  demonstration  of  their  re¬ 
gard  for  his  deputies,  as  well  as  of  his 
own  boasting  of  Corinthian  liberality, 
as  would  impress  the  Churches  to  fa¬ 
vour  the  deputies  and  make  good  his 
own  boasts. 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


181 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FOR  as  touching  athe  minister¬ 
ing  to  the  saints,  it  is  super¬ 
fluous  for  me  to  write  to  you : 
2  For  I  know  b  the  forwardness 
of  your  mind,  efor  which  I  boast 
of  you  to  them  of  Macedonia,  that 
d  Achaia  was  ready  a  year  ago; 
and  your  zeal  hath  provoked  very 
many.  3  e  Yet  have  I  sent  the 
brethren,  lest  our  boasting  of  you 
should  be  in  vain  in  this  behalf; 
that,  as  I  said,  ye  may  be  ready: 
4  Lest  haply  if'  they  of  Macedo¬ 
nia  come  with  me,  and  find  you 
unprepared,  we  (that  we  say  not, 

aActs  11.  29;  Romans  15.  26;  1  Corinthians 

16. 1 ;  chapter  8.  4 ;  Galatians  2. 10. b  Chapter 

8.  19. - c  Chapter  8.  24. - d  Chapter  8.  10. - 

e  Chapter  8.  6,  17, 18,  22. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

d.  By  need  of  their  promptly  sustain¬ 
ing  his  boasts  in  their  behalf  to  the  Mace¬ 
donians  ,  1-5. 

1.  For — Alludes  to  our  boasting  in 

last  verse,  and  thereby  closely  connects 
the  language.  Ministering  —  The 
contributions  to  the  saints  at  Jerusa¬ 
lem.  Superfluous — And  so  he  writes 
here  not  so  much  about  the  minister¬ 
ing  itself,  as  about  finishing  it  prompt¬ 
ly,  in  order  to  verify  his  boasts  in  their 
behalf  if  any  Macedonians  should  visit 
Corinth  soon,  as,  indeed,  they  might  in 
company  with  himself  when  he  should 
come  to  Corinth. 

2.  Achaia — The  Grecian  province 
of  which  Corinth  was  the  capital,  some¬ 
times  including  all  Southern  Greece. 
A  year  ago — See  note,  chap,  vii,  10. 
Provoked  very  many — The  apostle 
arouses  each  by  the  example  of  the 
other.  Poor  Macedonia  was  wealthy 
in  her  heart  of  benevolence,  viii,  1-4  ; 
and  richer  Achaia  was  inspiring  her 
with  her  early  leadership. 

3.  The  brethren — The  three  breth¬ 
ren,  Titus,  Luke,  and  Erastus.  Grotius 
quotes  from  Maimonides  the  statement 
that  the  Jews  were  accustomed  to  place 
three  commissioners  over  any  move¬ 
ment  of  contribution. 

4.  Haply — Perhaps.  We . .  .  ye — A 
happy  stroke  of  delicacy ! 


ye)  should  be  ashamed  in  this  same 
confident  boasting.  5  Therefore 

1  thought  it  necessary  to  exhort  the 
brethren,  that  they  would  go  before 
unto  you,  and  make  up  beforehand 
your *  1  bounty, 2 3 4  whereof  ye  had  no¬ 
tice  before,  that  the  same  might  be 
ready,  as  a  matter  of  bounty,  and 
not  as  of  covetousness. 

6  f  But  this  I  say ,  He  which 
soweth  sparingly  shall  reap  also 
sparingly ;  and  he  which  soweth 
bountifully  shall  reap  also  boun¬ 
tifully.  7  Every  man  according 
as  he  purposeth  in  his  heart,  so 
let  him  give ;  s  not  grudgingly,  or 

1  Greek,  blessing ,  Gen.  33.  11 ;  1  Sam.  25.  27 ; 

2  Kings  5. 15. - 2  Or,  which  hath  been  so  much, 

spoken  of  before. — -/Prov.  11.  24 ;  19. 17 ;  22. 9 ; 
Gal.  6.  7,  9. - g  Deut.  15.  7. 


5.  Before. .  .beforehand. .  .before 

— Paul  is  intensely  earnest  that  the  Co¬ 
rinthian  preparation  shall  be  ahead  of 
the  Macedonian  inspection.  The  first 
before  means  antecedent  to  St.  Paul’s 
visit  to  Corinth.  Bounty  —  Greek, 
blessing ;  as  being  in  the  spirit  of  bless¬ 
ing  by  the  donor,  and  with  the  effect 
of  blessing  on  the  receiver.  Hence  the 
word  is  well  rendered  benefaction,  oi 
bounty.  Covetousness — Or  rather, 
overreaching ;  that  is,  as  though  over¬ 
reached  or  cheated  into  giving.  For 
Paul  would  have  their  heart  to  so  cor¬ 
respond  with  the  bestowment  as  that 
it  may  be  blessed  in  the  deed. 

e.  By  promise  of  corresponding  re¬ 
ward,  6-11. 

6.  Soweth — Our  benefactions  are 
as  seeds  planted  in  the  bosom  of  God’s 
providence,  and  the  produce  is  meas¬ 
ured  by  the  planting.  Sparingly — A 
gentle  word  to  designate  the  covetous¬ 
ness  that  cheats  the  needy,  but  more 
terribly  cheats,  in  the  end,  the  covetous 
churl  himself.  Bountifully  —  Richly 
expressed  by  Paul,  he  that  soweth  upon 
(the  principle  of)  blessings  shall  reap 
upon  blessings. 

7.  His  heart — The  gift  from  the 
churlish  hand  may  benefit  the  receiver, 
but  reacts  not  in  blessing  on  the  giver. 
Grudgingly — Literally,  not  from  grief, 
as  if  half  crying  over  the  loss  of  tlio 


182 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


:  A.  D.  58 


of  necessity:  for  h  God  loveth  a 
cheerful  giver.  8  ‘And  God  is 
able  to  make  all  grace  abound  to¬ 
ward  you ;  that  ye,  always  having 
all  sufficiency  in  all  things ,  may 
abound  to  every  good  work :  9  As 
it  is  written,  k  He  hath  dispersed 
abroad;  he  hath  given  to  the  poor: 
his  righteousness  remaineth  for 
ever.  10  Now  he  that  1  minister- 
eth  seed  to  the  sower  both  minis¬ 
ter  bread  for  your  food,  and  mul¬ 
tiply  your  seed  sown,  and  increase 
the  fruits  of  your  m  righteousness : 
11  Being  enriched  in  everything  to 
all *  3 4 * * *  bountifulness,  n  which  causeth 

h  Exod.  25.  2;  35.  5;  Prov.  11.  25;  Rom.  12.  8; 

chap.  8.  12. - i  Prov.  11.  24,  25  ;  28.  27;  Phil. 

4.  19. - &Psa.  112.  9. - Hsa.  55.  10. - mllos. 

10,  12 ;  Matt.  6.  1. _ 

money  given.  Necessity — From  the 

wringing  out  by  some  urgent  pleader, 
or  under  compulsion  of  some  unavoid¬ 
able  obligation.  Cheerful  —  Whose 
face  is  bright  and  heart  is  warm  as  he 
rejoices  in  the  good  that  may  be  done 
even  though  at  liis  own  expense. 

8.  God  is  able — To  him  who  dreads 
that  giving  will  impoverish  him,  Paul 
speaks  a  word  of  faith  in  God.  All 
grace  —  All  blessing,  temporal  and 
spiritual.  His  grace  can  make  the 
bountiful  giver  as  rich  as  Dives  with¬ 
out  his  Hades ;  or  if  he  is  left  as  poor 
as  Lazarus,  can  compensate  him  with 
Paradise.  Sufficiency — Ability  for 
giving. 

9.  Written — Psa.  cxii,  9  ;  quoted  as 
applicable  to  the  case.  He  —  J elio- 
vah.  Dispersed — Scattered  blessings. 
Righteousness  —  Divine  rectitude  as 
shown  in  beneficence.  Remaineth 
for  ever — Is  permanent  and  unchang¬ 
ing  through  all  ages. 

10.  Now  may  he — Words  of  pray¬ 
er  for  his  liberal-hearted  Corinthians. 
Your  seed  sown — Your  liberalities 
bestowed.  Righteousness — Your  pi¬ 
ety  in  the  form  of  benevolence. 

11.  Enriched — In  both  heart  and 
means.  To  all  bountifulness — To  a 
full  abundance  of  charitable  givings. 
Causeth.  .  .thanksgiving — The  ben¬ 
efaction  not  only  benefits  man,  but 
raises  a  rich  thanksgiving  to  God. 


through  us  thanksgiving  to  God 
12  For  the  administration  of  this 
service  not  only  0  supplieth  the 
want  of  the  saints,  but  is  abun¬ 
dant  also  by  many  thanksgivings 
unto  God;  13  While  by  the  ex¬ 
periment  of  this  ministration  they 
Pglorify  God  for  your  professed  sub¬ 
jection  unto  the  gospel  of  Christ, 
and  for  your  liberal  q  distribution 
unto  them,  and  unto  all  men ; 

14  And  by  their  prayer  for  you, 
which  long  after  vou  for  the  ex- 
ceeding  r  grace  of  God  in  you. 

15  Thanks  be  unto  God  8 9 10 11  for  his 
unspeakable  gift. 

3  Or,  liberality ;  Gr.  simplicity,  chap.  8.  2. 

- n  Chap.  1.  11;  4.  15. - o  Chap.  8.  14. - 

2>  Matt.  5.  16. - q  Heb.  13.  16. - r  Chap.  8.  1. 

- s  James  1.  17.  _ 

f.  By  the  gratitude  of  the  benefited 
parties ,  12-15. 

12.  Administration  of  this  service 

— The  besfiwvment  of  this  public  bene¬ 
faction.  Not  only  —  Literally,  Not 
only  is  filling  up  the  deficiencies  of  the 
saints ,  but  is  causing  to  abound  thanks - 
giving ,  through  many ,  to  God. 

13.  By  the  experiment  of  this 
ministration — By  the  proof  or  experi¬ 
ence  of  this  your  benefaction.  For 
your  professed  subjection  unto  the 
gospel — Literally,  for  the  subjection  of 
your  acknowledgment  to  the  gospel.  By 
this  public  gift  to  the  saints  of  Christ 
there  was  a  public  subjection  and  sub¬ 
mission  of  their  acknowledgment,  as¬ 
sent,  or  profession,  to  the  authority  of 
the  gospel.  The  gift  w*as  a  profession 
of  a  faith  in  subjection  to  the  gospel. 
Them — The  saints  at  Jerusalem.  Un¬ 
to  all — To  the  needy  generally.  Men 
is  not  in  the  Greek. 

14.  And  (they  glorify  God ,  continued 
from  last  verse)  by  their  prayer  for 
you  —  Made  with  a  longing  for  (the 
sight  of)  you.  For — On  account  of  the 
grace  of  God  superabounding  upon  you ; 
as  shown  by  this  your  superabounding 
beneficence. 

15.  Thanks — St.  Paul,  like  a  master 
chorister,  gives  the  first  keynote  to 
the  anthem  of  thanksgiving  to  God 
which  he  has,  with  such  a  glow,  been 
describing.  Gift — The  gift  of  that 


A.  1).  58. 


CHAPTER  X. 


183 


CHAPTER  X. 

NOW  1 1  Paul  myself  beseech 
you  by  the  meekness  and 

a  Rom.  12. 1. - b  Verse  10;  chap.  12.  5,  7,  9. 

gpirit  of  Christian  charity  that  thus 
pours  from  one  Church  upon  another. 
The  two  Churches  were  far  apart,  and 
different  in  race  and  language,  but  they 
were  one  in  their  unspeakable  gift  of 
Christian  love. 

- - 

PART  THIRD. 

THE  MEASUREMENT 

Of  St.  Paul  with  his  Opposers  in 
Corinth,  x,  1 — xiii,  10. 

CHAPTER  X. 

This  Third  Part  commences  in  a 
strain  so  new  and  strangely  different 
from  the  immediately  preceding  style 
that  some  critics  have  conjectured  that 
it  is  a  separate  epistle.  Others  sug¬ 
gest  that  the  opening  words  indicate 
that  whereas  the  previous  part  of  the 
epistle  was  written  by  an  amanuensis, 
now  commences  St.  Paul’s  own  hand. 
And  others  think,  finalty,  that  it  is  an 
afterthought,  subsequent  to  an  interval 
in  which  new  information  arrived  about 
his  enemies  in  Corinth  having  pro¬ 
duced  an  adverse  revolution  of  feeling. 
But  these  speculations  are  each  alike 
gratuitous.  The  real  truth  is,  that  the 
previous  part  of  the  epistle,  however 
affectionate  its  tone,  and  however  it 
seems  to  include  the  whole  Church  in 
its  expressions  of  affection,  does  keep 
an  eye  upon  the  small  adverse  party  in 
the  background.  On  the  contrary,  in 
this  Part  Third  Paul  brings  that  party 
into  the  foreground;  and  while  often 
severely  dealing  with  the  party  as  dis¬ 
tinct  from  the  loyal  Church,  does  as 
often  speak  without  so  discriminating ; 
and  at  other  times,  again,  he  speaks  of 
the  whole  with  the  same  affection  as 
pervades  the  former  part  of  the  epistle. 
The  solution  of  the  whole  difficulty  is, 
that  he  intended  that  each  man  should 
appropriate  what  truly  belonged  to  him. 

The  whole  section  has,  amid  much 
of  subordinate  meandering,  a  marked 


gentleness  of  Christ, b  who 1  in  pres¬ 
ence  am  base  among  you,  but  be¬ 
ing  absent  am  bold  toward  you: 

1  Or,  in  outward  appearance. 

unity,  and  rises  in  a  constant  climax ; 
the  climax  culminating  in  the  menace 
of  xiii,.  1-10.  After  a  series  of  prelimi¬ 
nary  allusions  and  replies,  the  apostle 
mounts  into  a  high  strain  of  defiant 
comparison ;  on  which  see  our  Intro¬ 
ductory  Note  to  xi,  22. 

# 

I.  Preliminaries  to  the  Measure¬ 
ment,  x,  1-xi,  21. 

1.  Insinuations  of  his  foes;  his 
weapons,  and  readiness  to  meet 
them,  1-11. 

1.  Now  I  Paul  myself — A  very 
bold  and  emphatic  presentation  of  him¬ 
self.  As  he  is  calling  his  assailants 
— perhaps  his  chief  assailant — to  the 
front,  so  he  presents  his  own  breast  to 
the  issue.  Timothy,  Titus,  and  Luke 
are  no  longer  at  his  side,  for  this  com¬ 
bat  touches  alone  himself — the  apostle. 
Beseech  you — Never  did  battle  begin 
more  gently.  Meekness  and  gentle¬ 
ness — Meekness  is  the  inward  tem¬ 
per  ;  gentleness  is  its  manifestation 
towards  others.  He  could  beg  that  he 
might  be  allowed  to  remain  within 
the  range  of  the  gentle  side  of  Christ’s 
being,  and  not  be  called  to  exercise  its 
sterner  judicial  functions.  Who  —  I. 
These  words  following  are  an  ironical 
quotation  of  his  opponents’  language. 
Base  —  Rather,  humble ,  subdued;  the 
opposite  of  bold,  or  confident. 

Of  these  bitter  assaults  made  upon 
St.  Paul  by  his  Ebionitic  opponents  we 
have  some  curious  specimens  in  a  work 
called  “  The  Clementines,”  &  work  com¬ 
posed  some  time  in  the  last  half  of  the 
second  century,  which  is  still  extant. 
These  Clementines,  so-called  from  their 
claim,  falsely  made,  to  have  been  com¬ 
posed  by  Clement,  bishop  of  Rome,  con¬ 
sist  mainly  of  professed  conversations 
between  apostles  and  apostolic  men,  as 
Peter,  James,  and  the  Elders.  Stanley 
has  selected  therefrom  a  number  of  ma¬ 
lignant  passages,  illustrative  of  their 
character.  Paul  is  unnamed,  but  rep¬ 
resented  under  the  appellation,  “  Simon 


184 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


2  But  I  beseech  you ,  cthat  I  may 
not  be  bold  when  I  am  present  with 
that  confidence,  wherewith  I  think 
to  be  bold  against  some,  which 
2  think  of  us  as  if  we  walked  ac¬ 


c  1  Cor.  4.  21 ;  chap.  13.  2, 10. - 2  Or,  reckon. 

- d Eph.  6.  13;  1  Thess.  5.  8. - el  Tim.  1.  18; 


Magus.”  Peter  is  alone  both  apostle 
of  Gentiles  and  Jews,  and  his  rival  Ma¬ 
gus,  alias  Paul,  is  a  “deceiver.”  “Al¬ 
though,”  says  Stanley,  “Peter  is  spoken 
of  as  ‘the  first  of  the  apostles,’  and 
as  appointing  Clement  to  the  See  of 
Rome,  yet  James  is  described  as  supe¬ 
rior  in  dignity  both  to  him  and  Clem¬ 
ent,  and  to  all  the  apostles ;  as  ‘  the 
lord  and  bishop  of  the  holy  Church,’ 
‘bishop  of  bishops,  ruling  the  Church¬ 
es  everywhere,’  ‘the  bishop,’  ‘the  arch¬ 
bishop;’  ‘the  chief  bishop,’  as  opposed 
to  Caiaphas  ‘the  chief  priest.’  So  the 
Ebionites  ‘adored  Jerusalem  as  the 
house  of  God.’  (Irenaeus,  Hcer .,  i,  26.) 
Compare  2  Cor.  i,  24,  and  xi,  5,  20,  and 
contrast  James  i,  1,  1  Peter  v,  2. 

“  St.  Peter  is  represented  as  warn¬ 
ing  St.  J ames  against  ‘  the  lawless  and 
foolish  teaching  of  the  enemy,’  ( rov 
ex^pov  av6pcj7rov ,)  who  perverts  ‘  the 
Gentiles  from  the  lawful  preaching  of 
Peter,’  and  who  misrepresents  Peter  ‘as 
though  he  thought  with  the  Gentiles, 
but  did  not  preach  it  openly.’  Com¬ 
pare  Gal.  ii,.  12,  14.  The  ‘enemy’  ( ho¬ 
mo  inimicus )  takes  part  in  a  conspiracy 
against  the  life  of  James,  and  receives 
letters  from  the  high  priest  to  perse¬ 
cute  Christians  at  Damascus.  Compare 
Acts  ix,  1. 

“  S-L  Peter  warns  his  congregation 
to  beware  of  ‘  any  apostle,  prophet,  or 
teacher,  who  does  not  first  compare  his 
preaching  with  that  of  James,  and  come 
with  witnesses,  lest  the  wickedness,’ 
which  tempted  Christ,  ‘afterwards,  hav¬ 
ing  fallen  like  lightning  from  heaven,’ 
(comp.  Acts  xxvi,  13,  14,)  ‘  should  send 
a  herald  against  you,  and  suborn  one 
who  is  to-  sow  error  (7r \avriv)  amongst 
you  as  it  suborned  this  Simon  against 
us,  preaching  in  the  name  of  our  Lord, 
under  pretence  of  the  truth.’  Com¬ 
pare  2  Cor.  iii,  1;  x,  12-18;  v,  12.” 
See  further,  note  on  Gal.  ii,  21. 


cording  to  the  flesh.  3  For  though 
we  walk  in  the  flesh,  we  do  not  war 
after  the  flesh :  4  (d  For  the  weap¬ 
ons  eof  our  warfare  are  not  car¬ 
nal,  but  f  mighty 2  3 4through  God  &to 


2  Tim.  2.  3. - ./Acts  7.  22 ;  1  Cor.  2.  5 ;  chap.  6.  7 ; 

13.  3,  4. - 3  Or,  to  God. - q  Jer.  1. 10. 


2.  But,  here,  may  be  omitted  in 
thought ;  and  I  beseech  you  is  a  re¬ 
iteration  (though  a  different  Greek 
word)  of  the  same  phrase  in  the  pre¬ 
vious  verse.  That,  is  essentially  de¬ 
pendent  upon  beseech  you,  in  ver.  1. 
Paul  begs  that  he  may  not  need  to  be 
bold ;  especially  may  not  be  obliged  to 
display  a  boldness  destructive  to  his 
assailants.  Confidence — Official,  apos¬ 
tolic  firmness.  Some — This  some  is 
the  arraigned,  but  unnamed,  party  of 
assailants.  According  to  the  flesh — 
As  a  false  apostle,  deceiving  the  peo¬ 
ple  for  my  own  self-interest. 

3.  In  the  flesh — In  the  human  bodv. 
War — The  gospel  of  peace  is  engaged 
in  a  holy  war.  Let  not  these  assail¬ 
ants  anticipate  in  its  apostolic  leader 
any  cowardice.  After  the  flesh  —  I 
am  engaged  in  a  warfare ;  but  not  of 
self-interest,  nor  with  material  armour. 

4.  Carnal — Such  as  are  used  in  sec¬ 
ular  and  bodily  wars.  They  are  neither 
wood,  nor  iron,  nor  brass;  neither 
shield,  nor  sword,  nor  spear.  But 
mighty — Let  not  the  opposer  triumph 
because  these  weapons  are  of  no  human 
armory.  They  are  mighty;  mighty 
enough  to  vanquish  the  mightiest  ma¬ 
terial  forces.  Through  God — More 
exactly,  to  God.  Material  arms  are 
mighty  to  man ;  these  dim  weapons 
are  mighty  to  God.  God  knows  how 
mighty  they  are,  for  they  are  God’s 
own  weapons.  Pulling  down — One 
implement  of  ancient  war  was  called 
the  crow ,  (see  next  page,)  and  its  use 
was  to  pull  down  the  walls  of  an  assault¬ 
ed  city.  But  the  weapons  of  divine 
truth  are  often  mightier  than  the  crow 
— pulling  down  false  philosophies,  false 
religions,  great  systems,  and  great  em¬ 
pires.  Strongholds  —  Military  posi¬ 
tions  with  massive  walls,  and,  perhaps, 
inaccessible,  by  nature,  to  the  assail¬ 
ant.  Cilicia,  the  hilly  province  of  the 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  X. 


185 


the  pulling  down  of  strongholds :) 
5  h Casting  down  4 imaginations, 
and  every  high  thing  that  exalt- 
eth  itself  against  the  knowledge 
of  God,  and  bringing  into  cap¬ 
tivity  every  thought  to  the  obe- 

h  1  Corinthians  1.  19;  3.  19. - 4  Or,  reason¬ 
ings. - i  Chapter  13.  2,  10. 

apostle’s  birth,  had  been  the  locality 
of  powerful  tribes  of  pirates,  who,  en¬ 
trenching  themselves  in  the  mountain 
fastnesses,  were  able,  for  a  while,  to 


defy  the  power  of  Roman  arms.  Cic¬ 
ero,.  the  Roman  orator,  led  an  army 
against  them  with  some  success,  and 
was  honoured  on  his  return  to  Rome 
with  a  triumph.  The  pirates  were 
finally  destroyed  by  Pompey  a  genera¬ 
tion  before  St.  Paul  was  born,  but  he 
was,  doubtless,  familiar  with  not  only 
the  story  of  the  war,  but  with  its  tra¬ 
ditional  localities  and  strongholds. 

5. .  Casting  —  This  participle,  like 
having,  in  ver.  6,  refers,  through  our, 
in  ver.  4,  to  we,  in  ver.  3.  Yer.  4  pa¬ 
renthetically  describes  the  weapons, 
but  vv.  3,  5,  describe  the  war  and  war¬ 
riors.  Imaginations — The  intellectual 
powers  for  which  strongholds  was 
the  figure.  The  word,  of  course,  is 


dience  of  Christ;  6  ’And  hav¬ 
ing  in  a  readiness  to  revenge  all 
disobedience,  when  k  your  obedi¬ 
ence  is  fulfilled.  7  JDo  ye  look 
on  things  after  the  outward  ap¬ 
pearance  ?  mIf  any  man  trust  to 

k  Chap.  2.  9;  7.  15. 1  John  7.  24;  chap.  5.  12; 

11. 18. - m  1  Cor.  14. 37 ;  1  John  4.  6. 

used  to  include  the  proud  fancies  and 
pretences  of  St.  Paul’s  assailants,  but 
comprehends  much  mightier  powers. 
Paul’s  weapons  were  yet  to  conquer 
the  Roman  empire;  much  more  de¬ 
stroy  the  figments  of  his  present  op¬ 
ponents.  Every  high  thing — Those 
proud  systems  of  Paganism  and  Juda¬ 
ism  which,  like  militar}^  towers,  re¬ 
joiced  in  their  height  and  strength. 
Against  the  knowledge  of  God  — 
Not  only  the  atheism  of  Epicurus  and 
Lucretius,  which  denied  God,  but  even 
the  purer  philosophy  of  Aristotle  and 
Plato,  so  far  as  they  stood  in  the  way 
of  the  genuine  knowledge  of  God  as 
revealed  in  Jesus  Christ. 

6.  Having — Parallel  with  casting, 
in  verse  5,  both  agreeing  with  we,  in 
verse  3.  Our  apostle  is  describing  the 
actual  war  which  we  are  waging ;  and 
while  depicting  it  in  the  grand  imagery 
of  vv.  4  and  5,  he  is  not  for  a  moment 
forgetting  the  smaller  enemies  now  in 
his  front ;  for,  as  before  remarked,  they 
are  included  as  the  less  in  the  greater. 
Revenge  —  A  judicial  term,  punish. 
All  disobedience  —  Such  as  is  excit¬ 
ed  by  the  Christine  party  in  Corinth. 
Your  obedience  is  fulfilled — When 
the  solid  Church  is  fully  unified,  and 
brought  to  a  perfect  accord  with  its 
founder  apostle,  then  will  due  penalty 
be  received  by  the  schismatics. 

L  Look  on... outward  appear¬ 
ance — St.  Paul  now  reverts  back  to 
his  starting  point  in  verse  1,  namely, 
the  criticism  of  the  Christines  on  his 
outward  presence.  Appearance — Re¬ 
fers  to  the  entire  external  display  of  the 
party,  their  rhetorical  show,  their  He¬ 
braism,  their  Jerusalemite  commission, 
their  claim  of  visible  connexion  with 
Christ.  All  these  stand  in  contrast 
with  the  deep,  pure,  internal  evangel¬ 
ism  of  St.  Paul,  which  proved  power¬ 
ful  and  all  conquering,  in  spito  of  his 


186 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


himself  that  he  is  Christ’s,  let 
him  of  himself  think  this  again, 
that,  as  he  is  Christ’s,  even  so 
are  n  we  Christ’s.  &  For  though 
I  should  boast  somewhat  more  of 
0  our  authority,  which  the  Lord 
hath  given  us  for  edification,  and 


not  for  your  destruction,  pI  should 
not  be  ashamed.  9  That  I  may 
not  seem  as  it  I  would  terrify  you 
by  letters  :  10  For  his  letters, 

say  they,  are  weighty  and  power¬ 
ful  ;  but  his  bodily  presence  is 
weak,  and  his  r  speech  contemp- 

" 1  10- 1  gl0orvV«^.nvy2  ^;^Sal-413- 

own  want  of  showiness.  Christ’s — 

Whatever  their  relation  to  Christ,  mine 
is,  to  say  the  least,  just  as  close. 

8-  For  —  In  support  of  his  asser¬ 
tion  that,  to  say  the  least ,  he  is  as  much 
Christ’s  as  they  are,  he  now  says  that 
he  need  not  be  ashamed  to  boast 
much  more  decidedly  of  the  authority 
received  direct  from ‘the  Lord  than  he 
ever  has  done.  If  they  could  claim 
to  belong  to  a  set  who  had  even  seen 
Christ  and  heard  him  preach,  he  had 
seen  Christ,  and  had  received  from 
him  a  personal  commission  as  an  apos¬ 
tle.  Not  for . . .  destruction — As  the 
Christines  are  daring  him  to,  vv.  9—1 1 
We  here  prefer  the  punctuation  which 
places  a  period  at  close  of  verse  8,  en¬ 
closes  verse  10  in  a  parenthesis,  and 
makes  a  complete  sentence  of  these 
three  verses.  The  meaning  is  then 
clear:  That  I  may  not,  according  to 
their  taunts,  seem  to  try  to  frighten  you 
by  my  letters,  please  assume  that  my 
presence  will  soon  prove  quite  as  pow¬ 
erful  as  my  letters.  What  he  lacks  in 
personal  presence  wall  be  supplied  by 
apostolic  authority. 

10.  Letters — How  many  letters  of 
St.  Paul’s  had  they  seen  ?  Perhaps  but 
one,  the  first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians. 

But  he  may  have  written  to  Corinth  a 
second.  Nay,  he  may  have  written,  and 
doubtless  did  write,  many  letters  that 
form  no  part  of  the  sacred  canon,  and 
have  not  been  preserved.  A  divine  guid¬ 
ance  directed  the  Church  in  selecting 
the  New  Testament  books.  Not  every 
casual  note  of  an  apostle  was  treasured 
for  future  ages.  Two  powerful  epistles 
had  been  written  to  Thessalonica ;  and 
it  is  by  no  means  improbable  that  copies 
of  them  were  already  read  and  revered 
in  the  Church  of  Corinth.  Say  they 
—The  Christines,  whose  names  are 


mercifully  spared.  Bodily  presence 
— Literally,  the  presence  of  his  body. 
The  expression  is  too  decided  to  admit 
a  just  doubt  that  Paul’s  bodily  person 
is  meant,  and  is  described  as  weak  in 
its  impression.  Without  referring  to 
the  uniform  traditions  on  this  subject, 
we  gather  from  Scripture  itself  due 
proof  of  this  fact.  The  Lystrans  (Acts 
xiv,  12)  styled  Barnabas  Jupiter,  and 
Paul  Mercurius.  This  clearly  indicates 
that  Barnabas  had  a  majestic  presence 
and  Paul  had  not.  ( See  note  on  the 
passage .)  But  more,  as  Mercurius  was 
god  of  eloquence,  so  it  is  clear  Paul  was 
held  by  them  to  be  eloquent,  and  was 
called  chief  speaker;  and  as  Mercurius 
was,  in  mythology,  held  to  be  small  and 
nimble,  such  was,  doubtless,  at  this,  his 
young  manhood,  Paul’s  person.  As 
years,  toils,  dangers,  ecstasies,  operated 
upon  his  original  powerful  bilious- 
nervous  temperament,  he  became,  for 
a  period,  over  nervous  and  epileptic. 
This  epileptic  tendency  overcame  him 
at  moments  when  all  his  powers  of 
oratory  were  needed,  overthrowing  and 
discrediting  him  at  the  decisive  mo¬ 
ment.  At  other  times  it  affected  and 
weakened  his  utterance,  so  as  to  make 
his  speech  contemptible.  This  ten¬ 
dency  disclosed  itself  soon  after  his 
great  ecstasies  described  in  1  Cor.  xiii, 
1-5,  (where  see  note,)  and  became  that 
thorn  in  the  flesh  which  lie  prayed 
in  vain  to  have  withdrawn.  It  was 
this  overwhelming  nervousness  which, 
under  pressure  of  his  anxiety  for  his 
dear  Corinthians,  made  him  darkly 
doubt  whether  his  first  inspired  epistle 
was  not  a  mistake  —  whether  all  his 
foundations  were  not  broken  up,  and 
the  abyss  of  death  were  not  opening 
beneath  him.  2  Cor.  i,  8-10.  Yet  there 
was  some  periodicity  in  these  fits. 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  X. 


187 


table :  11  Let  such  a  one  think 

this,  that,  such  as  we  are  in  word 
by  letters  when  we  are  absent,  such 
will  we  be  also  in  deed  when  we  are 
present. 

12  sFor  we  dare  not  make  our¬ 
selves  of  the  number,  or  compare 

«Chap.  3.  1:  5.  12;  Job  12.  2;  Prov.  25.  27; 

27.  2;  Luke  18.  11 ;  Rom.  15.  18. 

Some  of  his  grandest  efforts  of  oratory 
took  place  after  this.  In  particular,  his 
speech  before  Festus  and  Agrippa  was 
the  product  of  his  whole  nature  rallied 
to  the  top  of  its  powers.  Such  per¬ 
sistence  as  his,  through  long  years  of 
such  unparalleled  trials,  infallibly  pre¬ 
supposes  a  powerful  bilious  base.  This, 
overlaid  with  an  intense  nervous  ten¬ 
dency,  made  him  an  apparent  semi-in- 
valid,  often  unimpressive  in  his  pres¬ 
ence.  seemingly  incapable  of  endurance, 
and  yet  very  hardy  and  hard  to  kill. 
Contemptible  —  Alford  refers  this  to 
Paul’s  not  bringing  the  power  of  words 
and  rhetoric  to  bear  on  his  speeches. 
But  all  that  was  true  of  his  letters. 
Nay,  it  was  in  his  abjuring  rhetoric 
and  philosophy,  and  flinging  himself 
upon  his  pure,  deep  evangelism,  that 
his  power  and  impressiveness,  when 
present,  consisted.  The  defeat  of  Paul 
in  his  masterly  effort  at  Athens,  and 
his  loneliness  there  and  after  he  went 
to  Corinth,  did  for  awhile  all  but  par¬ 
alyze  him.  That  was  one  of  his  weak 
periods.  And  probably  all  his  first  res¬ 
idence  at  Corinth  was  characterized  by 
alternate  feebleness  and  power.  The 
thorn  in  the  flesh  rendered  his  utter¬ 
ance  at  times  contemptible. 

11.  Think — Count  upon,  assume. 
Letters. .  .absent.  .  .deed.  ..present 
— He  does  not  promise  that  his  elocu¬ 
tion  will  be  improved.  It  is  his  deed, 
not  his  speech,  that  will  be  as  pow¬ 
erful  as  his  letters. 

2.  Their  self-deceiving  mode  of 
measuring  contrasted  with  his 
mode,  12-18. 

Their  taunts  and  his  replies  thus 
far  now  suggest  the  idea  of  a  fair  and 
uncompromising  measurement  of  him¬ 
self  with  his  competitors.  And  this 
idea  of  measurement  forms  the  key¬ 
note  quite  to  the  conclusion  of  the 


ourselves  with  some  that  com¬ 
mend  themselves :  but  they,  meas¬ 
uring  themselves  by  themselves, 
and  comparing  themselves  among 
themselves,  Gare  not  wise.  13  1  But 
we  will  not  boast  of  things  with¬ 
out  our  measure,  but  according  to 

6  Or,  (Greek,)  understand  it  not. 
t  Verse  15. 

epistle.  These  cavillers  claim  to  be 
very  tall ;  let  us  see  whether  they  are 
taller  than  your  founder  apostle. 

12.  Dare  not — Ironical,  yet  with  a 
moral  truth  in  it.  Make  ourselves  of 
the  number — Literally,  place  ourselves 
in  line  with.  Some  that  commend 
themselves  —  This  some  not  only 
commended  themselves,  but,  by  a  false 
process,  commended  themselves  after 
a  low  standard,  as  he  will  now  show. 
Measuring  themselves  by  them¬ 
selves —  That  is,  the  set  measured 
themselves  by  their  own  set ;  and  as 
the  standard  of  the  whole  was  low,  it 
took  no  great  tallness  to  be  equal  or  su¬ 
perior  to  the  average.  It  requires  only 
a  little  taller  dwarf  to  overtop  a  set 
of  dwarfs.  Mr.  Gulliver  was  a  giant 
in  Lilliput,  but  a  pigmy  in  Brobdignag. 
So  Dr.  Johnson  told  Chesterfield  that 
“  he  might  be  a  wit  among  lords,  but 
that  he  was  only  a  lord  among  wits.” 
These  Christines  were  moderates  ;  held 
a  compromise  creed,  and,  too  slow  to 
pioneer  the  way  into  heathendom,  were 
content  to  follow  in  the  wake  of  others, 
and  make  themselves  an  eligible  nest 
on  preoccupied  grounds.  They  prided 
themselves,  nevertheless,  in  their  supe¬ 
riority  after  their  own  standard.  A  nd, 
in  confidence  of  that  superiority,  they 
disparaged — whom  ?  St.  Paul  !  He  will 
soon  show  them  a  standard !  Measur¬ 
ing  refers  to  greatness,  or  tallness,  as 
a  whole ;  comparing  refers  to  special 
comparative  excellences. 

13.  Boast.  .  .without  measure — - 
Omitting  the  italic  our,  interpolated  by 
the  translators.  The  apostle  disclaims 
boasting  about  tu  apETpa,  the  unmeas¬ 
ured,  the  indefinite,  the  aimless,  which 
formed,  in  fact,  the  boast  of  the  pur¬ 
poseless  Christines.  He  had  a  well- 
defined  mission  from  Christ  himself,  as 
he  will  next  declare.  Paul  now  has 


188 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


the  measure  of  the  7  rule  which  God 
hath  distributed  to  us,  a  measure 
to  reach  even  unto  you.  14  For 
we  stretch  not  ourselves  beyond 
our  measure ,  as  though  we  reached 
not  unto  you;  ufor  we  are  come 
as  far  as  to  you  also  in  preach¬ 
ing  the  gospel  of  Christ:  15  Not 
boasting  of  things  without  our 
measure,  that  is,  vof  other  men’s 
labours  ;  but  having  hope,  when 

?  Or,  line. - u\  Cor.  3.  5, 10;  4.  15;  9.  1. - 

v  Rom.  15.  20. - 8  Or,  magnified  in  you. 

changed  the  figure  of  measure ,  from  a 
measurement  of  the  tallness  of  the 
man,  to  a  measurement  of  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  territory  covered  by 
his  divine  commission.  By  personal 
measurement  he  is  tall  as  the  tallest 
apostle ;  by  territorial  measurement  he 
stretches  to  Corinth  and  beyond,  as  said 
in  verse  16.  Measure. .  .rule — Rule, 
tcavov ,  canon ,  here  signifies  a  rod ,  staff, 
measuring  rod.  Paul’s  image  is,  that 
God  has,  as  it  were  with  a  measuring 
rod,  marked  out  the  measure  of  his 
missionary  ground.  His  master  has 
drawn  his  map  for  him.  Distributed 
—  Rather,  apportioned.  The  thought, 
then,  is:  I,  Paul,  boast  not,  (like  these 
Christines,)  of  an  unmeasured  vag¬ 
rant  field,  but  a  mission  apportioned 
according  to  the  measure  of  God’s 
own  measuring  rod.  Paul’s  apostolic 
office  was  universal ;  but  the  space 
he  could  corporeally  occupy  was,  of 
course,  limited,  and,  as  he  affirms,  di¬ 
vinely  measured  oif.  Yet  how  wide  is 
now  the  controlling  power  of  this  man’s 
apostolate!  Reach... you  —  Here  is 
a  keen  point.  The  divine  measuring 
rod  brought  Corinth  within  his  terri¬ 
tory,  and  he  was  promptly  on  the  spot 
in  due  season, 

1 4.  Stretch  —  Rather,  overstretch. 
We  do  not  overstretch  in  coming  to 
Corinth,  as  though  we,  in  our  proper 
field,  reached  not  unto  you.  It  is 
no  overstrain  for  us  to  claim  Corinth  as 
within  the  boundary  line  of  our  apos¬ 
tolic  mission.  Are  come — Literally, 
ive  have  anticipated ,  been  beforehand.  The 
meaning :  We  were  beforehand,  (before 
the  Christines,)  even  as  far  as  tc  you. 


your  faith  is  increased,  that  we 
shall  be  8  enlarged  by  you  ac¬ 
cording  to  our  rule  abundantly, 
16  To  preach  the  gospel  in  the  re¬ 
gions  beyond  you,  and  not  to  boast 
in  another  man’s  9  line  of  things 
made  ready  to  our  hand.  IT  w  But 
he  that  glorieth,  let  him  glory  in 
the  Lord.  18  For  xnot  he  that 
commendeth  himself  is  approved, 
but  y  whom  the  Lord  commendeth. 

9  Or,  rule. - wlsa.  65.  16;  Jer.  9.  24;  1  Cor. 

1.  31. - x  Prov.  27.  2. - y  Rom.  2.  29;  1  Cor.  4.  5. 

15.  Without. .. measure — Indefinite 
and  unruled.  Other  men’s  labours 

—  Trenching  on  other  missionaries’ 
ground,  and  taking  an  easy  time,  when 
there  is  ample  pioneer  work  to  do  on 
untried  fields.  Having  a  hope — 
Kling  subtly  and  truly  says,  that  hav¬ 
ing  a  hope  is  more  forcible  than 
hoping.  There  dwells  in  the  apostle’s 
heart  this  constant,  permanent  hope. 
A  blessed  inmate  in  the  human  heart 
is  a  hope.  Enlarged — Our  magni¬ 
tude  is  now  pretty  fair ;  but  we  hope 
to  grow  with  your  growing  faith. 
According  to  our  rule — In  accord¬ 
ance  with  the  divine  measuring  rule. 
Abundantly  —  As  his  magnifying  is 
not  to  be  merely  for  himself,  but  for 
the  gospel,  he  trusts  it  may  be  done 
abundantly. 

16.  To  preach  the  gospel — It  is 

for  this  that  he  would  like  to  be  mag¬ 
nified  to  a  giant’s  stature.  Regions 
beyond  you — A  decidedly  extended 
field!  Another  man’s  line — As  the 
Christines  were  doing.  Made  ready 
to  our  hand  —  A  comfortable  nest 
built  by  a  preceding  bird. 

17.  In  the  Lord — St.  Paul  holds 
that  his  own  field  is  measured  by  a 
divine  hand ;  his  glory  is,  therefore, 
in  the  Lord.  If  his  opponents  are 
conscious  of  the  same  claim,  well. 

18.  Commendeth  himself — Their 
fair  speeches  and  seducing  self-lauda¬ 
tions  do  not  render  them  approved. 
Lord  commendeth  —  is  the  divine 
seal  on  their  mission?  The  true  min¬ 
ister  is  not  merely  ordained  of  man — 
he  is  called  of  God;  and  the  divine 
blessing  testifies  to  his  work. 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


189 


CHAPTER  XI. 

OULD  to  God  ye  could  bear 
with  me  a  little  in  *my  folly: 
and  indeed  *bear  with  me.  2  For 
I  am  b jealous  over  you  with  godly 
jealousy:  for  CI  have  espoused  you 
to  one  husband,  dthat  I  may  pre¬ 
sent  you  e  as  a  chaste  virgin  to 
Christ.  3  But  I  fear,  lest  by  any 
means,  as  fthe  serpent  beguiled 
Eve  through  his  subtilty,  so  your 

a  Ver.  16;  chap.  5. 13. - 1  Or,  ye  do  bear  with 

me. - £>Gal.  4.  17,  18. - cHos.  2.  19,  20;  1  Cor. 

4.  15. - <2  Col.  1.  28. - <?Lev.  21.  13. - ;/'Gen. 

3.  4;  John  8.  44. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

3.  St.  Paul’s  apology  for  self-com¬ 
mendation;  and  exculpation  from 
detailed  charges,  1-12. 

Our  apostle,  as  if  still  dreading  his 
purpose  of  bold  measurement,  begins 
another  apology  for  the  self-commen¬ 
dation  it  will  embody,  but  loses  the 
apology  in  an  expression  of  his  anxious 
affection  for  the  Corinthians,  for  their 
pure  consecration  to  Christ,  and  their 
rescue  from  deceivers. 

1.  Folly  —  The  apparent  personal 
vanity  of  proclaiming  his  own  personal 
qualities,  his  official  dignity,  or  his  emi¬ 
nent  services.  And  indeed  bear  — 
Bloomfield  understands  this  as  an  affec¬ 
tionate  repetition:  “Now,  do  bear  with 
me.”  More  correctly,  Alford  makes  the 
verb  indicative:  But ,  indeed ,  you  do  bear 
with  me.  He  thus  delicately  acknowl¬ 
edges  them  not  intolerant,  and  makes 
their  forbearance  thus  far  a  hope  -for 
further  indulgence. 

2.  For — Reason  for  his  earnest  desire 
for  their  patient  acceptance  of  the  boast 
he  is  about  to  rehearse.  Espoused 
you  —  Of  the  verb  here  used  in  the 
Greek  there  is  a  noun  from  the  same 
root,  signifying  an  espouser ,  whose 
office  it  was  to  procure  and  arrange 
the  marriage.  Among  the  Spartans  a 
noun  of  the  same  root  signified  the  ed¬ 
ucator  and  preparer  of  the  virgin  for 
marriage.  St.  Paul’s  language,  though 
the  allusion  to  either  here  is  not  to  be 
pressed,  is  doubtless  suggested  and 
shaped  by  these  customs  peculiar  to 
antiquity.  Chaste  virgin  —  So  the 


minds  s  should  be  corrupted  from 
the  simplicity  that  is  in  Christ. 
4  For  if  he  that  cometh  preacheth 
another  Jesus,  whom  we  have  not 
preached,  or  if  ye  receive  another 
spirit,  which  ye  have  not  received, 
or  h  another  gospel,  which  ye  have 
not  accepted,  ye  might  well  bear 
2  with  him.  5  For  I  suppose  *  I 
was  not  a  whit  behind  the  very 
chiefest  apostles.  6  But  though 

O  Eph.  6.  24 ;  Col.  2.  4,  8, 18 ;  1  Tim.  1.  3 ;  4.  1 ; 

Heb.  13.9;  2  Pet.  3.  17. - h  Gal.  1.  7,  8. - 2  Or, 

with  me. - i  1  Corinthians  15.  10 ;  chap.  12. 11 ; 

Galatians  2.  6. 

Church  is  the  bride,  the  Lamb’s  wife. 
Such,  as  many  suppose,  is  the  allegori¬ 
cal  basis  of  Solomon’s  Song. 

3.  The  serpent — St.  Paul  is  jeal¬ 
ous,  lest  as  the  serpent  seduced  Eve, 
so  the  Christine  will  seduce  away  the 
Corinthian  Church.  He  here  supposes 
even  the  Gentile  Corinthians  to  be  ac¬ 
quainted  with  and  believers  in  the  Gen¬ 
esis  history.  Simplicity — Singleness 
of  devotion. 

4.  For — In  proof  of  their  readiness 
for  the  seducer.  They  were  ready  to 
bear  very  finely  the  announcements  by 
the  Christine  of  his  false  Jesus,  spirit, 
and  gospel.  He  that  cometh  —  Lit¬ 
erally,  the  comer .  Wordsworth  con¬ 
trasts  this  comer ,  who  was  not  sent, 
with  the  apostle ,  which  means  one  sent. 
One  is  self-sent,  the  other  is  God-sent. 
Another  Jesus — The  spurious  Jesus 
of  the  seducers.  Another  spirit  — 
Than  the  true  Holy  Spirit,  by  whom, 
through  Christ,  ye  are  regenerated. 
Might. .  .bear  —  The  verb  is  indica¬ 
tive.  Ye... bear  —  The  same  Greek 
for  bear,  as  in  verse  1.  And  Paul  is 
here  hinting  how  ready  they  were  to 
bear  with  his  detractors.  Well  — 
/caAwf,  ironical,  beautifully.  I,  Paul, 
am  obliged  to  en*reat  you  repeatedly  to 
bear  with  me ;  but,  reversely,  you  can 
bear  the  details  of  their  false  schemes 
wonderfully  well.  Such  a  fact  might 
well  make  Paul  jealous  of  their  fidelity. 

5.  I  am  justly  jealous  at  this  for  the 
following  reason  :  I  suppose — Liter¬ 
ally,  I  reckon  myself  not  to  have  been  at 
all  inferior  to  these  over-much  apostles. 

The  allusion,  as  the  best  scholars 


190 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A  D.  58. 


k  I  be  rude  in  speech,  yet  not  Mn 
knowledge;  but  mwe  have  been 
thoroughly  made  manifest  among 
you  in  all  things.  7  Have  I  com¬ 
mitted  an  offence  cin  abasing  my¬ 
self  that  ye  might  be  exalted,  be¬ 
cause  I  have  preached  to  you  the 
gospel  of  God  freely?  8  1 0 robbed 
other  churches,  taking  wages  of 
them ,  to  do  you  service.  9  And 
when  I  was  present  with  you,  and 
wanted,  p  I  was  chargeable  to  no 


k  1  Cor.  1. 17;  2.  1, 13;  chap.  10.  10. - 1  Eph. 

3.  4. - m  Chap.  4.  2 ;  5. 11 ;  12. 12. - n  Acts  18. 3 ; 

1  Cor.  9.  6,  12;  chap.  10. 1. - o  Phil.  4.  14.  16. - 

V  Acts  20.  33 ;  chap.  12.  13 ;  1  Thess.  2.  9 ;  2  Thess. 


now  agree,  is  not  to  either  of  the 
twelve  apostles,  but  to  the  pretended 
and  pretentious  apostles,  whose  preach¬ 
ing  is  characterized  in  the  last  verse. 
The  over -much  apostles  is  an  epithet 
which  characterizes  the  assumption  of 
the  party. 

6.  Rude  in  speech — The  Greek 
word  for  rude  signifies  non-professional , 
implying  the  absence  of  a  literary  or 
<*cholarly  finish  of  style.  The  accusa¬ 
tion  from  his  detractors  he  left  unde¬ 
nied,  but  he  balanced  it  by  yet  not 
in  knowledge.  Thus  Paul  here  gives 
himself  the  character  which  modern 
Greek  scholars  would  attribute  to  him, 
namely,  unfinished  in  style  but  deep  in 
thought.  Made  manifest  —  Whether 
rude  or  deep  we  have  been  unconcealed ; 
we  are  transparent  to  your  view. 

7-12.  Another,  and  the  last,  slur 
received  from  his  detractors  now  is 
treated.  They  had  rigidly  exacted  pay 
of  the  Corinthians  for  services,  (ver.  20,) 
but  Paul  had  refused  all  compensation. 
They  therefore  tried  a  twofold  expe¬ 
dient;  on  the  one  hand  to  say  that  he 
refused  pay  because  he  was  conscious 
of  being  a  false  apostle;  and  if  that 
induced  him  to  receive  pay,  then  to  say 
they  were  as  good  as  he ;  for  he  took 
pay  as  well  as  themselves. 

7.  Committed. .  .offence — As  tow¬ 
ards  the  Corinthians  the  offence  would 
be  the  placing  them  in  the  beggarly 
position  of  receiving  gratuitous  benefit, 
and  so  (ver.  10)  showing  want  of  love, 
Paul  admits  the  fact  of  a  determination, 


man:  for  that  which  was  lacking 
to  me  9  the  brethren  which  came 
from  Macedonia  supplied:  and  in 
all  things  I  have  kept  myself  r  from 
being  burdensome  unto  you,  and 
so  will  I  keep  myself.  10  ‘As  the 
truth  of  Christ  is  in  me,  3 1  no  man 
shall  stop  me  of  this  boasting  in 
the  regions  of  Achaia.  1 1  Where¬ 
fore  ?  u  because  I  love. you  not? 
God  knoweth.  12  But  what  I  do, 
that  I  will  do,  '  that  I  may  cut  oft 


3.  8,  9. - q  Phil.  4. 10, 15, 16. - r  Chap.  12. 14,16. 

- 8  Horn.  9.  1. - 3  Greek,  this  boasting  shall 

not  be  stopped  in  me. - 1  1  Cor.  9.  15. - 

wChap.  6.  11 ;  7.  3;  12.  15. - v\  Cor.  9. 12. 


to  cut  off  all  chance  for  his  detractors, 
to  receive  no  pay  from  Corinth.  Abas¬ 
ing  myself — By  working  at  his  trade 
of  tent-making,  as  he  did  for  months 
with  Aquila  at  Corinth.  Acts  xviii,  3. 
Exalted  —  Into  a  powerful  Christian 
Church.  Freely — Gratuitously. 

8.  Robbed — An  indignant  hyper¬ 
bole.  When  his  great  ministerial  la¬ 
bours  interfered  with  his  self-support, 
he  accepted  what  they  voluntarily  of¬ 
fered,  but  were  not  obligated  to  give. 

9.  Wanted — Was  in  need  of  funds. 
From  Macedonia  —  Silas  and  Tim¬ 
othy,  who,  coming  from  Macedonia, 
found  Paul  lonely,  dispirited,  and  work¬ 
ing  at  his  trade,  brought  him  glad 
news,  needed  funds,  and  brotherly  re¬ 
enforcement  in  preaching  the  gospel. 
Burdensome — A  figurative  word  bor¬ 
rowed  from  the  torpedo,  which  by  its 
touch  torpifies.  St.  Paul  did  not  by 
pecuniary  pressure  torpify  or  burden 
the  Corinthians.  The  harsh  figure, 
perhaps,  was  borrowed  from  the  sar¬ 
casms  of  his  detractors.  So  will  I — 
The  principle  required  it,  and  his  will 
was  firm. 

10.  As  —  A  solemn  asseveration. 
Stop  me — Fence  me  off.  Wordsworth 
suggests  this  as  a  happy  image  drawn 
from  the  wall  across  the  isthmus  of 
Corinth,  fencing  the  regions  of  Acha¬ 
ia  from  Northern  Greece,  whence  Paul 
was  writing. 

11.  It  was  not  from  want  of  love 
that  St.  Paul  thus  left  Corinth  ir  the 
shade. 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


191 


occasion  from  them  which  desire 
occasion;  that  wherein  they  glory, 
they  may  be  found  even  as  we. 

13  For  such  w  are  false  apostles, 
*  deceitful  workers,  transforming 
themselves  into  the  apostles  of 
Christ.  14  And  no  marvel;  for 
Satan  himself  is  transformed  into 
y  an  angel  of  light.  15  Therefore 
it  is  no  great  thing  if  his  ministers 
also  be  transformed  as  the  z  minis¬ 
ters  of  righteousness;  a whose  end 
shall  be  according  to  their  works. 

w  Acts  15.  24 ;  Rom.  16. 18 :  Gal.  1.  7 ;  Phil.  1. 15 ; 

2  Pet.  2. 1 ;  1  John  4. 1. - x  Chap.  2. 17 ;  Phil.  8.  2; 

Titus  1. 10, 11. 1/  Gal.  1. 8. z  Chap.  3.  9. 

12.  Occasion  —  Chance  for  detrac¬ 
tion.  Wherein  they  glory — The 
chance  they  sought  was,  to  say  that  in 
the  matter  of  tlieir  glory,  namely ,  th.e 
receiving  apostolic  wages,  they  were 

as  Paul.  This  occasion,  or  chance  of 

both  having  their  pay  and  equalling 
him,  he  was  determined  not,  by  taking 
pay,  to  allow  them. 

4.  Unmasking  of  their  hypocrisy, 
and  apologetic  announcement  of 
the  measurement,  13-21. 

For  one  brief  moment  St.  Paul  brings 
the  detractors  from  the  shade  into  the 
foreground,  and  gives  them  a  terrible 
characterization. 

13.  For — I  will  give  them  no  occa¬ 
sion,  for  the  following  reason.  False 
apostles — As,  above,  they  were  over¬ 
much  apostles.  Deceitful  workers 
—  Treacherous  machinators  ;  one  of 
whose  twofold  machinations  we  have 
described  above. 

14.  Transformed  . .  .  light  —  This 
may  be  an  allusion  to  the  appearance 
of  Satan  at  the  temptation,  and  Mil- 
ton  on  that  hint  has  so  described  the 
scene. 

15.  End — Their  final  retribution. 

16.  I  say  again — The  apostle  here 
resumes  from  verse  1  his  apologet¬ 
ic,  ironical,  and  hesitating  preamble  to 
the  daring  issue  begun  at  verse  22. 
Fool— He  dwells  upon  these  imputa¬ 
tions,  as  if  to  show  that  he  knew  all 
they  could  say,  and  was  prepared  to 
brave  the  whole.  Otherwise  —  If 
you  will  not  consent  to  hold  me  as 


16  bI  say  again,  Let  no  man  think 
me  a  fool ;  if  otherwise,  yet  as  a 
fool * * *  4  receive  me,  that  I  may  boast 
myself  a  little.  17  That  which 
I  speak,  c  I  speak  it  not  after 
the  Lord,  but  as  it  were  foolishly, 
d  in  this  confidence  of  boasting. 
18  e  Seeing  that  many  glory  after 
the  flesh,  I  will  glory  also.  19  For 
ye  suffer  fools  gladly,  f seeing  ye 
yourselves  are  wise.  20  For  ye 
suffer,  &if  a  man  bring  you  into 
bondage,  if  a  man  devour  you,  if 

a  Phil.  3.  19. - &  Verse  1;  chap.  12.  6,  11. - 

4  Or,  suffer. - cl  Cor.  7.  6, 12. - d  Chap.  9.  4. 

- e  Phil. 3.3, 4. -f  1  Cor.  4. 10. - q  Gal.2.4;  4.9. 

no  fool.  A  little  —  Diminishing  in 
irony. 

17.  Not  after  the  Lord — The  great 
body  of  commentators  we  have  con¬ 
sulted  have  interpreted  Paul  as  con¬ 
fessing  that  the  measurement  that 
here  follows  was  discordant  with  the 
spirit  of  Christ.  Bloomfield  alone 
asks:  “Why,  then,  do  we  not  under¬ 
stand  Paul  as  sincerely  and  truly  con¬ 
fessing  that  he  was  a  fool  ?  ”  Certainly 
he  means  the  reverse.  And  these  hard 
sayings  against  himself  are  but  his  de¬ 
fiant  re-echoings  of  the  taunts,  actual 
or  expected,  of  his  detractors.  One  of 
those  taunts  was,  or  would  be,  that  his 
boasting  was  un-Christlike.  But,  first, 
whose  denunciations  of  the  wickedness 
of  his  adversaries  were  ever  more  ter¬ 
rible  than  the  Lord’s?  and,  second ,  what 
is  there  un-Christlike  in  Paul’s  mag¬ 
nificent  measurement  of  himself  with 
his  adversaries  that  now  soon  follows  ? 
Paul’s  meaning  is  :  What  I  now  speak  1 
speak ,  forsooth ,  not  after  the  Lord ,  do  I! 

18.  I  will  glory  also — But  not 
after  the  flesh. 

19.  Ye... are  wise — Severe  irony, 
preparatory  to  giving,  next  verse,  the 
most  eminent  instance  of  their  said 
wisdom ! 

20.  For  ye  suffer — Paul  now  de¬ 
scribes,  in  somewhat  figurative  terms, 
the  treatment  these  Corinthians,  in  their 
fancied  wisdom,  tamely  accepted  from 
the  Christine  false  apostles.  Bondage 
— To  this  authoritv  and  these  false  doc- 
trines.  Devour  you  —  Use  and  ruin 


192 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


a  man  take  of  you ,  if  a  man  exalt 
himself,  if  a  man  smite  you  on  the 
face.  21  I  speak  as  concerning 
reproach,  h  as  though  we  had  been 
weak.  Howbeit,  ‘whereinsoever 

h  Chap.  10.  10. - 2  Phil.  3.  4. 

you  for  his  own  advantage.  Take  of 
you — Exact  wages  from  you  as  apos¬ 
tles.  Smite  you  on  the  face — The 
last  of  insults. 

21.  St.  Paul  now  declares  that  all 
this  reproach  upon  himself  is  ironical. 
Render  it  thus :  In  regard  to  all  this 
matter  of  reproach ,  I  am  talking  as  if  I 
really  had  been  weak.  However ,  I  am 
novj  going  to  be  bold ,  ( foolish ,  my  ene¬ 
mies  may  call  it,)  if  any  body  ever  was. 
And  so  he  forthwith  boldly  proceeds 
to  bring  his  opponents  to  close  issue. 

II.  Measurement  of  the  Apostle 
with  his  Opponents,  showing  his 
own  Superiority,  xi,  22-xiii,  10. 

From  this  long  level  of  preliminary 
apologies  and  explanations  the  apostle 
now  suddenly  takes  an  upward  spring, 
and  maintains  an  eagle  flight  to  the  end 
of  the  epistle.  Claiming  to  boast  not 
of  great  talents  or  grand  exploits,  and 
with  an  occasional  flash  of  irony,  he 
rehearses  his  sufferings  and  humilia¬ 
tions  for  Christ,  as  well  as  his  revela¬ 
tions  and  self-sacrifices;  and  from  this 
elevation  comes  down  in  authority  up¬ 
on  the  infected  part  of  the  Corinthian 
Church. 

St.  Paul  unfolds  his  equality  to,  and 
immense  superiority  over,  his  oppo¬ 
nents — 

1 .  By  his  genuine  Hebraism,  xi,  22. 

“It  would  appear  from  Epiphanius,” 
says  Stanley,  “that  the  Judaizers  went 
so  far  as  to  assert  that  he  was  altogeth¬ 
er  a  Gentile  by  birth,  and  only  adopted 
circumcision  in  order  to  marry  the  high 
priest’s  daughter.  This  suspicion  might 
possibly  arise  from  his  birthplace  at  Tar¬ 
sus,  one  of  the  great  seats  of  Gentile 
education ;  or  from  his  connexion  with 
Gamaliel,  whose  teaching  notoriously 
inculcated  toleration  of  Gentile  usages.’’ 

This  verso  fixes  the  fact  that  his  op¬ 
ponents  were  Jews  and  Judaizers,  and 
probably  from  Jerusalem. 


any  is  bold,  (I  speak  foolishly,)  I 
am  bold  also. 

22  Are  they  Hebrews?  k  so  am  I. 
Are  they  Israelites?  so  am  I.  Are 
they  the  seed  of  Abraham?  so  am  I. 

k  Acts  22.  3 ;  Rom.  11.  1 ;  Phil.  3.  5. 

22.  Hebrews — Distinguished  from 
the  term  Jews  in  the  fact  that  the  lat¬ 
ter  merely  signifies  those  of  the  tril  e  of 
Judah,  while  the  former  includes  the 
whole  twelve,  and  is  thence  the  most 
proper  opposite  of  Gentile.  Israelites 
— No  more  comprehensive  than  He¬ 
brew,  but  more  honourable  as  derived 
from  the  God-given  title  of  Prevailer 
with  God.  Genesis  xxxii,  28.  Seed  ot 
Abraham  —  Xot  a  Gentile  proselyte 
even,  but  a  pure  blooded  Hebrew  of  (out 
from)  Hebrevjs.  On  these  points  of  mere 
descent  Paul  is  short  and  decisive,  with 
an  I  also. 

2.  By  incomparably  greater  suf¬ 
ferings,  23-33. 

With  consummate  skill  St.  Paul,  (in 
whose  ears  are  echoing  the  retorts  of 
his  foes,  “  What  a  boaster !  ”)  shows  off 
here,  not  his  victories  and  conquests, 
not  the  oratory  he  had  displayed,  the 
converts  he  had  gained,  the  Churches 
lie  had  founded ;  but  the  unparalleled 
sufferings  and  disgraces  he  had  under¬ 
gone.  He  enumerates  them  almost 
statistically,  classifying  their  sorts,  and 
giving  their  figures.  But,  all  the 
while,  the  more  profoundly  he  thus 
humbles  himself,  the  more  transcendent 
is  his  superiority  over  his  easy-living 
adversaries. 

Of  a  large  number  of  the  sufferings 
here  undergone,  Luke’s  brief  sketch  in 
the  Acts  gives  no  account.  This  con¬ 
firms  Paley’s  argument  for  the  truth  of 
Christianity,  drawn  from  the  sufferings 
of  the  early  Christian  preachers.  It 
shows,  too,  that  in  accounting  for  the 
writing  of  some  of  the  epistles  we  may 
easily  suppose  voyages  and  journe}rs 
unmentioned  by  Luke.  When,  for  in¬ 
stance,  Luke  informs  us  (Act<*  xx,  31) 
that  Paul  spent  three  continuous  years 
at  Ephesus,  it  is  as  when  we  say  that 
a  young  man  spends  four  years  at  col¬ 
lege;  that  is,  without  counting  three 
months  each  year  of  vacation 


A.  I).  58. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


193 


23  Are  they  ministers  of  Christ? 
(I  speak  as  a  fool,)  I  am  more;  1  in 
labours  more  abundant,  ,nin  stripes 
above  measure,  in  prisons  more  fre¬ 
quent,  "in  deaths  oft.  24  Of  the 

11  Cor.  15.  10. - in  Acts  9.  16;  20.  23  ;  21.  11; 

chap.  6.  4,  5. - ill  Cor.  15.  30-32;  chap.  1.  9, 10; 


Jews  five  times  received  I  0 forty 
stripes  save  one.  25  Thrice  was 
I  o  beaten  with  rods,  o0nce  was 
I  stoned,  thrice  I  r  suffered  ship¬ 
wreck,  a  night  and  a  day  I  have 


4. 11;  6.  9.— 
q  Acts  14.  19. 


o  Deut.  25.  3. - p  Acts  1C.  22. - 

— r  Acts  27.  41. 


As  both  a  catalogue  and  a  picture 
the  present  section  is  strikingly  parallel 
to  iv,  8-12,  and  vi,  5-10. 

The  endurances  enumerated  are,  vv. 
23-27,  bodily;  28,  29,  mental;  32,  33, 
a  single  notable  event. 

Yerse  23  gives  four  general  bodily 
endurances,  of  which  all  that  follow 
are  specials. 

23.  Ministers  —  The  Greek  word 
technically  for  deacons ,  and  generically 
for  humble  servitors  of  any  kind.  As 
a  fool — The  echo  from  the  other  side 
is  a  stronger  term  for  madness  than  any 
yet  used.  Are  they  servants  of  Christ  ? 
And  now  I  am,  by  their  outcry,  a 
greater  infatuate  than  ever  when  I 
boldly  reply,  I  more.  The  abrupt  and 
concise  vnep  kyC))  above ,  I  is,  indeed,  a 
bold  fling.  It  may  mean,  above  them 
am  /,  that  is,  as  a  servant  of  Christ ; 
or  it  may  mean,  above  a  servant  of 
Christ  am  I  The  import,  at  any  rate, 
is,  If  these  are,  forsooth,  servants  of 
Christ,  I  am  something  above  that; 
and  the  result  is,  If  I  am  merely  a  ser¬ 
vant  of  Christ,  they  are  below  that — 
none  at  all.  That  this  last  inference  is 
meant  is  plain  from  13-15.  Labours 

. . .  stripes . . .  prisons  . . .  deaths — Four 
generic  bodily  endurances.  The  details 
that  follow  are  specialties  included  un¬ 
der  the  four. 

The  next  two  verses  give  the  nu¬ 
merical  figures  of  bodily  sufferings  so 
severe  as  to  leave  distinct  traces  on  the 
memory  of  the  number. 

24.  The  Jews — A  less  honourable 
epithet  than  either  of  the  three  in 
verse  22,  used  here  to  intimate  to  the 
Judaizers  whence  his  severest  perse¬ 
cutors  came.  John,  in  his  gospel,  uses 
the  word  Jews  in  the  same  adverse 
sense.  Note,  John  i,  19.  Five  times 
— A  most  bitter  recollection ;  for  the 
stripes  of  antiquity  were  deaths  in 
the  amount  of  agony  they  inflicted  and 
the  probability  of  death  as  the  result 

Vol.  XV.— 13 


Note,  Johnxix,  1.  Stripes — In  italics 
as  not  being  in  the  Greek  ;  it  being  un¬ 
necessary  to  Paul’s  readers,  who  knew 
what  the  terrible  number  forty  save 
one  indicated.  Forty  stripes  was 
the  limit  by  law,  (Deut.  xxv,  1 ;)  but 
Jewish  custom,  in  its  caution  against 
accidentally  breaking  the  law,  limited 
it  in  Paul’s  time  to  thirty-nine.  Says 
Stanley:  “The  culprit  was  bound  by 
both  hands  to  a  pillar ;  the  officer  of 
the  synagogue  stripped  off  his  clothes 
until  his  back  was  bared.  The  officer 
then  ascended  a  stone  behind.  The 
scourge  consisted  of  four  thongs  of 
calf  skin,  and  two  of  asses’  skin.  The 
culprit  bent  to  receive  the  lashes.  The 
officer  struck  with  one  hand  with  all 
his  force.  A  reader  meanwhile  read, 
first,  Deut.  xxviii,  58,  59  ;  next,  Deut. 
xxix,  8 ;  lastly,  Psalm  lxxviii,  38.  It 
was  so  severe  a  punishment  that 
death  often  ensued.”  The  thrice  thir¬ 
teen  strokes  were  impartially  distrib¬ 
uted  ;  thirteen  on  the  back,  thirteen  on 
the  right  shoulder,  and  thirteen  on  the 
left  shoulder. 

25.  The  above  stripes  being  specially 
from  J ews,  these  rods  were  doubtless 
in  Gentile  hands.  The  Roman  rods 
often  inflicted  death.  As  a  Roman  citi¬ 
zen,  Paul  was  by  law  exempt  from  this 
punishment,  but  he  was  doubtless  often 
out  of  reach  of  law.  So  at  Philippi  lie 
suffered  it,  following  it  with  protest, 
and  at  Jerusalem  narrowly  escaped  it. 
Acts xvi,  37 ;  xxii,  25.  Once. . . stoned 
—At  Lystra.  Acts  xiv,  19.  Thrice 
. . .  shipwreck— In  addition  to  the 
one  in  Acts  xxviii,  which  was  much 
later  than  this  writing.  A  night  and 
a  day — Twenty-four  hours.  Not,  as 
some  interpret,  that  Paul  was  sunk 
in  the  deep  that  time  and  saved  from 
drowning  by  miracle.  The  natural 
image  is,  that  he  was  floating  that  time 
in  the  deep,  on  a  fragment  of  a  wrecked 
ship. 


194 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58 


been  in  the  deep ;  20  In  journey- 
ings  often,  in  perils  of  waters,  in 
perils  of  robbers,  *  in  perils  by 
mine  own  countrymen,  lin  perils 
by  the  heathen,  in  perils  in  the 
city,  in  perils  in  the  wilderness, 
in  perils  in  the  sea,  in  perils  among 
false  brethren;  27  In  weariness 
and  painfulness,  uin  watchings  oft¬ 
en,  vin  hunger  and  thirst,  in  fast¬ 
ings  often,  in  cold  and  nakedness. 

8  A  cts  9.  23;  13.  50;  14.  5;  17.  5;  20.  3;  21.  31; 

23.  10, 11 ;  25.  3. - 1  Acts  14.  5;  19.  23. - n  Acts 

20.  31 ;  chap.  6.  5. - v  1  Cor.  4. 11. - w  See  Acts 


26.  Perils — The  spontaneous  repe¬ 
tition  of  the  word  gives  a  lively  vari¬ 
ety  to  the  style.  Waters  —  Rather, 
rivers;  which  had  to  be  crossed  with¬ 
out  bridges,  with  liability  to  drowning. 
These  Paul  would  plentifully  find  in 
his  first  missionary  journey.  Coun¬ 
trymen ...  heathen — Nearly  all  the 
persecutions  of  his  earlier  ministry 
were  from  Jews ;  later,  from  Romans. 
City  — As  at  Ephesus,  Corinth,  and 
Jerusalem.  False  brethren — Who 
capped  the  climax  of  perils.  He  has 
just  mentioned  perils  from  Jews  and 
from  Gentiles ;  he  now  mentions,  as 
third,  his  perils  from  the  Judaizers 
themselves,  who,  as  followers  of  Christ, 
claimed  to  be  brethren,  but  whose 
claim  was  false. 

27.  An  enumeration  of  bodily  priva¬ 
tions.  Painfulness  —  The  aches  re¬ 
sulting  from  overwork.  W atchings — 
Sleeplessnesses.  Fastings — Not  vol¬ 
untary  fastings,  but  inability  to  procure 
food. 

28.  Are  without — Are  outside  this 
list  of  physical  trials,  and  which  are 
outside  my  proper  apostolic  endur¬ 
ances.  That . .  .  daily — The  onslaught, 
or  rush ,  upon  me  daily ;  namely,  the 
distracting  care  of  all.  The  word 
care  has  the  same  Greek  as  the  word 
thought  in  Matt,  vi,  25,  where  see  note. 

29.  The  distraction  of  this  care 
arises  from  its  carrying  the  apostle’s 
soul,  as  it  were,  out  of  himself  into  a 
sympathy  and  identification  with  its 
various  individual  objects.  Weak. . . 
weak — He  becomes  weak  by  tender 
sympathy  with  the  weak,  feeling  for 


28  Besides  those  things  that  are 
without,  that  which  cometh  upon 
me  daily,  w  the  care  of  all  the 
churches.  29  x  Who  is  weak,  and 
I  am  notweak?  who  is  offended, 
and  I  burn  not?  30  If  I  must 
needs  glory,  *  I  will  glory  of  the 
things  which  concern  mine  infirm¬ 
ities.  31  zThe  God  and  Father 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  *  which 
is  blessed  for  evermore,  knowetli 


20.  18,  <fcc. ;  Rom.  1.  14. - xl  Cor.  8.  13;  9.  22. 

- V  Chap.  12.  5, 9, 10. - s  Rom.  1.9;  9. 1 ;  chap. 

1.  23;  Gal.  1.  20;  1  Thess.  2.  5. - a  Rom.  9.  5. 


their  infirmities,  and  trying,  with  them 
to  rise  into  strength.  This  weakness 
may  consist  in  want  of  Christian  faith, 
morality,  or  firm  purpose.  Offended 
— Made  by  some  one  to  stumble  or 
falter  in  his  Christian  course.  Bum 
not — He  cannot  say  I  stumble  wuth  him, 
but  I  bum  in  shame  and  sorrow  for 
him.  The  I  in  this  last  clause  is,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  Greek,  emphatic.  If 
any  one  is  weak,  I  am  sympathetically 
w'eak  with  him ;  if  any  stumble,  the 
man  to  burn  with  agony  thereat  is  I. 

30.  Stanley  inadvertently  says,  at 
verse  22,  that  we  lose  sight  of  the  false 
teachers  until  chap,  xii,  11.  St.  Paul 
in  these  two  verses,  30,  31,  has  them 
right  face  to  face.  If  I  am  compelled 
by  my  traducers  in  self-defence  to 
glory,  I  will  evade  the  charge  of  being 
a  boaster  by  centering  my  glorying ,  not 
upon  my  powers  and  exploits,  but  upon 
mine  infirmities. 

31.  This  adjuration  that  I  lie  Dot, 
is,  like  that  in  Rom.  ix,  1,  a  denial  in 
the  very  word,  lie,  of  his  assailants. 
Though  a  large  number  of  Paul's  en¬ 
durances  were  known  to  the  Corin¬ 
thians,  and  though  all  here  enumer¬ 
ated  were  analogous  to  those  known, 
vet  the  full  amount,  the  sum  total, 
could  not  be  sworn  to  by  any  one, 
even  of  St.  Paul’s  companions,  as  Tim¬ 
othy,  Titus,  Luke,  Trophimus,  etc. ; 
but  so  much  could  be  attested  by  all 
that  this,  his  solemn  oath,  could  meet 
the  lie  given  him  by  his  assailants  for 
the  purpose  not  only  of  abasing  his 
boasts,  but  also  to  sink  him  to  the 
earth  as  a  falsifier.  It  is  strange  that 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


195 


that  I  lie  not.  32  bIn  Damascus 
the  governor  under  Aretas  the 
king  kept  the  city  of  the  Dama¬ 
scenes  with  a  garrison,  desirous  to 


b  Acts  9.  24,  25. 


Alford  and  other  commentators  should 
be  at  a  loss  to  account  for  the  earnest¬ 
ness  of  this  adjuration.  The  point  at 
which  it  touches  is  the  very  crisis  of 
the  life-struggle  between  St.  Paul  and 
his  opponents. 

32,  33.  Commentators  are  much  puz¬ 
zled  to  know  why  Paul  gives  this  nar¬ 
rative  just  here.  Its  purpose  is,  as  we 
think,  to  confirm  the  truth  of  the  assev¬ 
eration  of  verse  31,  which  asserts  the 
solemn  truth  of  vv.  22-29.  Prom  the 
mass  of  his  past  endurances  for  Christ 
he  selects,  as  specimen  and  proof  of  all 
the  rest,  one  great  notorious  historical 
fact,  occurring  at  the  very  commence¬ 
ment  of  his  career — a  fair  keynote  to 
the  whole.  This  occurred,  indeed,  in 
distant  Damascus,  and  a  good  while 
ago.  It  is,  however,  narrated  by  Luke ; 
was  doubtless  known  at  Jerusalem ; 
and  had  a  notoriety  beyond  challenge 
in  Corinth.  See  note  on  verse  33. 

32.  In  Damascus  — The  narrative 
in  Acts  ix,  23-25,  (where  see  notes,) 
agrees  with  this,  except  that  Luke 
specifies  only  the  Jewish  share  of  the 
plot  against  St.  Paul.  Governor  — 
EtJinarch ,  or  viceroy.  See  note  to 
Matthew  ii,  22.  With  a  garrison  — 
Probably  an  extemporized  garrison  of 
Jews.  Apprehend  me — Paul’s  only 
crime  as  viewed  by  the  Jews  there,  as 
with  these  Judaizers  here  in  Corinth, 
was  his  embodying  Gentiles  into  an 
uncircumcised  Christianity.  In  a  ques¬ 
tion  of  this  kind  the  ethnarch  could 
have  felt  no  opposition  to  Paul;  and 
the  true  solution  of  his  hostility  is  prob¬ 
ably  furnished  by  Micliaelis,  (quoted 
by  Meyer:)  “Jewish  gold  probably  ac¬ 
counts  for  the  conduct  of  the  emir.” 

33.  Window — Or,  kiosk,  based  upon 
and  projecting  over  the  wall.  From  a 
similar  window  Eutychus  fell  to  the 
ground,  as  stated  Acts  xx,  9.  Basket 
* — Lloomfield  describes  it  as  a  very 
strong  netting  made  of  cords,  for  the 
purpose  of  a  net  for  taking  fish,  or, 


apprehend  me:  33  cAnd  through 
a  window  in  a  basket  was  I  let 
down  by  the  wall,  and  escaped 
his  hands. 


cJosh.  2.  18;  1  Sara.  19.  12. 


rather,  a  hamper  for  carrying  fish,  “a 
fish-hamper.”  Stanley  says:  “There 
is  a  spot  still  pointed  out  on  the  east¬ 
ern  wall,  itself  modern,  as  the  scene  of 
Paul  s  escape.  Close  by  is  a  cavity  in 
the  ancient  burial  ground,  where  he  is 
said,  in  the  local  legends,  to  have  con¬ 
cealed  himself ;  and  formerly  a  tomb 
was  shown  of  a  St.  George,  who  was 
martyred  in  furthering  the  escape.  It 
is  curious  that  in  the  present  traditions 
of  Damascus  the  incidents  of  this  es¬ 
cape  have  almost  entirely  eclipsed  the 
story  of  his  conversion.”  And,  we  may 
add,  that  the  popular  interest  in  such  an 
incident  very  probably  gave  it  that  no¬ 
toriety  in  his  own  day  which  rendered 
it  an  effective  reminder  against  his  op¬ 
ponents  that  any  sufferings  he  had  to 
narrate  were  credible.  “  An  apostle  in 


196 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

T  is  not  expedient  for  me  doubt¬ 
less  to  glory.  1 1  will  come 
to  visions  and  revelations  of  the 
Lord.  2  I  knew  a  man  a  in  Christ 

_  1  Greek,  For  I  will  come. a  Rom.  16.  7 ; 

a  basket”  is  an  object  quite  likely  to  at¬ 
tract  attention,  and  suggestive  of  some 
reflections  and  lessons.  Let  no  man  be 
ashamed  of  any  predicament,  however 
humble,  in  which  he  may  be  found  in  a 
career  of  good-doing.  Alford,  we  think, 
mistakes  the  point  when  he  supposes 
I  aul  tells  this  story  of  the  basket  as 
a  self-humbling  fact,  likely  to  be  quoted 
ever  after  to  his  disgrace.  The  infirm¬ 
ity  of  the  narrative  in  which  St.  Paul 
glories  is  simply  the  fact  that  he  was 
the  object  of  united  Gentile  and  Jew¬ 
ish  hostility  for  Christ,  and  a  refugee 
from  their  hands;  not  especially  be¬ 
cause  he  escaped  in  a  basket.  "  The 
man  who  could  work  at  tent  making 
for  the  glory  of  a.  gratuitous  gospel, 
would  see  slight  disgrace  in  a  rope- 
hamper  ;  far  less  the  man  who  could 
boast  of  being  five  times  striped  with 
Jewish  thongs,  and  thrice  with  the 
Roman  rods. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

#  R&ul  still  continues  the  assertion  of 
his  apostleship,  with  an  avoidance  of  the 
charge  of  self-glorification.  He  next 
proves  his  apostleship — 

3.  By  revelations,  divine  inflic¬ 
tion,  and  miracles,  1-12. 

As  it  becomes  not  him  to  glory,  he 
relates  the  revelations  as  being  another 
man’s,  avoiding  any  undue  personal  ex¬ 
altation  from  them,  vv.  1—6.  He  em¬ 
phasizes  the  thorn  in  the  flesh  as  his 
self -humiliating  glory,  1-10.  He  apol¬ 
ogizes  for  even  this  glorying,  and  yet 
refers  to  their  own  memories  for  apos¬ 
tolic  miracles  wrought  by  him  amon«- 
them,  11,  12. 

1.  Not  expedient — Whether  from 
its  intrinsic  propriety,  its  moral  effect 
on  me,  or  its  exposing  me  to  the  re¬ 
torts  of  my  opponents.  Nevertheless 
their  imputations  render  a  reference  to 
my  apostolic  claims  a  necessity,  mod¬ 
estly  as  it  must  be  done.  For — And 


above  fourteen  years  ago,  wheth¬ 
er  in  the  body  I  cannot  tell,  or 
whether  out  of  the  body  I  cannot 
tell ;  God  knoweth :  such  a  one 
b caught  up  to  the  third  heaven. 

chaP-  5-  17 ;  Gal.  1.  22. - b  Acts  22. 17 ;  14. 6. 

this  self-reminder  of  the  inexpediency 
of  glorying  is  now  specially  needed, 
for  I  am  now  to  come  to  revela¬ 
tions  which  are  an  apparent  ground 
of  boast.  Visions — Are  revelations  to 
the  sight;  revelations  in  general  are 
made  to  any  power  of  perceiving  them. 
Of  the  Lord — By  or  from  the  Lord. 

2.  A.  man — Commentators  are  agreed 
that  the  man  was  the  apostle  himself. 
This  view  is  confirmed  by  verse  7. 
Fourteen  years  ago— As  in  the  nar¬ 
rative  just  given,  (xi,  32,  33,)  St.  Paul 
recalls  an  instance  of  distant  date,  but 
not  for  the  same  reason.  The  reason 
here  is  his  desire  to  separate  the  dis¬ 
tant  self]  in  whom  he  could  glory,  (see 
note,  verse  5,)  from  his  present  self. 
Fourteen  years  would  bring  us  back 
to  A.  D.  44,  about  the  time  of  St.  Paul’s 
first  residence  at  Antioch.  It  was,  at 
this  present  writing,  about  twenty  years 
since  his  conversion.  In  . .  .  out  of 
the  body— St.  Paul’s  doubt  clearly 
shows  that  he  held  the  soul  to  be  fully 
capable  of  existing  and  acting  sepa¬ 
rately  from  the  body.  He  was  no  ma¬ 
terialist.  He  believed  in  the  twofold 
nature  of  man,  bodily  and  spiritual.  If 
he  was  in  the  body,  then  his  body 
was  translated  for  the  time,  like  those 
of  Enoch,  Elijah,  and  Christ,  to  the 
abodes  of  the  saints  after  their  resur¬ 
rection  in  the  body.  If  out  of  the 
body  then  his  soul  alone  was  trans¬ 
lated  to  that  region,  leaving  the  body 
still  under  the  power  of  organic  life. 
Paul  does  not  decide  whether  he  was 
in  the  body  or  out ;  nor,  of  course,  can 
we.  But  we  should  imagine  that  he 
was  in  the  body  when  he  visited  the 
resurrection  state,  and  out  of  the  body 
when  he  visited  the  abode  of  disem¬ 
bodied  spirits.  Caught— The  usual 

word  for  a  miraculous  snatching  up  of 
the  person  by  a  divine  power.  Acts 
viii,  39;  Rev.  xii,  5;  1  Thess.  iv,  17. 
To  the  third  heaven— Greek,  even  to 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


197 


the  third  heaven,  implying  a  great¬ 
er  height  than  simply  into  paradise, 
without  the  even.  G-rotius  says,  that 
ihe  Jews  “reckoned  three  heavens.” 
1 .  The  aerial ,  including  the  atmosphere 
occupied  with  the  clouds ;  2.  The  side¬ 
real,  or  starry  firmament;  and,  3.  The 
habitation  of  God  and  his  angels.  “But 
he  quotes  no  authority,  and  the  accu¬ 
racy  of  his  statement  is  questioned. — 
Meyer.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Jewish 
number  was  the  sacred  seven;  “God 
makes  six  heavens  and  dwells  in  the 
seventh ."  Meyer  thinks  that  St.  Paul 
here  recognises  the  seven,  and  so  ad¬ 
mits  four  heavens  above  the  level  of 
his  ascent.  Bengel  ingeniously  says, 
that  the  Hebrew  dual  shamaim  sup¬ 
poses  two  heavens,  and  it  was  reserved 
to  the  gospel  to  reveal  the  third. 

But,  as  is  shown  in  M’Clintock  and 
Strong’s  Cyclopaedia,  (on  the  word 
Heaven*)  a  classification  of  biblical 
texts  shows  well  the  three  heavens 
in  both  the  Old  and  Hew  Testaments: 
“(1.)  Under  the  first  head,  ccelam  nubife- 
rum ,  (the  aerial  heaven,)  the  following 
phrases  naturally  fall  —  (a)  ‘Bowl,’  or 
‘fowls  of  the  heaven,  of  the  air,’  see 
Gen.  ii,  19;  vii,  3,  23;  ix,  2;  Deut. 
iv,  17;  xxviii,  26;  1  Kings  xxi,  24; 
Job  xii,  7;  xxviii,  21;  xxxv,  11;  Psa. 
viii,  8;  lxxix,  2;  civ,  12;  Jer.  vii,  33 
et  passim ;  Ezek.  xxix,  5  et  passim ; 
Dan.  ii,  38;  Hos.  ii,  18;  iv,  3;  vii,  12; 
Zeph.  i,  3 ;  Mark  iv,  3,  (rd  tt etelvu  rod 
ovpavov ;)  Luke  viii,  5;  ix,  58;  xiii,  19; 
Acts  x,  12 ;  xi,  6  —  in  all  which  pas¬ 
sages  the  same  original  words  in  the 
Hebrew,  Chaldee,  and  Greek  Scriptures 

(□'£>£>  ovpavoi)  are  with  equal 

propriety  rendered  indifferently  ‘  air  ' 
and  ‘  heaven  ’ — similarly  we  read  of  ‘  the 
path  of  the  eagle  in  the  air,'  (Prov. 
xxx,  19;)  of  ‘the  eagles  of  heaven ,' 
(Lam.  iv,  19  ;)  of  ‘the  stork  of  the  heav¬ 
en,'  (Jer.  viii,  7  ;)  and  of  ‘  birds  of  heav¬ 
en ’  in  general.  Eccles.  x,  20 ;  Jer.  iv,  25. 
In  addition  to  these  zoological  terms, 
we  have  meteorological  facts  included 
under  the  same  original  words:  for  ex¬ 
ample,  ( b )  ‘  The  dew  of  heaven ,'  (Gen. 
xx vii,  28,  39;)  Deut.  xxxiii,  28;  Dan. 
iv,  15  et  passim;  Hag.  i,  10;  Zecha- 
riah  viii,  12:)  (c)  ‘  The  clouds  of  heaven ,' 


(1  Kings  xviii,  45;  Psa.  cxlvii,  8;  Dan. 

vii,  13;  Matt,  xxiv,  30;  xxvi,  64;  Ma*k 
xiv,  62:)  (d)  ‘  The  frost  of  heaven,'  (Job 
xxxviii,  29:)  (e)  ‘  The  winds  of  heaven,' 
(1  Kings  xviii,  55;  Psa.  lxxviii,  26; 
Dan.  viii,  8 ;  xi,  4 ;  Zech.  ii,  6 ;  vi,  5, 
[see  margin ;]  Matt,  xxiv,  31  ;  Mark 

xiii,  27  :)  (/)  ‘  The  rain  of  heaven,1  (Gen. 

viii,  2;  Deut.  xi,  11;  xxviii,  12;  Jer 

xiv,  22;  Acts  xiv,  17,  [ovpavod-Ev  vetovc;  f\ 

Jas.  v,  18;  Rev.  xviii,  6 :)  (g)  ‘ Lightning, 
with  thunder ,’  (Job  xxxvii,  3,  4;  Luke 
xvii,  24.)  (II.)  Codum  astriferum,  (as¬ 

tral  heaven)  The  vast  spaces  of  which 
astronomy  takes  cognizance  are  fre¬ 
quently  referred  to :  for  example,  (a)  in 
the  phrase  ‘ host  of  heaven,'  in  Deut. 
xvii,  3  ;  Jer.  viii,  2  ;  Matt,  xxiv,  29, 
[ dwapeLc  tuv  ovpavtiv,]  a  sense  which 
is  obviously  not  to  be  confounded 
with  another  signification  of  the  same 
phrase,  as  in  Luke  ii,  13,  [see  Angels:] 
(6)  ‘ Lights  of  heaven,'  (Gen.  i,  14-16; 
Ezek.  xxxii,  8:)  (c)  4  Stars  of  heaven,' 
(Gen.  xxii,  17  ;  xxvi,  4;  Exod.  xxxii,  13; 
Deut.  i,  10;  x,  22;  xxviii,  62;  Judges 
v,  20;  Neh.  ix,  23;  Isa.  xiii,  10;  Nah. 
iii,  16;  Heb.  xi,  12.)  (III.)  Codum  an- 
geliferum,  (angelic  heaven.)  It  would 
exceed  our  limits  if  we  were  to  collect 
the  descriptive  phrases  which  revela¬ 
tion  has  given  us  of  heaven  in  its  sub- 
limest  sense ;  we  content  ourselves 
with  indicating  one  or  two  of  the  most 
obvious:  (a)  ‘  The  heaven  of  heavens ,' 
(Deut.  x,  14;  1  Kings  viii,  27 ;  2  Chron. 
ii,  6,  18;  Neh.  ix,  6;  Psalm  cxv,  16; 
cxlviii,  4:)  (b)  ‘  The  third  heavens,'  (2  Cor. 
xii,  2  :)  (c)  ‘  The  high  and  lofty'  [pface,] 
(Isa.  xlvii,  15  :)  (d)  ‘  The  highest ,’  (Matt, 
xxi,  9;  Mark  xi,  10;  Luke  ii,  14,  com¬ 
pared  with  Psa.  clxviii,  1.)  This  heav¬ 
enly  sublimity  was  graciously  brought 
down  to  Jewish  apprehension  in  the 
sacred  symbol  of  their  tabernacle  and 
temple,  which  they  reverenced  (espe¬ 
cially  in  the  adytum  of  ‘  the  Holy  of 
Holies  ’)  as  ‘  the  place  where  God’s 
honour  dwelt,’  (Psa.  xxvi,  8,)  and  amid 
the  sculptured  types  of  his  celestial 
retinue,  in  the  cherubim  of  the  mercy- 
seat,  (2  Kings  xix,  15;  Psa.  lxxx,  1; 
Isa.  xxxvii,  16.)”  This  classification,  in 
our  view,  furnishes  the  correct  sense 
of  St.  Paul’s  terms. 

Yet  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  first 


198 


IT.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


3  And  I  knew  such  a  man,  whether 
in  the  body,  or  out  of  the  body,  I 
cannot  tell ;  God  knoweth :  4  How 
that  he  was  caught  up  into  c  para¬ 
dise,  and  heard  unspeakable  words, 

cLuke  23.  43. - 2  Or,  possible. 

two  of  these  heavens  are  perceptible  to 
our  senses,  and  known  to  science ;  while 
the  third  is  but  imagined  in  thought, 
without  assignable  locality.  This  is 
alike  true  of  heaven,  paradise,  and  hell. 
But  see  note,  Eph.  ii,  2  ;  1  Thess.  iv,  17. 

3.  And — It  is  a  strange  idea  held 
by  some  commentators,  endorsed  by 
Alford,  that  St.  Paul  here  twice  states 
the  same  narrative.  Less  absurd,  but 
quite  unsupported,  is  the  idea  that  the 
two  are  different  parts  of  one  vision. 
The  formal  beginning  of  both  narra¬ 
tives,  assigning  both  to  the  same  year, 
obviously  indicates  that  they  were  not 
at  the  same  time.  Nor  were  the  two 
visits  to  the  same  region. .  To  the 
question  why  Paul  should  visit  para¬ 
dise  later  than  the  third  heaven,  it 
might  in  answer  be  asked,  Why  should 
he  see  paradise  first  ?  To  see  the 
heaven  of  heavens — to  stand  in  the 
body,  for  the  moment  glorified,  by  the 
side  of  Enoch,  Elijah,  Christ,  and,  per¬ 
haps,  Moses — to  know  with  them,  by 
a  divine  intuition,  all  that  the  first 
two  knew — to  realize  the  realities  of 
eternity,  were  the  first  and  main  thing. 
To  visit  paradise — the  intermediate 
state,  the  place  of  departed,  disem¬ 
bodied  spirits— was  the  after-thought. 
The  former  was,  perhaps,  necessary  as 
a  qualification  for  Paul’s  apostolicity ; 
the  latter  only  important.  As  to  him 
was  visibly  disclosed  the  Son  of  God  in 
his  glorified  person,  so  to  him  were  re¬ 
vealed,  in  glimpse,  the  arcana  of  the 
highest  heaven,  and  the  lower  myste¬ 
ries  of  paradise. 

4.  Paradise — Compare  our  notes  on 
Luke  xvi,  19-31,  and  xxiii,  43.  Meyer 
says  this  paradise  is  not  here  under 
the  earth,  as  sheol ,  in  which  the  spirits 
of  the  dead  saints  abide  until  the  res¬ 
urrection,  as  if  such  were  the  view  in 
Luke  xvi.  But,  however  it  may  be  in  the 
Old  Testament,  or  in  the  heathen  poets, 
it  is  not  the  conception  of  the  New  Test- 


which  it  is  not 2  lawful  for  a  man  to 
utter.  5  Of  such  a  one  will  I  glory  : 
dyet  of  myself  I  will  not  glory,  but 
in  mine  infirmities.  6  For  though 
e  I  would  desire  to  glory,  I  shall  not 

cZ  Chap.  11.  30. - eChap.  10.  8;  11.  16. 

ament  that  paradise  is  under  the  earth. 
We  do  tli ink  of  it  as  belovj ,  in  relation 
to  the  highest  heavens,  but  not  as  sub¬ 
terranean.  See  note  on  Eph.  iv,  8-10. 
Heard  —  He  appears  to  have  heard 
nothing  in  the  third  heaven.  Seeing 
and  knowing  were  all  he  had  to  do 
there.  But  in  the  region  nearer  to  his 
present  life  he  was  enabled  to  hear. 
Says  Olsliausen,  “  In  that  paradisaical 
scene  of  light  he  received  wondrous 
impressions,  which  he  describes  as  per¬ 
ceptions  through  the  medium  of  hear¬ 
ing.”  The  thought  is,  that  in  the 
spirit-world  there  is  no  communication 
by  articulate  sounds,  but  by  mutual 
impartation  of  thought  from  mind  to 
mind.  And  in  this  view,  distance  in 
space  may  be  no  preventive  of  the 
most  perfect  communication.  The  rich 
man  and  Abraham  were  both  in  hades, 
(including  tartarus  and  paradise,)  both 
visible  and  audible  to  each  other,  as 
spirits  see  and  hear ;  but  that  proves 
not  that  even  if  tartarus  were  below 
the  earth’s  surface,  paradise  must  be 
so  also.  Hades  may  be  down,  but  we 
doubt  whether  paradise  is  ever  any 
otherwise  than  up.  Unspeakable 
words — Unutterable  utterances.  St. 
Paul  borrows  a  charmed  phrase  from 
the  rites  of  the  pagan  priesthood,  who 
professed  to  possess  many  mysteries 
that  must  not  be  divulged,  and  words 
not  lawful  to  utter.  There  are  wonder¬ 
ful  mysteries  for  us  in  paradise;  and 
the  words  that  spirit  utters  to  spirit  are 
too  sacred  for  human  speech,  and  can¬ 
not  be  uttered  without  a  wonderful  gift 
of  tongues. 

5.  Of  such  a  one — Of  that  man  of 
fourteen  years  ago.  Glory — Will 

assert  that  he  was  in  this  divine  way 
fitted  for  an  apostleship.  Myself — 
My  present  personality.  Infirmities 
— In  which  my  detractors  triumph. 

6.  Though  I  would — if  I  should. 
He  abstains  from  glorying  over  his  pres- 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


199 


be  a  fool ;  for  f  I  will  say  the  truth : 
out  now  I  forbear,  lest  any  man 
should  think  of  me  above  that 
which  he  seetli  me  to  be,  or  that  he 
beareth  of  me.  7  And  lest  I  should 
be  eialted  above  measure  through 
the  abundance  of  the  revelations, 

/Job  24.  25;  Rom.  9. 1. - g  See  Ezek.  28.  24; 

• _ Gal.  4.  13,  14. _ 

erit  self,  not  because  he  might  not,  if 
he  were  anxious,  so  glory.  Will — 
Would.  Truth  —  There  are  personal 
points  on  which  his  personal  glorifying 
would  not  be  folly,  but  truth.  Think 
of  me  above  —  He  might  so  unfold 
his  personal  points  as  to  show  himself 
truly  superior  to  their  view  of  his  per¬ 
sonality  ;  but  he  prefers  to  leave  them 
to  the  simple  impression  made  upon 
them  from  merely  seeing  and  hearing 
him. 

7.  Abundance  of  the  revelations — 

A  clear  intimation  that  vv.  2-4  narrate 
his  own  experience.  The  word  thorn, 
in  the  Greek,  signifies  any  pointed  peg, 
or  piece  of  metal  or  wood.  Hence  it 
was  used  to  designate  a  stake  or  pale ; 
especially  the  pale  by  which  the  terri¬ 
ble  punishment  of  impalement  was  in¬ 
dicted.  Hence  Dr.  Lightfoot  is  very 
positive  that  it  is  here  used  in  that 
sense,  and  thus  as  the  cross — the  instru¬ 
ment  of  crucifixion — is  used  to  figure 
any  terrible  endurance,  so  the  pale — the 
instrument  of  impalement — is  selected 
by  Paul  to  figure  the  infliction  he  suf¬ 
fered.  But  the  meaning  thorn  seems 
equally  well  supported,  and  more  suita¬ 
ble  to  the  present  case.  We  gather 
from  all  the  allusions,  that,  though 
a  source  of  most  poignant  irritation, 
Paul’s  thorn  was  more  a  mortification 
and  an  obstacle  than  a  pain.  Nor  does 
the  Greek  of  Gal.  iv,  14,  suggest  that 
Paul’s  suffering  was  “loathsome”  to 
the  eyes,  like  the  eruption  or  cancer 
of  King  Alfred,  but  rather  provocative 
of  contempt  and  ridicule,  as  if  he  were 
a  failure  in  oratory.  See  notes,  i,  8,  9, 
and  x,  10.  Messenger  of  Satan  — 
Job  was  vexed  by  Satan  himself;  St. 
Paul  only  by  his  messenger.  This 
has  suggested  to  some  interpreters  the 
idea  of  a  living,  troublesome  opponent, 
who  was,  as  we  say,  “  a  thorn  in  the 


there  was  given  to  me  a  e  thorn 
in  the  flesh,  hthe  messenger  of  Sa¬ 
tan  to  buffet  me,  lest  I  should  be 
exalted  above  measure.  8  1  For 
this  thing  I  besought  the  Lord 
thrice,  that  it  might  depart  from 
me.  9  And  he  said  unto  me,  My 

h  Job  2.  7 ;  Luke  13.  16. - i  See  Deut.  3.  23-27 ; 

Matt.  26.  44. 

side.”  But  to  a  Jew,  the  “angel  of 
Satan  ”  was  an  invisible  foe,  and  a 
spiritual.  We  are  unable  to  say  wheth¬ 
er  St.  Paul  believed  that  it  was  truly  a 
Satanic  work,  or  only  that,  like  ail 
other  ailments,  it  was  the  natural  re¬ 
sult  of  sin  and  Satan  in  general. 
Given  to  me,  implies  that  whether 
Satan  was  the  permitted  infiicter  or 
not,  the  infirmity  was  a  divine,  severe 
gift  Buffet — Literally,  to  box  or  beat 
with  the  hand  or  fist,  and  figuratively 
applied  to  any  maltreatment  or  hard 
usage.  To  our  own  mind  it  suggests 
an  epileptic  stroke ,  the  result  of  nervous 
suffering  under  severe  trial.  It  par¬ 
ticularly  negatives  the  idea  of  Alford 
and  others,  that  the  thorn  was  a  dis¬ 
ease  of  the  eyes.  It  equally  refutes 
the  notion  that  it  was  the  lust  of  the 
flesh.  In  short,  the  most  excited  of 
all  lives,  which  St.  Paul  lived,  “brought 
on,”  as  Bloomfield  rightly  says,  “  chron¬ 
ical  infirmities  of  the  paralytic  sort, 
such  as,  especially  with  diabolical  co¬ 
operation,  might  occasion  distortion  of 
countenance,  defect  in  utterance,  and 
nervous  affections ;  all  which  would 
tend  to  raise  contempt  in  the  minds  of 
the  multitude,  which,  joined  with  his 
diminutive  form,”  would  furnish  a  full 
solution,  meeting  the  demand  of  every 
relevant  passage. 

8.  For  this  thing — On  this  account. 
The  Lord  —  Not  God,  but  Christ,  as 
from  him  the  answer  was  received. 
For  it  was  the  power  of  Christ 
(next  verse)  which  rested  upon  me,  and 
was  made  perfect.  This  is,  there¬ 
fore,  a  distinct  case  of  prayer  to  Christ 
Thrice — Not,  as  some  explain,  repeat¬ 
edly  merely ;  but  precisely  three  times. 
For  St.  Paul  is  giving  a  plain,  literal 
narrative.  He  prayed  twice  without 
response ;  the  third  time,  and  the  an¬ 
swer  came. 


200 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


grace  is  sufficient  for  thee:  for  my 
strength  is  made  perfect  in  weak¬ 
ness.  Most  gladly  therefore  kwill 
I  rather  glory  in  my  infirmities, 

1  that  the  power  of  Christ  may  rest 
upon  me.  10  Therefore  n,I  take 
pleasure  in  infirmities,  in  reproach¬ 
es,  in  necessities,  in  persecutions, 

k  Chap.  11.  30. - 1  1  Peter  4.  14. - m  Rom. 

5.  3;  chap.  7.  4. - n  Chap.  13.  4. - o  Chap.  11. 

1,  16,  17. 

9.  He  said  . . .  grace  . . .  sufficient 

— My  sustaining  power  must  be  a  sub¬ 
stitute  for  the  removal  vainly  asked. 
Let  thy  natural  weakness  remain,  sup¬ 
plemented  by  a  divine  power.  Yet  it 
is  apparent  from  the  history  that  the 
thorn  was  ultimately  withdrawn.  It 
seems  to  have  commenced  about  the 
year  44,  and  ended  about  58.  Made 
perfect — Is  brought  to  the  complete 
intended  result,  namely,  its  manifested 
exhibition  in  the  triumphs  of  the  gos¬ 
pel.  In  weakness  —  Which  shows 
the  power  to  be  divine.  Gladly — His 
prayer  was  not  granted,  but  something 
better  was.  Hence  the  Christian,  save 
under  special  guidance,  is  rightfully 
chary  about  specifying  particular  tem¬ 
poral  objects  to  pray  for;  for  the  ob¬ 
ject,  if  granted,  might  prove  injurious, 
and  when  the  prayer  is  rejected,  it  may 
be  in  mercy ;  in  still  greater  mercy  if 
some  higher  blessing  is  granted  instead. 
Rather — Than  have  the  thorn  drawn 
out.  He  preferred  the  Lord’s  way  to 
his  own.  Glory  in  my  infirmities 
— Which,  as  it  glorifies  Christ  and  not 
myself,  is  far  better  than  glorying  in 
my  oratory  and  other  powers.  Hence, 
while  compelled  by  his  adversaries  to 
self-assertion,  he  so  asserts  himself  as 
not  to  portray  his  romantic  excellences, 
but  to  unfold  his  sufferings  and  weak¬ 
nesses.  And  even  so  his  superiority 
over  his  detractors  comes  out  all  the 
more  resplendently.  Power  of  Christ 
— In  this  utter  abolition  of  himself 
that  Christ  may  be  all,  what  a  victory 
does  he  gain  over  his  adversaries  who 
claimed  to  be  Christ’s,  yet  depreciated 
Christ !  How  evident  it  became  to  the 
Corinthians  that  he  was  the  '  true  ser¬ 
vant  of  Christ ! 

10.  Take  pleasure  —  All  his  suf- 


in  distresses  for  Christ’s  sake:  "for 
when  I  am  weak,  then  am  I  strong. 
Ill  am  become  °a  fool  in  glory¬ 
ing;  ye  have  compelled  me:  for  I 
ought  to  have  been  commended  of 
you:  for  Pin  nothing  am  I  behind 
the  very  chiefest  apostles,  though 
ql  be  nothing.  12  r  Truly  the 

V  Chap.  11.5;  Gal.  2.  6-8. - q\  Cor.  3.  7;  15. 

8,  9;  Eph.  3.  8. - r  Rom.  15.  18, 19;  1  Cor.  9.  2a 

chap.  4.  2 ;  8.  4;  11.  6. 

ferings  and  disgraces  were  a  joy  for 
Christ’s  sake.  Reproaches — Insult¬ 
ing  words.  Necessities — Compulsions 
to  what  I  would  not.  Persecutions 
— From  the  enemies  of  Christ.  Dis¬ 
tresses — Narrow  circumstances.  All 
four  points  are  endurances,  or  under¬ 
goings  of  evil.  Weak  —  In  myself. 
Strong — Through  a  divine  strength ; 
and  to  what  divine  results! 

11.  I ...  a  fool  in  glorying — The 
last  allusion  of  Paul,  after  a  back  glance, 
over  what  he  has  said,  to  his  glory¬ 
ing.  I  have  become — well,  they  will 
say — a  fool ;  even  though  I  have  glo¬ 
ried  only  in  my  sufferings,  passive  reve¬ 
lations,  and  disgraces.  Ought ...  of 
you  —  For  all  the  folly  of  my  self-as¬ 
sertion,  even  thus  much,  I  am  justified, 
and  the  responsibility  rests  with  you. 
You  ought,  by  your  bold,  magnani¬ 
mous  assertion  of  me  against  my  de¬ 
tractors,  to  have  made  my  self-assertion 
unnecessary.  But  for  even  this  un¬ 
trueness  the  apostle  would  not  have 
reprehended  them  were  it  not  that  their 
untrueness  to  him  was,  in  the  case,  an 
untrueness  to  Christ.  For — Giving 
reason  why  they  ought  to  have  as¬ 
serted  him.  Am  —  Was ,  Greek  aorist, 
namely,  was  in  my  apostolate  at  Cor¬ 
inth.  Chiefest  apostles — The  over¬ 
much  apostles.  Note,  xi,  5;  same  as 
the  false  apostles,  xi,  13.  Be  noth¬ 
ing —  In  myself,  though  something  in 
Christ;  as  they  are  nothing  in  them¬ 
selves,  and  something  in  nothing. 

12.  As  if  in  a  brief  undertone  to  tho 
Corinthians  themselves,  out  of  hearing 
of  the  overmuch  apostles ,  Paul  reminds 
these  Corinthians  of  what  they  well 
knew,  that  his  confining  his  self-as¬ 
sertions  to  infirmities  and  passivities 
was  not  because  he  had  not  every  bold 


A.  1).  58. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


201 


signs  of  an  apostle  were  wrought 
among  you  in  all  patience,  in  signs, 
And  wonders,  and  mighty  deeds. 

13  sFor  what  is  it  wherein  ye 
were  inferior  to  other  churches, 

s  1  Cor.  1.  7. - 1 1  Cor.  9.  12;  chap.  11.  9. 

and  positive  boast  within  his  power. 
They  well  knew,  for  the  mighty  proofs 
had  been  wrought  among  them.  The 
apostle  appeals  to  facts  within  their 
own  knowledge.  Signs  of  an  apostle 
— All  the  proofs  you  could  ask  for  any 
apostle.  In  all  patience — St.  Paul, 
like  Jesus,  endured  patiently  contra¬ 
diction  from  sinners  and  gainsay ers, 
even  in  the  midst  of  lessons  of  holiness 
and  deeds  of  power.  Signs .  . .  won¬ 
ders,  and  mighty  deeds — Are  the 
same  miracles  viewed  in  different  as¬ 
pects.  As  signs,  they  are  tokens  and 
proofs  of  the  apostle’s  mission;  as  won¬ 
ders,  they  are  impressive  and  startling 
to  the  mind ;  as  mighty  deeds,  lit¬ 
erally,  powers ,  they  are  interpositions 
of  omnipotence.  The  apostle  could 
fearlessly  appeal  to  his  Corinthians 
to  testify  that  such  were  wrought 
among  them.  And,  thence,  he  was 
authorized  to  believe  that  they  would 
entertain  no  doubt  of  the  truth  of  his 
narrative  given  iu  vv.  2-4. 

4.  By  disinterestedness,  both  in 
declining  compensation  (13-15)  and 
in  using  no  guile  for  gain,  (16-18,) 
13-18. 

From  his  powerful  apostolate  among 
them  to  his  declining  to  accept,  St.  Paul 
makes  a  very  graceful  transition.  His 
apostolate  had  placed  the  Corinthians 
at  the  highest  eminence  among  the 
Churches;  but  there  is  this  drawback 
—  he  had  declined  to  be  pecuniarily 
obligated  to  them.  Under  vail  of  apol¬ 
ogizing  for  this  slight,  he  asserts,  gen¬ 
tly,  as  if  in  view  of  his  detractors,  his 
own  disinterestedness. 

13.  What  is  it  —  My  labours  and 
signs  had  placed  you  in  a  rank  equal  to 
the  best.  Inferior — Put  you  complain, 
and  I  admit,  that  to  labour  for  you  and 
to  place  you  on  the  gratuitous  level, 
when  I  was  aided  by  other  Churches, 
was  disparaging.  Burdensome — See 
note  on  xi,  9.  Forgive  me  this  wrong 


except  it  be  that  ‘I  myself  was  not 
burdensome  to  you  ?  forgive  me 
u  this  wrong.  14  v  Behold,  the 
third  time  I  am  ready  to  come  to 
you ;  and  I  will  not  be  burden- 

'wChap.  11.  6. - v  Chap.  13.  1. 

— As  truly  and  persistently  putting  the 
Church  in  a  disparaged  position,  there 
was  a  wrong  justified  by  the  facts, 
yet  requiring  some  overlooking  by  the 
Corinthians.  Their  equivocal  course 
towards  their  noble  founder  in  dally¬ 
ing  with  his  detractors  had  obliged  him 
to  place  himself  on  high,  independent 
ground. 

14.  Third  time — No  account  in  Acts, 
or  elsewhere,  exists  of  more  than  one 
visit  by  Paul  to  Corinth,  during  which 
he  founded  their  Church,  as  fully  and 
well  narrated  by  Luke,  Acts  xviii,  1-18. 
Moreover,  i,  15  of  this  present  epistle 
speaks  of  a  visit  to  them  intended,  but 
not  accomplished ,  as  being  a  second 
one ;  which  seems  clearly  to  show 
that  at  the  present  writing  no  real 
second  visit  had  taken  place.  St. 
Paul,  then,  meant  here,  in  making  out 
his  third  count,  this  second  intentional 
visit  as  a  real.  Or,  rather,  it  is  inten¬ 
tions  fulfilled  and  unfulfilled  that  he  is 
counting,  both  here  and  at  chap,  xii,  1. 
Neither  of  the  last  two  intentions  had 
been  as  yet  fulfilled.  Ready  to  come 
— As  he  was  ready  to  come  in  i,  15, 
though  he  did  not.  In  strict  grammat¬ 
ical  construction  the  third  time  quali¬ 
fies  the  readiness. 

We  could  easily  concede  to  Alford 
and  others,  who  maintain  a  second 
visit,  did  the  words  justify  it.  We  have 
noted,  at  xi,  25,  26,  that  there  were 
many  movements  of  St.  Paul  which  iio 
history  has  commemorated.  But  the 
second  visit  seems  to  us  really  pre¬ 
cluded  by  St.  Paul’s  words,  taking  the 
three  passages  together.  Will  not — 
As  I  did  not  during  my  first  sojourn 
with  you ;  when  I  partly  maintained 
myself  by  labour  with  Aquila,  at  tent¬ 
making,  and  was  partly  supplied  from 
Macedonia  by  Timothy  and  Silas. 
Seek  not — St.  Paul’s  real  motive  in 
refusing  aid  from  Corinth  was  to  si¬ 
lence  cavil  from  all  quarters.  In  what 


202 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


some  to  you  :  for  w  I  seek  not 
yours,  but  you  :  x  for  the  children 
ought  not  to  lay  up  for  the  pa¬ 
rents,  but  the  parents  for  the  chil¬ 
dren.  15  And  y  I  w  ill  very  gladly 
spend  and  be  spent  z  for * *  3  you ; 
though  a  the  more  abundantly  I 
love  you,  the  less  I  be  loved. 
10  But  be  it  so,  bI  did  not  burden 
you:  nevertheless,  being  crafty,  I 
caught  you  with  guile.  17  cDid  I 
make  a  gain  of  you  by  any  of  them 


whom  I  sent  unto  you?  18  dI  de- 
sired  Titus,  and  with  him  I  sent  a 
e  brother.  Did  Titus  make  a  gain 
of  you?  walked  we  not  in  the  same 
spirit?  walked  we  not  in  the  same 
steps? 

19  f  Again,  think  ye  that  we 
excuse  ourselves  unto  you?  *w*e 
speak  before  God  in  Christ:  hbut 
we  do  all  things,  dearly  beloved, 
for  your  edifying.  20  For  I  fear, 
lest,  when  I  come,  I  shall  not  find 


w  Acts  20.  33;  1  Cor.  10.  33. - x  1  Cor.  4. 

14,  15. - v  Phil.  2.  17;  1  Thess.  2.  8. - sJohn 

10.  11;  chap.  1.  6;  Col.  1.  24;  2  Tim.  2.  10. - 

3  Greek,  your  souls. 


a  Chap.  6.  12,  13. - b  Chap.  11.  9. - cChap. 

7.  2. - d  Chap.  8.  6,  16,  22. - e  Chap.  8.  18. - 

/Chap.  5.  12. - tfRom.  9.  1;  chap.  11.  31. - 

h\  Cor.  10.  33. 


lie  here  says,  however,  he  overleaps 
that  reason  in  words,  but  places  him¬ 
self  on  his  reserved  rights,  as  their 
spiritual  parent,  to  be  benefactor  and 
not  beneficiary.  Not  yours,  but  you 
— Not  their  money  for  his  own  benefit, 
but  their  souls  for  their  own  salvation. 
Children. .  .parents  —  Not  but  that 
the  current  should  often  rightly  flow 
upwards.  Children  are  often  obligated 
by  duty  to  provide  for  parents.  But  this 
is  not  the  usual  direction: — parents  are 
always  expected  to  provide  for  their 
children ;  vice  versa ,  sometimes.  But 
Paul  claims  here  the  parental  right  to 
provide,  and  not  be  provided  for. 

15.  Very  gladly  — A  rich,  hearty 
flow  of  unselfishness.  Others  joy  in 
gaining  and  taking,  I  in  expending  and 
giving.  Spend — Expend  what  I  pos¬ 
sess.  Be  spent — All  I  am.  Less  I 
be  loved — A  repayment,  at  least  in 
love,  wrould  be  grateful ;  but  this  is  no 
condition  to  my  expenditure  of  all  I 
have  and  am.  Nay,  though  the  more 
I  expend  the  less  be  your  love,  I  still 
joy  in  the  sacrifice. 

16.  So. .  .nevertheless — Paul  pass¬ 
es  to  the  next  and  last  fling  of  his  de¬ 
tractors.  He  did  not,  they  plainly  admit, 
take  pay  or  gift  from  them  ;  but  he  jug¬ 
gled,  forsooth,  about  “contributions,” 
and  takes  of  the  avails.  This  is  said, 
however,  rather  in  anticipation  than 
from  the  past.  Be  it  so — The  detrac¬ 
tor  concedes  thus  much.  Guile — Un¬ 
der  pretext  of  making  a  benevolent  col¬ 
lection  for  the  Jerusalem  poor. 

17.  Did  I  —  A  confident  appeal  to 


their  own  knowledge,  for  he  had  taken 
express  precaution  against  this  impu¬ 
tation. 

5.  By  apostolic  intimations  and 
judicial  warnings  of  apostolic  pen¬ 
alties,  19-xiii,  10. 

18.  Titus  —  The  most  marked  in¬ 
stance  among  them  whom  I  sent. 

This  is  that  sending  of  Titus,  the  re¬ 
turn  from  wThicli  is  stated  in  chap.  vii. 
A  brother  —  As  his  attendant:  the 
brother  in  the  Greek:  implying  the 
one  whom,  of  course,  the  Corinthians 
well  knew-.  In  the  same  spirit  — 
Same  unselfish  temper.  Steps — Were 
not  our  actions  as  disinterested  as  our 
spirit  ? 

19.  Herein  St.  Paul  cautions  against 
their  notion  that  in  these  defences  he 
is  accepting  them  as  his  judge,  wdfich 
God  alone  is ;  wrhereas  he  has  only  been 
showing  the  rectitude  of  his  character 
in  apostolically  judging  them.  Again — 
A  third  time;  referring  to  iii,  1,  and  v,  12. 
You — Emphatic  in  contrast  with  God. 
Instead  of  tzuTiLv,  again,  another  7 rd/.at, 
long  since.  With  this  reading,  and  re¬ 
moving  the  interrogation  point,  the 
rendering  wrould  be,  You  are ,  for  some 
time,  (that  is,  during  my  defence,)  im¬ 
agining  that  I  am  defending  myself  to  you. 
Tins  makes  good  sense  ;  but  obviously 
there  is  a  reference  to  iii,  1,  and  the 
received  text  is  preferable.  Edifying 
— But  not  as  being  arraigned  before 
you. 

20.  I  fear  —  To  the  close  of  the 
epistle  the  self-defensive  tone  is  now 
dropped,  and  the  apostolic  authority 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  XII,  XIII. 


203 


you  such  as  I  would,  and  that  'I 
shall  be  found  unto  you  such  as 
ye  would  not:  lest  there  be  debates, 
envy  mgs,  wraths,  strifes,  backbit¬ 
ings,  whisperings,  swellings,  tu¬ 
mults:  21  And  lest,  when  I  come 
again,  my  God  kwill  humble  me 
among  you,  and  that  I  shall  bewail 
many *  1  which  have  sinned  already, 
and  have  not  repented  of  the  un- 

i  1  Cor.  4.  21 ;  chap.  10.  2;  13.  2, 10. k  Chap.  2. 

1,  4. 2  Chap.  13.  2. - ml  Cor.  5. 1. a  Chap. 

is  persistently  assumed.  Would  .  .  . 
would  not  —  A  very  terse  and  preg¬ 
nant  antithesis.  He  may  find  them 
criminals ;  they  may  find  him  a  severe 
judge.  Debates — We  would  translate 
the  catalogue  thus:  strifes ,  emulation , 
resentments ,  partisanships ,  slanders ,  sur¬ 
mises ,  self-importances ,  frays.  These 
are  all  vices  of  hate,  as  the  list  in  the 
next  verse  is  of  vices  of  lawless  love. 

21.  Humble  me — In  being  made  to 
feel  the  special  disgrace  of  their  sexual 
vices.  Many  which  have  sinned 
— It  may  be  again  noticed  that  St.  Paul 
addresses  alternately  the  better  part 
and  the  worse  part  of  the  Church  as 
being  the  whole ;  yet  passages  like  the 
present  indicate  that  both  the  parts  are 
meant,  and  that  each  is  expected  to 
make  the  proper  application.  Bewail 
—  Weep.  As  the  disgrace  would  hum¬ 
ble  him,  so  the  sin  and  apostasy  would 
melt  him  with  grief.  If  they  have 
neither  shame  nor  sorrow,  he  blushes 
and  weeps  for  them.  Thus  far  he  ex¬ 
presses  only  the  overwhelming  effect 
of  their  sins  upon  him.  Of  penalty  he 
will  soon  speak  to  them. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

1.  This — Literal  Greek,  A  third  this 

I  am  coming  to  you.  The  obvious 
meaning  is,  This  is  a  third  intentional 
coming.  The  contingency  of  its  be¬ 
coming  a  real  coming  is  repeated  next 
verse  in  the  phrase  if  I  come  again. 
The  word  time  is  not  in  the  Greek, 
and  the  word  this  can,  we  think,  have 
strictly  no  proper  reference  but  to  the 
present  writing.  St.  Paul  does  not  af¬ 
firm,  therefore,  three  actual  comings,  or 
that  the  completion  of  his  present  pur- 


cleanness  and  m  fornication  and 
lasciviousness  which  they  have 
committed. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

nHHIS  is  athe  third  time  I  am 
JL  coming  to  you.  bIn  the  mouth 
of  two  or  three  witnesses  shall 
every  word  be  established.  2  CI 
told  you  before,  and  foretell  you, 

12.  14. - frNum.  35.  30;  Deut.  17.  6;  19. 15;  Matt. 

18.  16;  John  8.  17;  Heb.  10.  28. - c  Chap.  10.  2. 

pose  would  make  a  third  coming.  That 
it  is  only  as  yet  an  intentional  coming 
is  evinced  not  only  by  the  present 
words,  but  by  the  parallel  passage, 
xii,  14,  where  see  note.  That  there 
had  not  been  a  second  actual  coming, 
so  as  to  make  the  next  one  a  third,  is 
plain  from  i,  15.  Then  1  Cor.  xvi,  5 
is  quite  to  the  point,  where  the  same 
Greek  word,  I  do  pass,  or,  I  am  coming 
through ,  expresses  an  intentional  com¬ 
ing  only,  whether  fulfilled  or  not. 

Kling,  in  Lange,  maintains  three  ac¬ 
tual  visits,  and  pronounces  the  other 
view  “not  plausible.”  Albert  Barnes 
calls  it  “  trifling  and  childish  in  the 
extreme.”  But  such  peremptory  ex¬ 
pressions  will  weigh  little  against  such 
authorities  as  Grotius,  Wetstein,  Bloom¬ 
field,  Stanley,  and  Wordsworth.  Two 
or  three  witnesses — It  is  impossible 
for  us  to  imagine  that  St.  Paul  was 
blind  to  a  parallelism  between  his  two 
or  three  comings  and  this  two  or  three 
witnesses.  And  if  he  were  not  blind 
to  it,  he  would  have  avoided  it  had  he 
not  intended  it.  The  parallelism  is : 
Let  my  three  warnings  be  to  you  like 
the  three  witnesses  of  the  Mosaic  law, 
establishing  every  word. 

2.  St.  Paul  now  carries  out  his  tri¬ 
personal  figure  by  specifying  his  own 
threefold  testimonies.  I  told  you 
before  —  Literal  Greek,  I  have  fore- 
affirmed,  and  I  foretell  as  present  the 
second  [time,]  and  absent  now,  to  those 
hawing  before  sinned,  and  to  the  rest  all, 
that  if  I  come  again  I  will  not  spare. 
The  three  witnesses  in  St.  Paul’s  one 
person  are  :  1.  His  fore-affirmation  in 
his  first  epistle,  iv,  20  ;  2.  His  present 
epistle,  which  is  the  expression  of  his 


204 


II.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


as  if  I  were  present,  the  second 
time ;  and  being  absent  now  I 
write  to  them  d  which  heretofore 
have  sinned,  and  to  all  others,  that, 
if  I  come  again,  eI  will  not  spare: 
3  Since  ye  seek  a  proof  of  Christ 
f  speaking  in  me,  which  to  you¬ 
ward  is  not  weak,  but  is  mighty 
ein  you.  4  hFor  though  he  was 

d  Chap.  12.  21. - e  Chap.  1.  23. - /Matt  10.20 ; 

1  Cor.  5.  4 ;  chap.  2. 10. - ff  1  Cor.  9.  2. - h  Phil. 

2.  7,  8;  1  Pet.  3.  18. 


second  intention  of  visit,  i,  15  ;  3.  His 
actual  come  again,  of  which  he  here 
expresses  the  if.  Those  having  before 
sinned  are  the  incorrigible  ones  who 
had  stood  all  the  three  warnings. 

3.  Since — The  verses  3-8  must  be 
taken  as  a  separate  paragraph,  with  a 
period  (and  not  a  colon,  as  in  the  Eng¬ 
lish  version)  at  close  of  verse  2.  The 
key- word  running  through  the  passage, 
dotard,  test ,  in  its  different  forms,  is  un¬ 
happily  translated  in  our  version  with¬ 
out  due  uniformity.  The  connexion  be 
tween  vv.  3  and  5  is:  Since  ye  seek 
a  test  of  me — Test  your  own  selves 
From  which,  inclusive  to  you,  verse  4, 
is  a  parenthesis.  The  word  proof  or 
test,  verse  3,  reappears  in  prove,  verse  5, 
and  in  reprobates,  test-condemned,  in 
vv.  5-7.  The  thought  running  through 
the  whole  is,  Since  you  are  putting  my 
apostleship  to  the  test,  see  that  your  own 
genuineness,  as  Christians,  can  stand 
the  test.  Proof  of  Christ  speaking 
in  me — They,  the  Christine  influence 
in  Corinth,  were  putting  St.  Paul’s 
authority  from  Christ  to  experiment. 
Christ  speaking  in  me  is  a  very  in¬ 
tense  declaration  of  his  own  inspira 
tion  from  Christ.  It  claims  that  his 
own  apostolic  words  are  Christ’s  words. 
Which —  Who ,  referring  to  Christ. 
The  Christ  speaking  in  me.  .  .is  not 
weak,  but  mighty  in  his  announce¬ 
ments,  threaten  ings,  and  sentences  of 
judgment,  toward  (not  in)  you. 

4.  For — The  present  verse  seems  to 
imply  that  some  of  the  Christines  held 
Christ  to  have  been  not  only  a  mere 
man,  but  a  man  without  a  miraculous 
resurrection.  St.  Paul  therefore  affirms 
that  Christ  was  not  onl}*  mighty,  as 
speaking  in  him,  but  though  crucified 


crucified  through  weakness,  yet 
•he  liveth  by  the  power  of  God, 
For  k  we  also  are  weak *  1  in  him, 
but  we  shall  live  with  him  by  the 
power  of  God  toward  you.  5  1  Ex¬ 
amine  yourselves,  whether  ye  be  in 
the  faith;  prove  your  own  selves. 
Know  ye  not  your  own  selves,  m  how 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  in  you,  except 

i  Rom.  6.  4. - k  See  chap.  10.  3,  4.  1  Or, 

with  him. - 1 1  Cor.  11.  28. - m  Rom.  8.  10; 

Gal,  4.  19, _ _ 

through  his  human  weakness,  yet 
he  still  liveth  through  divine  power. 
We  are  humanly  weak  in  him  as 
human.  Live  with  him.  .  .toward 

you — Christ,  in  his  resurrection,  is  liv¬ 
ing  and  ruling  over  the  Church.  We 
. .  .live  with.  .  .him — Not  yet  in  res¬ 
urrection,  but  in  apostleship,  derived 
and  endowed  from  the  power  of  God 
toward  you. 

5.  Examine. .  .prove  your  own 
selves — As  above  stated  the  prove 
here  refers  back  to  the  proof  of  verse  3. 
They  should  prove  or  probe,  or  put  to 
probation,  their  own  genuineness  to 
decide  that  they  were  not  re-prob-ates. 
Reprobates  are  those  that  cannot  bear 
the  probe,  proof,  or  test,  but  are  there¬ 
by  condemned.  The  word  must  be  en¬ 
tirely  cleared  of  the  Calvinistic  doc¬ 
trine  of  “reprobation,”  according  to 
which  God  is  made  eternally  to  decree 
that  some  men  shall  be  wicked,  and 
then  damned  for  the  wickedness  he 
has  decreed.  It  simply  means  men 
who  profess  to  be  Christians,  or  other 
good  things,  but  who,  when  tested,  are 
dis -proved  to  be  such.  Whether ...  in 
the  faith — Look  into  your  own  con¬ 
sciousness,  and  scrutinize  whether  you 
are  in  possession  of  the  faith  which 
justifies,  which  unites  to  Christ,  and 
which  finally  saves.  Your  own 
selves — Not  so  much  somebody  else 
as  your  own  selves.  And  leave  not 
the  proving  to  be  done  by  somebody 
else,  but  perform  it  yourselves,  and  for 
yourselves.  Know  ye  not  —  Very 
emphatic,  as  putting  a  point  of  infinite 
importance  to  be  realized.  Christ  is  in 
you — By  his  Spirit  animating  and  ac¬ 
tuating  you ;  and  by  the  witness  of  his 
Spirit  testifying  to  and  assuring  you. 


A.  D.  58. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


205 


ye  be  "reprobates?  6  But  I  trust 
that  ye  shall  know  that  wTe  are  not 
reprobates.  7  Now  I  pray  to  God 
that  ye  do  °no  evil;  not  that  we 
should  appear  approved,  but  that 
ye  should  do  that  which  is  hon¬ 
est,  though  Pwe  be  as  reprobates. 
8  For  we  can  do  nothing  against 
the  truth,  but  for  the  truth.  9  For 
we  are  glad,  *  when  we  are  wTeak, 

n  \  Cor.  9.  27. - o  Rom.  16.  10;  1  Cor.  11.  19; 

2  Tim.  2.  15. - 2?  Chap.  6.  9. - Q\  Cor.  4.  10; 

chap.  11.  30;  12.  5,  9, 10. - r  1  Thess.  3.  10. _ 

Hereby  you  have  a  sure  test.  Ex¬ 

cept  ye  be  reprobates — Either  an 
animating,  witnessing  Christ  is  in  you, 
or  ye  are  test-condemned,  proved  by 
the  experiment  to  be  spurious,  repro¬ 
bates. 

6.  But — However  it  may  be  as  to 
your  genuineness  as  Christians.  I  trust 
that — By  ample  and  powerful  proofs, 
if  necessary.  Y e  shall  know  that  we 
— Myself,  as  apostle,  are  not  spurious 
or  reprobates. 

7.  Now — But,  qualifying  the  trust 
of  last  verse  by  wish  for  something  bet¬ 
ter.  Ye  do  no  evil — And  so  require 
no  proof  from  me  of  apostolic  power. 
Not — This  wish  for  your  good  conduct 
is  not  for  my  own  sake,  in  order  that  I 
should  appear  approved  as  a  genuine 
apostle  by  your  obedience  and  acknowl¬ 
edgment  without  putting  me  to  test. 
But . . .  honest — Rather,  but  that  ye 
should  do  well ;  even  though  it  should 
follow  that  from  want  of  miraculous 
proof  we  be  as  reprobates ;  that  is,  be 
held  as  spurious.  Their  salvation,  from 
well-doing,  was  his  supreme  object  If 
by  such  well-doing  he  was  proved  a 
true  apostle,  very  good ;  if  it  rendered 
him  as  a  no-apostle,  still  may  they  do 
well ! 

8.  For — Reason  for  this  conclusion. 
The  truth — Equivalent  to  the  faith 
in  ver.  5  If  they  are  in  the  true  faith 
his  apostolic  thunders  cannot  touch 
them.  On  the  contrary,  whatever  the 
result  may  be  as  to  his  apostolic  stand¬ 
ing,  he  has  no  power  but  for  the 
truth. 

9.  And  he  rejoices  in  his  powerless¬ 
ness  save  for  the  truth  alone.  Glad 
...weak — He  rejoices  that  his  apos- 


and  ye  are  strong:  and  this  also 
we  wish,  r  even  your  perfection. 
10  8  Therefore  I  write  these  things 
being  absent,  lest  being  present  1 * * * * 6 7 8 9 1 
should  use  sharpness,  "according 
to  the  power  which  the  Lord  hath 
given  me  to  edification,  and  not 
to  destruction. 

11  Finally,  brethren,  farewell. 
Be  perfect,  be  of  good  comfort, v  be 

.si  Cor.  4.  21;  chap.  2.  3 ;  10.  2;  12.  20,  21. - 

^  Tit.  1.  13. - wChap.  10.  8. - v  Rom.  12. 16, 18; 

15.  5 ;  1  Cor.  1,  10 ;  Phil.  2.  2 ;  3.  16 ;  1  Pet.  3.  8. 

tleship  thus  loses  force  by  their  being 
strong  in  Christian  truth.  Perfec¬ 
tion — Your  completion  as  Christians. 
The  image  is  drawn  from  a  structure, 
where  all  the  parts  are  exactly  adjusted 
so  as  to  make  it  complete  and  perfect 
in  its  kind.  Be  ye  possessed  of  a  com¬ 
plete  symmetry  of  Christian  character. 

10.  Therefore — In  consequence  of 
this  wish.  These  things  —  Especial¬ 
ly  the  severe  rebukes  from  x,  1,  to 
this  point.  Sharpness — Severity  of  re¬ 
proof.  His  letter  would  prepare  their 
minds  for  his  presence.  Edification 
. .  .  destruction — So  x,  8.  For  the 
very  reason  that  his  power  was  given 
for  building  up,  not  tearing  down,  he 
wrote  severely,  in  order  to  forestall  his 
being  obliged  to  act  severely.  They 
might  compel  him  to  tear  down  in  or¬ 
der  to  build  up. 

6.  Affectionate  conclusion,  11-14. 

The  transition  from  severity  to  af¬ 
fection  is  made  in  language,  because 
his  severity  truly  arose  from  affection. 
This  tender  conclusion  includes  the 
whole  Church,  even  those  who  were 
truly  doubtful  and  even  unsound,  in  or¬ 
der  to  win  them  to  a  faithful  and  united 
condition.  So  also  his  rebukes  have 
been  addressed  to  the  whole  Church, 
knowing  that  the  faithful  would  ap¬ 
prove  their  severity  and  the  unfaithful 
recognise  themselves  in  the  picture. 

11.  Farewell  —  Literally,  rejoice. 
The  spirit  of  the  gospel  message  is  joy. 
Who  has  so  true  a  reason  for  joy  as  the 
man  who  possesses  its  blessed  hopes  ? 
Be  perfect — Let  your  Christian  char¬ 
acter  be  perfect  and  symmetrical.  In 
doctrine,  be  evangelical;  in  spirit,  con¬ 
secrated;  in  practice,  conscientious. 


206 


IT.  CORINTHIANS. 


A.  D.  58. 


of  one  mind,  live  in  peace;  and  the 
God  of  love  w  and  peace  shall  be 
with  you.  12  x  Greet  one  another 
with  a  holy  kiss.  15  All  the  saints 

w  Rom.  15.  33. - ceRom.  16.  16;  1  Cor.  16.  20; 

Good  comfort — Literally,  be  consoled. 
There  is  trouble  and  sorrow  enough  in 
the  world  ;  but  there  is,  too,  a  consola¬ 
tion  from  above  the  world.  Of  one 
mind  —  Centred  together  in  the  one 
Christ.  God  of . . .  peace — If  we  drive 
him  not  away  with  our  own  contentious 
spirit. 

12.  Holy  kiss — Note,  Rom.  xvi,  16. 

13.  All  the  saints — A  salute  prob¬ 
ably  from  the  Church  at  Philippi  to  the 
Church  at  Corinth,  two  noble  bodies 
of  the  young  Christian  republic. 

14.  The  benediction,  flowing  in  sa¬ 
cred  beauty  from  the  mind  of  St.  Paul. 


salute  you.  14  y  The  grace  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love  of 
God,  and  zthe  communion  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  be  with  you  all.  Amen. 

1  Thess.  5.  26. - v  Rom.  16.  24. - z  Phil.  2.  1. 

Like  the  baptismal  sentence  of  our 
Lord,  it  implanted  the  impress  of  the 
Holy  Trinity  on  the  mind  of  the  early 
Church.  It  proceeds  in  the  order  of 
Christian  life.  First,  grace  from  Christ, 
bringing  justification ;  second,  love 
from  God  as  to  an  adopted  child;  then 
the  witness  and  the  abiding  imparta- 
tion  of  the  Spirit.  Such  is  the  blessed 
climax  of  our  gospel  inheritance.  All 
— No  exclusion,  no  decreed  reprobation 
A  universal  atonement,  a  universal  love, 
a  universal  sanctification,  a  conditional 
universal  salvation,  breathe  forth  from 
the  universal  gospel. 


COBINTH 

amL 

ITS  PORTS* 

English^  Miles 


CJUclan 

ilvneJi 


Sousaki 


'i/Iam/iici 


Snrfntjc 

pjnidci 


SOUNDINCS  /V  rATHCMS 


INTRODUCTION  TO  GALATIANS. 


- - 

The  first  syllable  of  the  word  Galatians  is  identical  with  Gaul,  an  old 
name  of  France ;  and,  indeed,  with  Gal\ ic,  Gae lie,  Welch ,  (old  Guallic 
and  Wallic,)  as  well  as  with  Celtic.  It  is  the  name  of  that  great, 
brilliant,  and  brave,  but  fickle  race,  which,  once  occupying  Central 
Europe,  was  driven  westward  by  the  great  Germanic  tide  pouring  in 
from  Asia ;  and  which,  gradually  receding  from  the  face  of  its  invaders 
towards  the  Atlantic,  now  remains  upon  the  western  margin  of  Europe, 
as  the  French,  Welch,  Scotch,  and  Irish  peoples.  The  epistle  to  the 
Galatians  was  therefore  an  epistle  to  the  Celts. 

The  Galatian  tribe  of  this  epistle,  impelled  by  the  revolutions  of 
war  in  the  early  ages,  was  settled  in  Asia  Minor,  like  a  lonely  bowlder, 
amid  surrounding  tribes  of  Phrygian  aborigines.  As  late  as  the  time 
of  Jerome,  (fourth  century  A.  D.,)  an  Asiatic  Galatian  and  a  European 
Celt  could  have  understood  each  other’s  language.  These  Galatians 
were  a  victorious  people  in  their  Asiatic  region  until  the  year  125  B.  C., 
when  they  were  subjected  by  the  Roman  power,  yet  allowed  to  retain 
their  previous  form  of  government;  and  25  years  B.  C.  they  were  com¬ 
pletely  reduced  to  the  condition  of  a  Roman  province. 

The  old  Phrygian  pagans  here  were  worshippers  of  Cybele,  and 
their  priests  practised  rites  severer  than  circumcision.  There  was 
also  a  large  population  of  Jews,  who  engaged  in  trade  and  acquired 
wealth  and  influence.  The  Jews  were  in  favour  with  the  Roman  Gov¬ 
ernment,  and  not  only  made  many  proselytes,  but  infused  a  mitigating 
influence  into  surrounding  paganism.  Over  all  this  mixture  of  popu¬ 
lations  the  Romans,  few  yet  predominant,  held  sway,  and  the  Greek 
language  was  the  prevalent  medium  of  intercourse. 

But  incidental  accounts  remain  of  St.  Paul’s  first  preaching  and 
founding  Churches  in  Galatia.  His  first  visit,  in  his  second  mission¬ 
ary  tour,  is  slightly  mentioned  in  Acts  xvi,  6 ;  and  his  second,  in  his 
third  tour,  is  mentioned  as  slightly  in  Acts  xviii,  23.  Yet  the  Gala¬ 
tian  Churches  must  have  been  founded  at  the  first,  and  “  confirmed  ” 
at  the  second,  of  these  two  visits.  It  was  soon  after  the  Apostolic 
Council  at  Jerusalem  that  Paul,  accompanied  by  Silas,  in  a  visitation 


203 


INTRODUCTION  TO  GALATIANS. 


circuit  among  his  old  Churches  in  Syria  and  Cilicia,  diverged  into 
Galatia.  Here  he  was  detained  by  that  “weakness  of  the  flesh,”  his 
“thorn,”  longer  than  he  purposed.  But  he  was  received  by  the  en¬ 
thusiastic  Celts  as  the  angel  of  God.  He  pictured  the  crucified  Sav¬ 
iour  so  vividly  that  he  seemed  “  visibly  set  forth  among  ”  them.  He 
doubtless  at  this  time  visited  Ancyra,  (the  modern  Angora,)  the  cen¬ 
tral  capital  of  Galatia ;  Pessinus,  seat  of  the  worship  of  Cybele ;  and 
Gordium,  where,  in  an  earlier  age,  Alexander  “  cut,”  because  he  could 
not  untie,  “  the  Gordian  knot.”  The  Churches  here  founded  occupied, 
as  the  epistle  shows,  a  deep  place  in  the  apostle’s  heart. 

About  three  years  after  (third  missionary  tour)  occurred  the  second 
visit,  above  mentioned.  “He  went  through  the  district  in  order, 
confirming  the  Churches.”  At  that  visit,  some  symptoms  of  wavering 
from  the  Pauline  gospel  of  freedom  seem  to  have  presented  them¬ 
selves.  Gal.  i,  9,  and  v,  21.  It  was  some  three  or  four  years  after  this 
second  visit,  when  Paul  received,  at  Corinth,  news  of  tendencies  to 
apostasy  which  drew  forth  this  present  epistle.  Note  Acts  xx,  3.  It 
was  an  apostasy  from  universal  Christianity  to  a  Judaized  Christianity, 
under  the  dogma,  except  ye  be  circumcised  and  keep  the  law  of  Moses 
ye  cannot  be  saved.  Ye  cannot  be  Christians  without  being  also 

Jews. 

Of  the  state  of  opinions  and  parties  on  this  question  we  have  given 
a  concise  view  in  our  note  to  Acts  xv,  6.  See  notes  also  on  Acts  vi,  1. 
The  story  of  the  Judaizing  troublers  who  came  to  Gentile  Antioch, 
as  from  James  of  Jerusalem,  proclaiming  salvation  by  circumcision, 
was  repeated  in  Gentile  Galatia.  These  Celts  came  under  the  power 
of  this  Jewish  influence.  Leading  Christian  Judaists  came  from  Jerusa¬ 
lem,  armed  with  metropolitan  authority,  to  tell  these  Galatian  Churches 
that  their  founder-apostle  was  a  spurious  apostle,  and  their  Christian¬ 
ity  a  defective  Christianity,  which  would  not  save  them.  The  severe 
rite  of  circumcision  was  condition  to  salvation ;  and  adherence  to  Je¬ 
rusalem  and  a  gorgeous  ritual  were  necessary  to  a  complete  Church. 
Paul’s  naked  doctrine  of  justification  before  God  solely  by  faith  in 
Christ  was  a  doctrine  of  apostasy.  Under  these  powerful  influences 
the  impressible  Galatian  Churches  were  yielding  and  ready  to  fall. 
Unable  to  go  himself,  from  distant  Corinth  Paul  sent  this  lettei  to 

their  rescue. 

Of  the  immediate  effect  of  the  epistle  we  have  no  definite  account. 
We  only  know  that  in  later  ages  a  very  fervent  and  often  fanatical 
Christianity  prevailed.  Judaistic  Christianity,  which,  in  Paul’s  day, 
aspired  to  control  the  Church,  everywhere  waned,  and,  in  the  de¬ 
struction  of  Jerusalem,  A.D.  70,  received  a  fatal  blow.  Very  faint 
traces  remained  of  its  existence  in  the  third  century. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  GALATIANS. 


209 


The  epistle  to  the  Galatians  has  ever  been  a  stronghold  of  evangel¬ 
ical  Protestantism  against  Romanism  and  ritualism.  The  same  prin¬ 
ciple  of  salvation  by  faith,  asserted  by  St.  Paul  against  Judaic  ritual, 
is  equally  good  against  every  kind  of  oppressive  formalism.  It  asserts 
the  life  and  power  as  over  and  against  the  form.  It  centres  true  re- 
ligion  in  the  heart,  and  makes  all  externals  to  be  either  the  outflow 
therefrom,  or  the  proper  aids  to  such  an  outcome.  Hence  it  was  the 
favourite  epistle  of  Luther.  u  The  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,”  says  he. 
“is  my  epistle;  I  have  betrothed  myself  to  it;  it  is  my  wife.”  He 
wrote  three  successive  commentaries  upon  it.  Meyer  says,  in  his  pref¬ 
ace,  (eaily  German  edition,)  that  Luther,  as  Bibl e-commentator,  stands 
far  below  Luther  the  Bible-translator.  It  was  during  a  reading  of  Lu¬ 
ther  on  Romans  that  TV esley’s  heart  was  “strangely  warmed,”  and  he 
first  attained  full  consciousness  of  saving  faith,  which  he  then  con¬ 
sidered  his  “  conversion.”  But  Luther  on  Galatians  was  for  but  a 
brief  period  a  favourite  with  Wesley.  Its  ultraism  in  stating  the 
doctiine  of  justification  by  faith  led  too  palpably  to  Antinomianism. 
Two  years  after  his  “conversion”  (1741)  he  says:  “I  read  over  Martin 
Luther  s  comment  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians.  I  was  utterly 
ashamed.  How  have  I  esteemed  this  book  .  .  .  how  blasphemously 
does  he  speak  of  good  works,  and  of  the  law  of  God !  Here  (I  appre¬ 
hend)  is  the  real  spring  of  the  grand  error  of  the  Moravians.  They 
follow  Luther  for  better  or  for  worse.”  He  then  “  began  to  expound 
the  Epistle  of  St.  James,  the  great  antidote  against  this  poison.” 
Both  epistles  bring  out  the  great  principle,  that  if  we  are  justified  by 
faith,  our  faith  must  be  justified  by  works;  but  that  in  truth  we  are 

literally  justified  by  Christ ,  through  a  faith  in  him  that  works  by  love 
and  purifies  the  heart. 

The  Chiistian  defender  has  no  trouble  in  maintaining  the  genuine¬ 
ness  of  Galatians.  The  most  adverse  scholarly  criticism,  as  that  of 
Baur  and  Renan,  admits  that  four  epistles,  namely,  Romans,  First  and 
Second.  Corinthians,  and  Galatians,  are  the  productions  of  St.  Paul. 
The  epistle  is  divisible  into  three  parts : — 

PART  PIRST. 

St.  Paul’s  Apostleship  Historically  Sustained. . . . 

1.  The  points  stated:  Paul’s  apostleship  and  Christian 

justification . 

2.  Paul’s  gospel  derived  from  no  other  apostle . 

3.  His  apostleship  conceded  by  the  after  apostles _ The 

Council  of  Jerusalem . 

4.  Paul’s  apostolic  rebuke  of  the  apostle  Peter 

Vo L.  IV.— 14 


i,  6 — ii,  21 

i,  G-10 

i,  11-24 

ii,  1-10 
ii,  11-21 


210 


PLAN  OF  THE  EPISTLE. 


PART  SECOND. 

Biblical  Establishment  of  Faith- Justification 
through  Christ . 

1.  Introductory  expostulation  against  their  apostasy 

from  faith  to  works . 

2.  The  Abrahamic  faith-covenant — which  is  identical 

with  the  Christian  faith-covenant — superior  to  law, 
working  the  curse . 

3.  This  identity  of  the  Abrahamic  and  Christian  faith- 

covenant,  not  broken  by  the  Mosaic  interval  of 
law  . 

4.  Real  purpose  of  the  law — to  advance  us  to  Christ  and 

blessedness . 

5.  This  advancement  compared  to  the  development  of 

childhood  into  manhood . 

6.  Consequent  folly  of  their  relapse  into  old  legalism. . 

7.  Superiority  of  faith  over  legalism  illustrated  by  his¬ 

tory  of  Sarah  and  Hagar . 

PART  THIRD. 

Exhortation  to  Steadfastness  in  Gospel  Freedom 
and  to  Faithfulness  in  Christian  Duty . 

1.  Admonitory  warnings  to  maintain  their  freedom  from 

legalism . 

2.  But  this  freedom  must  not  pass  into  license . 

3.  Mutual  and  common  church  communion . 

a.  Mutual  meek  reproof. . 

b.  Mutual  co-operation  of  teacher  and  church . 

c.  Autograph  and  benediction . 


iii,  1-iv,  31 
iii,  1-4 


iii,  5-14 


iii,  15-18 

iii,  19-29 

iv,  1-8 
iv,  9-20 

iv,  21-v,  1 


v,  2-vi,  18 

v,  2-12 

v,  13-26 

vi,  1-10 
vi.  1-5 

vi,  6-10 
vi,  11-18 


THE 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  GALATIANS. 

- - 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAUL,  an  apostle,  anot  of  men, 
neither  by  man,  but  bby  Jesus 
Christ,  and  God  the  Father,  cwho 
raised  him  from  the  dead  ;  2  And 
all  the  brethren d  which  are  with  me. 


e  unto  the  churches  of  Galatia : 
3  f  Grace  be  to  you,  and  peace,  from 
God  the  Father  and  from  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  4  s  Who  gave  him¬ 
self  for  our  sins,  that  he  might 
deliver  us  h  from  this  present  evil 


a  Verses  11,  12. 

26. 16;  Titus  1.  3.- 

4.  21. - e  1  Cor.  16. 

1.3;  2  Cor.  1.  2;  Eph.  f.  2; 


-b  Acts  9.  6; 

•c  Acts  2.  24.- 
1. - f  Horn.  1 


22.  10,  15,  21 ; 

d  Phil.  2.  22; 
.  7 ;  i  Cor. 

Phil.  1.  2;  Col.  1.  2; 


LT^ss-d-  1 5  2 3 4  Thess.  1.  2;  2  John  3.- 
20  28;  Rom.  4.  25;  chap.  2.  20;  Titus  2."l4.- 
h  See  Isa  65.  17 ;  John  15.  19;  17.  14;  Heb.  2 
6.  o;  1  John  5.  19. 


■q  Matt. 


5; 


CHAPTER  T. 

Superscription  and  Address,  1-5. 

When  this  epistle  was  read  in  their 
assemblies  the  Galatians  would  hear,  in 
the  very  naming  of  the  apostle  by  him¬ 
self,.  and  in  his  greeting,  an  intense  as¬ 
sertion  both  of  his  disputed  apostlesliip 
and  of  the  atonement  through  Christ ; 
both  of  which  their  apostasy  to  cir¬ 
cumcision  had  invalidated.  The  key¬ 
note  of  the  whole  epistle  is  struck,  to 
their  ears,  at  the  start. 

L  Of  men. .  .by  man — The  trans¬ 
lation  should  be,  from  men,  as  the 
source ;  through  man,  (rather  than  by,) 
as  the  instrument.  His  apostlesliip 
had  no  human  origin. ,  no  human  me¬ 
dium.  But  by— Rather,  through ,  as 
the  instrument.  God  the  Father  — 
As  Christ  is  Son  in  the  Trinity,  the  Fa¬ 
ther  is  still  named  with  a  through ,  as 
the  agent  or  instrument.  For  though 
God  is  truly  source  as  well  as  agent ,  yet 
the  apostle  here  names  him  as  agent , 
solely  because  it  is  human  instrumen¬ 
tality,  he  wishes  to  shut  out  from  the 
Galatian  mind,  and  the  divine  to  assert. 
Raised  him  from  the  dead— That 
he  might  be  dispenser  of  grace  and 

apostlesliip  from  on  high.  Dead _ 

With  a.  from,  or  out  from,  and  without 
the  article  in  the  plural.  See  note  on 
Luke  xx,  35. 

2.  Brethren. .  .with  me — His  reti¬ 


nue  of  friends,  fellow-preachers,  and 
supporters.  To  allude  to  them  is  broth¬ 
erly  courtesy  to  them,  and  confirmation 
to  himself.  See  notes,  Acts  xx,4;  xxi,  16. 
Churches— This  is,  therefore,  a  circu¬ 
lar  letter,  to  be  read  in  the  Christian 
congregations  of  Ancyra,  Pessinus,  and 
Tavium,  and  the  other  Churches  of  the 
province.  Such  letters  were  carried  by 
messengers,  charged  often  with  special 
verbal  messages,  and  directed  to  whom 
to  be  delivered.  Very  probably  differ¬ 
ent  copies  were  thus  distributed,  each 
to  the  proper  Church. 

No  affectionate  epithet  or  clause  is 
added  to  the  word  churches,  and  no 
commendations  or  congratulations,  such 
as  open  the  other  epistles,  enliven  this. 
The  omission  is  a  silent  rebuke,  pre¬ 
paratory  to  the  rebukes  soon  to  be.  ut¬ 
tered. 

3.  Grace — Though  Paul  omits  the 
compliment,  he  does  not  forget  the 
benediction,  brief  and  rapid  though  it 
be..  Though  he  cannot  speak  the  Ga¬ 
latians  well,  he  can  wish  them  well. 
And  the  blessings  here  wished,  grace 
and  peace,  they  much  needed. 

4.  Gave  himself — He  was  full 
owner  of  his  own  life ;  his  death  was  a 
gift  from  him  to  us.  So  in  Matt,  xx,  28 ; 
Mark  x,  45  ;  he  gave  his  life  as  a  ran¬ 
som  for  many.  Note,  John  x,  18.  For 
-—The  better  reading — n epl  instead  of 
vnep — is,  on  account  of — concerning  our 


212 


GALATIANS. 


A.  D.  57 


world,  according  to  tlie  will  ol'God 
and  our  Father:  5  To  whom  be 
glory  for  ever  and  ever.  Amen. 

i  Chap. 

sins.  As  Paul’s  titling  of  himself  asserts 
his  apostleship,  so  this  clause  asserts 
the  atonement  for  which  his  apostle¬ 
ship  existed,  and  both  which  circumcis¬ 
ion  was  crowding  out.  Present  evil 
world — This  aeon,  or  time- world  of  sin, 
error,  apostasy,  and  strife  ;  to  the  mis¬ 
ery  of  which  the  Galatic  fickleness  was 
adding  its  element.  Where  were  once 
faith  and  peace,  now  were  distrust  and 
quarrel.  Present  is  the  same  Greek 
word  as  at  hand,  in  2  Thess.  ii,  2, 
where  see  note.  It  blends  the  idea  of 
present  and  setting  in ,  or  approach,  as 
of  a  state  already  commencing,  and  as 
good  as  here.  This  insetting  and  ini¬ 
tially  present  era  is  the  same  as  the 
latter  times  of  1  Timothy  iv,  1,  where 
see  note,  and  the  last  days  of  2  Tim¬ 
othy  iii,  1.  Meyer  says,  the  present 
world  is  the  last  part  of  the  this  world 
mentioned  in  Romans  xii,  2,  and  1  Cor. 
i,  20.  But  it  by  no  means  follows,  as 
Meyer  infers,  that  this  insetting  era  was 
a  brief  space  intervening  before  the 
then  approaching  second  advent. 

Previous  to  Christ  the  Jews  used 
the  phrases  this  aeon ,  the  ceon  to  come ,  to 
designate  the  ages  antecedent  to,  and 
subsequent  to,  the  Messiah.  In  the 
New  Testament  the  terms  slid  into  the 
meanings  of  the  periods  before  and  af¬ 
ter  the  second  advent.  According  to 
the  will  of  God — Spoken  of  Christ’s 
self-giying,  and  the  resultant  redemp¬ 
tion  through  him.  This,  and  not  per¬ 
petual  circumcision,  is  God’s  will. 

5.  This  complete  cycle  of  gospel 
thought  St.  Paul  rounds  out  with  a 
doxology,  as  in  Rom.  xi,  36 ;  ix,  5 ; 
xvi,  27;  Eph.  iii,  21;  1  Tim.  i,  17. 
Be  glory  —  Rather,  the  glory,  with 
the  article ;  that  is,  (not,  as  Alford  and 
Lightfoot,  the  glory  belonging  to  him, 
but)  the  glory  of  so  glorious  a  redemp¬ 
tion.  “  God’s  all  the  glory — man’s  the 
endless  bliss.”  For  ever  and  ever 
— Literal  Greek,  into  aeons  of  aeons — into 
ages  of  ages .  The  phrase  does  not,  with 
absolute  exactness,  express  eternity ,  but 
only  indefinite  immensity.  It  does  not 


6  I  marvel  that  ye  are  so  soon 
removed  'from  him  that  called  you 
into  the  grace  of  Christ  unto  an- 

5.  8. 

absolutely  deny  all  end,  but  ignores  all 
end.  It  was,  no  doubt,  the  most  pow¬ 
erful  phrase  to  express  eternity,  and  to 
explode  from  thought  all  idea  of  end 
that  the  language  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  age  knew.  Hence  it  is  here  used 
to  designate  the  duration  of  the  exis¬ 
tence  of  the  divine  glory.  It  may  be 
added  that  the  word  aeon ,  in  this  phrase, 
is  the  same  as  that  in  the  previous  verse, 
which  we  have  rendered  time-world. 
This  phrase,  then,  suggests  that  the 
endless  future  is  not  to  be  a  quiet  char¬ 
acterless  stream,  but  a  perpetual  roll  of 
stupendous  revolutions. 

- ^ -  • 

PART  FIRST. 

ST.  PAUL’S  HISTORY  OF  HIS 

APOSTLESHIP  SUSTAINED, 

i,  6— ii,  21. 

1.  Points  stated — Paul’s  apostle¬ 
ship,  and  Christ’s  gospel  of  faith, 

6-10. 

6.  I  marvel  —  Rather,  admire ; 
spoken  usually  of  admirable  objects  of 
notice;  hence  a  more  delicate  word 
than  marvel  or  wonder ,  and  yet  slight¬ 
ly  suggestive  of  sarcasm.  It  was  a 
brilliant  fickleness,  perhaps,  yet  a  sad 
one.  So  soon — He  admires  not  only 
their  recession  from  the  cross  to  the 
circumcision,  but  also  the  unexpected 
promptness  with  which  it  has  been  ac¬ 
complished.  But  from  what  point  of 
time  is  so  soon  (or  more  literally,  so 
quickly )  to  be  calculated  ?  If  from  the 
time  of  their  first  conversion,  that  was 
probably  a  period  of  about  four  years. 
More  likely,  however.  St.  Paul  refers 
to  the  suddenness  of  their  conversion. 
They  fell  so  quickly  before  the  first  as¬ 
sault  as  to  take  him  by  surprise.  He 
had  not  time  to  wait  for  a  personal  in¬ 
tervention,  but  must  interpose  by  a  let¬ 
ter.  Him  that  called  you — The  ref¬ 
erence  of  this  him  to  Paul,  who,  as 
apostle,  called  them  to  Christ,  makes  a 
very  pointed  meaning.  But  assuming 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  I. 


213 


other  gospel :  7  k  Which  is  not 

another;  but  there  be  some1  that 
trouble  you,  and  would  pervert  the 
gospel  of  Christ.  8  But  though 
“  we,  or  an  angel  from  heaven, 
preach  any  other  gospel  unto  you 
than  that  which  we  have  preached 
unto  you,  let  him  be  accursed. 

fc2  Cor.  11.  4. - 1  Acts  15.  1,  24;  2  Cor.  2.  17; 

11,  13;  chap.  5.  10,  12. - ml  Cor.  16.  22;  2  Cor. 

11  13, 14 ;  1  Tim.  1. 19,  20  ;  Titus  3.  10. 

that  Galatians  and  Romans  were  writ¬ 
ten  about  the  same  period,  then  Rom. 
ix,  1 1  indicates  a  reference  to  God.  So 
Wesley,  and  also  the  best  modem  com¬ 
mentators. 

7.  Not  another — Paul,  as  it  were, 
corrects  himself.  His  last  words,  an¬ 
other  gospel,  might  indicate  that  a 
return  to  Judaistic  circumcision  was  a 
parallel  gospel.  He  now  denies  that 
it  is  any  gospel,  or  good  news,  at  all. 
The  word  another,  twice  used  in  Eng¬ 
lish  here,  is  represented  by  two  differ¬ 
ent  Greek  words.  The  former  signifies 
different ,  the  latter  additional.  The 
former  might  mean  that  there  are  two 
gospels ;  but  Paul  adds  that  the  sup¬ 
posed  different  is  none.  But — It  is  a 
gospel,  but  only  as  a  trouble  you  is 
a  gospel.  Pervert — Literally,  trans¬ 
form.  They  would  substitute  circum¬ 
cision  for  the  crucifixion  as  a  mode  of 
salvation.  Pervert  the  gospel  of 
Christ — And  make  it  become,  essen¬ 
tially,  the  law  of  Moses  again. 

8.  Though.  .  .an  angel  —  This  is 
possible  only  as  an  angel  from  heav¬ 
en  is  a  free  agent,  and  able,  like  the 
first  angels,  to  forsake  God.  Paul  had 
heard  his  gospel  from  Christ  himself, 
and  he  felt  his  assurance  greater  even 
than  the  counter  testimony  of  an  an¬ 
gel  from  heaven.  Christ’s  gospel  is 
superior  to  an  angel’s  anti-gospel.  The 
gospel,  like  Christ  himself,  is  superior 
to  all  finite  worth.  Should  some  angel¬ 
ic  form  appear  at  Ancyra,  and  say  that 
the  gospel  is  false,  there  is  a  delusion 
about  it. 

And  so  in  modern  days,  a  false  de¬ 
monism  is  abroad  ignoring  Christ,  or 
demanding  to  transform  his  gospel.  It 
can  bring  nothing  greater  than  Christ ; 
nothing  truer,  holier,  more  saving  than 


0  As  we  said  before,  so  say  I  now 
again,  If  any  man  preach  any  oth 
er  gospel  unto  you  "than  that  ye 
have  received,  let  him  be  accursed. 
10  For  0  do  I  now  p  persuade  men, 
or  God  ?  or  ‘i  do  I  seek  to  please 
men  ?  for  if  I  yet  pleased  men,  I 
should  not  be  the  servant  of  Christ. 

n  Deut.  4.2;  12.32;  Prov.30.  6;  Rev.  22. 18. - 

0 1  Thess.  2.  4. - v  1  Sam.  24.  7;  Matt.  28.  14; 

1  John  3.  19. - q  1  Thess.  2.  4;  James  4.  4. 

his  gospel.  Let  them  be  anathema  so 
far  as  they  abjure  the  Lord  Jesus. 
Chrysostom  finely  suggests  that  Paul  is 
here  sweepingly  answering  those  who 
were  quoting  Peter  and  James  against 
him.  Speak  you  of  apostles?  I  tell 
you  if  an  angel  contradict  the  gospcd 
he  is  to  be  rejected!  Accursed — An 
anathema ,  devoted  to  destruction.  This 
is  the  New  Testament  sense ;  the  later 
Church  sense  is  excommunicated ,  severed 
from  true  believers.  In  such  sense  it  is 
used  in  the  old  creeds  as  condemning 
the  rejecters  of  each  given  article. 

9.  As  we  said  before — On  former 
occasions  forewarned  you.  Paul  doubt¬ 
less  here  recalls  to  the  memory  of  these 
misguided  men  how  he  had  foretold  the 
coming  of  these  very  intruders,  and  the 
danger  of  their  being  accepted.  The 
time  of  this  forewarning  was  probably 
his  last  visit.  Accursed  —  The  men¬ 
acing  repetition  of  this  anathema  indi¬ 
cated  his  own  firmness,  and  the  awful¬ 
ness  of  their  danger.  The  guilt  of  their 
apostasy  is  aggravated  by  the  repetition 
of  the  warnings. 

10.  For — The  apostle  seems  almost 
to  recoil  from  his  own  repeated  fulmina- 
tions.  Shocked,  are  you,  at  my  anath¬ 
emas  ?  My  purpose  is  not  now  to  per¬ 
suade  men,  but  to  persuade  God 
himself,  that  I  am  dealing  faithfully 
with  men.  Do  I  now — Is  it  the  busi¬ 
ness  I  am  now  engaged  in  ?  Am  I  a 
human  flatterer?  My  accursed,  will 
show  that  I  do  not  flatter  you.  Or  God 
— Is  not  my  very  readiness  to  sacrifice 
your  good  graces  proof  that  I  am  true 
to  God  ?  If . . .  pleased  men . . .  not . . . 
of  Christ — The  crisis  is  now  arrived  in 
which  pleasing  men  and  serving  Christ 
are  incompatible.  And  you  know  which 
is  my  choice. 


914 


GALATIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


11  rBut  I  certify  you,  brethren, 
that  the  gospel  which  was  preached 
of  me  is  not  after  man.  12  For  8 1 
neither  received  it  of  man,  neither 
was  I  taught  it,  but  ’by  the  reve¬ 
lation  of  Jesus  Christ.  13  For  ye 
have  heard  of  my  conversation  in 
time  past  in  the  Jews’  religion,  how 

r  1  Cor.  15. 1. - s  1  Cor.  15.  1.  3 ;  verse  1. 

t  Eph.  3.  3. - u  Acts  9.  1 ;  22.  4;  26.  11 ;  1  Tim. 

1.  13. - v  Acts  8.  3. - 1  Gr.  equals  in  years. 

2.  Paul’s  gospel  borrowed  from 
no  apostle,  11-24. 

Paul  now,  to  prove  that  his  gospel 
was  not  derived  from  man,  gives  a  nar¬ 
rative  showing  that  he  did  not  obtain 
it  from  the  only  men  supposable — the 
apostles ;  nor  from  the  Jerusalem  centre, 
lie  was  first  wrapped  in  the  intensest 
Judaism,  vv.  13,  14;  upon  his  conver¬ 
sion  he  visited  not  Jerusalem — he  saw 
no  apostle  for  three  years,  16,  17  ;  he 
then  visited  Peter  at  Jerusalem,  and 
saw  James  alone  besides,  18-20;  thence 
departing  to  Syria  he  had  no  acquaint¬ 
ance  at  all  with  the  Judean  Churches, 
2  L— 24.  His  gospel,  then,  not  being  re¬ 
ceived  from  the  apostles,  if  it  coincided 
with  the  apostolic  gospel  was  all  the 
more  certainly  true. 

1 1 .  This  and  the  verse  following  state 
the  apostle’s  line  of  defence,  affirming 
the  broad  fact  of  the  divine  origin,  not 
of  the  gospel  merely,  but  of  his  gospel. 
So  far  as  man  was  concerned,  he  was 
original.  His  original  was  Christ.  Cer¬ 
tify — Literally,  make  known ,  cause  you 
to  know,  assure  you.  After  man — So 
that  man  could  frame  it.  It  is  not  such 
as  man  would  or  could  have  framed. 

12.  Received  it — As  a  gift  or  de¬ 
posit.  Taught  it — As  a  lesson,  doc¬ 
trine,  or  sj^stem.  Revelation — Di¬ 
rect  disclosure  from  Christ  to  Paul. 
The  Greek  word  is  a  form  of  our  term 
apocalypse  ;  so  that  not  only  John  had 
his  apocalypse,  but  Paul.  See  Intro¬ 
ductory  note  to  1  Cor.  xv,  1. 

13.  Ye  have  heard — Rather,  ye 
heard;  that  is,  ye  heard  it  from  me, 
narrated  in  my  preaching  to  you.  See 
note,  Acts  xxii,  1.  Paul,  by  showing 
how  he  was  converted,  and  from  what 
deep  anti-Christianity,  shows  men  how 
they  are  to  be  converted.  This  is  ex- 


that  “beyond  measure  I  persecuted 
the  church  of  God,  and  T  wasted  it: 
14  And  profited  in  the  Jews’  re¬ 
ligion  above  many  my  ’equals  in 
mine  own  nation,  w  being  more  ex¬ 
ceedingly  zealous  *  of  the  tradi¬ 
tions  of  my  fathers.  15  But  when 
it  pleased  God,  y  who  separated  me 

w  Acts  22.  3  26.  9;  Phil.  3.  6. - se.Jer.  9.  14; 

Matt.  15.  2;  Mark  7.  5. - y  Isa.  49.  1,  5;  Jer 

1.  5;  Acts  9.  15;  13.  2;  22.  14,  15;  Kom.  1.  1. 

perimental  religion.  Conversation — 
The  word  implies  the  entire  mode  of 
life.  Jews’  religion — Literally,  Juda¬ 
ism.  Persecuted — Pursued  as  a  chas¬ 
ing  warrior.  Wasted — Devastated, 
usually  spoken  of  ravaging  or  devasta¬ 
ting  a  country  or  city,  lie  paints  his 
own  sin  in  vivid  words,  prompted  by 
deep  penitence. 

14.  Profited — Became  proficient  and 
eminent,  even  after  his  persecuting 
course  had  commenced,  as  the  order  of 
the  narrative  indicates.  Zealous — 
The  inspiring  motive  ;  zeal  for  the  an¬ 
cestral  traditions  ;  not  merelv  the  sa- 
cred  books,  but  hereditary  customs  and 
rabbinical  maxims,  as  afterwards  em¬ 
bodied  in  the  Talmud. 

15.  Pleased  God — Not  the  divine 
will  blank  and  bare  of  all  reason  or 
reasons,  but  the  divine  will  according 
with  the  wisest  of  reasons.  Why  Paul 
was  then  selected  there  is  no  difficul¬ 
ty  in  conjecturing.  Divine  providence 
selects  its  instruments  from  a  recog¬ 
nition  of  their  fitness,  and  a  pre-rec¬ 
ognition  how  they  will  in  full  freedom 
fulfil  their  mission.  See  notes  on  Rom. 
ix,  10,  11.  Separated — Set  me  apart, 
individualized  me,  as  the  duly  endowed 
and  fitting  instrument.  Nevertheless, 
it  should  be  carefully  noted  that  St. 
Paul,  in  all  this  passage,  speaks  not  of 
his  predestination  to  salvation,  but  of  his 
providential  fitting  for  his  apostlesliip. 
From  my  mother’s  womb — Meyer 
says :  “Not  in  the  womb,  as  Wieseler  ; 
nor  ere  I  was  born,  as  Ruckert;  but, 
from  my  birth."  Comp.  Psa.  xxii,  10; 
Isa.  xliv,  2;  xlix,  1,  5;  Matt,  xix,  12; 
Acts  iii,  2  ;  xiv,  8.  The  very  elements 
of  his  physical  and  mental  being  were 
such  as  to  point  him  out.  To  be  an 
apostle  he  needed  to  be  a  Jew;  to  be 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  I. 


215 


from  my  mother’s  womb,  and  called 
me  by  his  grace,  16  zTo  reveal 
his  Son  in  me,  that  aI  might  preach 
him  among  the  heathen;  immedi¬ 
ately  I  conferred  not  with  b flesh 
and  blood:  17  Neither  went  I  up 

s2  Cor.  4.  6. - a  Acts  9.  15;  22.  21;  26.  17, 18; 

_ Rom.  11.  13 ;  Eph.  3.  8. _ 

an  apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  he  needed 
to  be  a  Gentilized  Jew.  He  needed  a 
powerful  vitality,  a  piercing  intellect, 
and  an  iron  will.  He  needed  to  be  one 
moulded  before  birth  for  this  wonderful 
future.  Yet  we  are  not  to  suppose  that 
Paul’s  generative  process  or  formation 
was  supernaturally  interfered  with. 
God,  as  divine  nature,  wrought  him  in 
the  course  of  nature.  His  selection 
and  call  were  fixed  upon  him  on  ac¬ 
count  of  the  endowments  and  qualities 
that  met  in  him.  Called — Note,  Rom. 
i,  1.  Grace — Favour,  but  not  compul¬ 
sion.  Note,  Rom.  iii,  27.  Our  whole 
existence  is  based  in  grace ;  our  hopes 
of  glory  are  based  in  higher  grace ;  the 
privilege  of  being  God’s  apostle  on  earth 
was  based  in  highest  grace.  Paul  nar¬ 
rates  the  whole  to  show  that  he  is  not 
a  man’s  apostle,  an  apostle’s  apostle, 
but  solely,  God’s  apostle. 

Professor  Lightfoot,  however,  entire¬ 
ly  misses  Paul’s  point :  which  is  not  to 
show  “  the  sole  agency  of  God  as  dis¬ 
tinct  from  his  own  efforts ;  but  the  sole 
agency  of  God  as  distinct  from  any  man, 
as  the  source ,  either  of  Paul’s  gospel, 
or  his  apostleship. 

16.  Reveal — To  mankind.  In  me 
— By  a  work  inwrought  within  me,  and 
flowing  out,  in  revelation,  from  me. 
With  flesh  and  blood — With  unre¬ 
generate  nature ,  (Matt,  xvi,  17  ;  1  Cor. 
xv,  50  ;  Eph.  vi,  12  ;)  whether  my  own 
or  any  other  man’s.  For  as  Paul  has 
thus  far  in  the  matter  shown  God’s 
operations ,  so  now  he  shows  man’s  co¬ 
operations.  God  works  and  man  co¬ 
works  :  God  energizes  and  man  syner- 
gizes.  Unless  both  work  no  blessed 
effect  results.  He  who  shuts  out  God’s 
work  becomes  Pelagian  and  rational¬ 
istic;  he  who  shuts  out  man’s  work 
becomes  predestinarian  and  fatalistic. 
As  Paul  tells  us  (Acts  ix,  9)  that  he  was 
not  disobedient  to  the  heavenly  vision, 


to  Jerusalem  to  them  which  were 
apostles  before  me ;  but  I  went  in¬ 
to  Arabia,  and  returned  again  unto 
Damascus.  18  Then  after  three 
years  CI  2  went  up  to  Jerusalem  to 
see  Peter,  and  abode  with  him  fif- 

b  Matt.  16. 17 ;  1  Cor.  15.  50 ;  Eph.  6. 12. - c  Acts 

9.  26. - 2  Or,  returned. 

so  now  he  tells  us  he  conferred  not 
with  flesh  and  blood.  It  was  not 

only  easy  for  him  to  become,  like  Ju¬ 
das,  a  fallen  star,  but  it  required  all  his 
volitional  energy  to  keep  his  body  under , 
to  prevent  it. 

17.  Neither — Paul  has  thus  far 
shown  how  incapable  a  mind  like  his 
was ,  from  its  intense  Judaism,  of  origi¬ 
nating  the  gospel.  He  now  shows  that 
he  had  no  intercourse  with  apostles  or 
with  Jerusalem  to  derive  it  thence. 
Up  —  See  note,  Acts  xi,  2.  Arabia — 
Strictly,  the  ancient  land  lying  between 
the  Persian  Gulf  and  the  Red  Sea,  in¬ 
cluding  the  Peninsula  of  Sinai.  At  dif- 
erent  periods,  however,  it  stretched  in¬ 
to  very  different  extensions,  even  to  a 
bordering  eastward  upon  Damascus  it¬ 
self,  and  including  it.  Prof.  Lightfoot 
suggests,  without  fully  avowing,  a  the¬ 
ory  that  Paul  prosecuted  a  pilgrimage 
to  Mount  Sinai  itself.  There,  where 
Moses  gave  the  law,  and  where  Elijah’s 
soul  was  strengthened  to  restore  it, 
Paul  receives  from  Christ  the  sublime 
apocalypse  of  his  gospel.  Arabia, 
then,  will  be  here,  as  it  should  be, 
identical  with  Arabia  in  iv,  25.  We 
thereby  see  how  the  conception  of  that 
allegory  arose  to  his  mind.  That  med¬ 
itation ,  the  process  of  the  forming  of 
the  true  conception  of  the  gospel,  and 
not,  as  the  early  Christian  writers  as¬ 
sumed,  preaching,  was  his  business  in 
the  desert  we  may  readily  believe. 
Returned  again — ITis  stay  in  Arabia 
appears  to  have  been  brief. 

18.  Three  years — Styled  many 
days  by  Luke.  Acts  ix,  23.  In  addi¬ 
tion  to  what  we  have  there  said,  we  add 
the  following  from  Lightfoot :  “  Many 
days  in  the  Septuagint  denotes  any  in¬ 
definite  period,  however  long.  Genesis 
xxxvii,  34 ;  2  Samuel  xiv,  2  ;  1  Kings 
iii,  11,  ‘a  long  life.’  ”  See  Peter  — 
The  Greek  word  is  expressive,  to  be 


216 


GALATIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


teen  days.  19  But  d  other  of  the 
apostles  saw  I  none,  save  e  James 
the  Lord’s  brother.  20  Now  the 
things  which  I  write  unto  you,  f  be¬ 
hold,  before  God,  I  lie  not.  2fl  g  Af¬ 
terwards  I  came  into  the  regions 
of  Syria  and  Cilicia;  22  And  was 
unknown  by  face  h  unto  the  church¬ 
es  of  Judea  which  ‘were  in  Christ: 


d  1  Cor.  9.  5. - eMatt.  13.  55;  Mark  6.  3. - 

./'Rom.  9.  1. - y  Acts  9.  30. - hi  Tkess.  2.  14. 

acquainted,  with  Peter.  For  Peter,  the 
better  reading  is  Cephas ,  as  in  ii,  11. 
Fifteen  days  —  That  is,  a  fortnight, 
including,  perhaps,  two  sabbaths;  de¬ 
parting  doubtless  on  the  fifteenth  day. 
“This,”  says  Wordsworth,  “was  long 
enough  for  Peter  to  have  detected  and 
exposed  him  had  he  been  unsound.” 
It  was  too  short,  Paul  argues,  for  him 
to  have  borrowed  Peter’s  gospel. 

1 9.  Save  J  ames — This  is,  no  doubt, 
the  James  of  Jerusalem.  Acts  xxi,  18, 
and  Matt,  x,  3.  It  is  questioned,  with 
little  reason,  we  think,  whether  he  is 
here  called  an  apostle.  The  Greek  may 
indeed  be  rendered :  Other  of  the  apos¬ 
tles  saw  I  none,  save  that  I  saw  James. 
But  James  has  to  be  counted  to  make 
out  the  apostles  of  Acts  ix,  27,  where 
see  note. 

20.  Before  God — This  earnest  re¬ 
minder  that  we  speak  as  in  God’s 
presence  has  the  solemnity  of  an  oath, 
but  not  its  profanity. 

21.  Syria  and  Cilicia — He  was 
driven  from  Jerusalem  by  plots  of  the 
Jews,  Acts  ix,  29,  30,  and  so  was  be¬ 
yond  the  reach  of  apostolic  teaching. 

22.  Unknown.  .  .churches  of  Ju¬ 
dea — And  so  could  not  have  borrowed 
the  Judean  and  Jerusalemite  type  of 
gospel.  He  was  unknown  at  Jerusa¬ 
lem,  only  excepting  the  acquaintance 
they  acquired  with  him,  according  to 
his  own  account,  during  his  abode  with 
Peter.  Probably  his  intercourse  was 
mainly  with  the  Hellenists  at  Jerusa¬ 
lem.  See  Acts  ix,  29,  and  note. 

23.  They — The  Judean  Christians. 
Had  heard  —  Rather,  were  hearing ; 
that  is,  while  he  was  in  Syria  and  Ci¬ 
licia.  Us  —  The  sentence  glides  into 
the  words  of  the  Christians  themselves. 


23  But  they  had  heard  only,  That 
k  he  which  persecuted  us  in  times 
past  now  preacheth  the  faith  which 
once  he  destroyed.  24  And  they 
1  glorified  God  in  me. 

CHAPTER  II. 

rrHIEN  fourteen  years  after  *1 
JL  went  up  again  to  Jerusalem 

i  Rom.  16.  7. - k  Acts  9. 13,20,26;  1  Cor.  15.  8,9. 

- L  Luke  7. 16 ;  Acts  11. 18 ;  21. 19. - a  Acts  15.2. 

24.  Glorified  God  —  Rendered 

thanks  and  praise  that  the  persecutor 
had  become  a  preacher.  But  this  was 
the  Church  from  which,  under  pressure 
of  the  temple  hierarchy,  Paul’s  Judaiz- 
ing  troublers  came.  Fourteen  years  af¬ 
terwards,  as  he  will  soon  say,  he  came 
to  meet  them  at  Jerusalem  and  settle 
accounts.  In  me  —  Rather,  upon  me ; 
as  the  basis  upon  which  their  glorify¬ 
ing  of  God  was  founded. 

CHAPTER  II. 

3.  The  genuineness  of  Paul’s  gos¬ 
pel  acknowledged  by  the  apostles 
— The  Council  of  Jerusalem,  1-10. 

How  independent  Paul’s  gospel  was 
of  the  other  apostles  he  has  now  shown. 
His  next  step  is  to  show  that  his  gos¬ 
pel  was  fully  endorsed  by  those  apos¬ 
tles;  a  fact  conclusive  against  the 
troublers  at  Galatia,  who  represented 
him  as  a  false  apostle.  He  proves  this 
by  retracing  the  facts  of  the  Jerusalem 
Council,  with  which  retracing  the  read¬ 
er  must  carefull}'  compare  Luke’s  nar¬ 
rative  given  Acts  xv,  1-35. 

1.  Fourteen  years  after — That  this 
visit  cannot  be  identified  with  Paul’s 
brief  mission  to  Jerusalem  mentioned 
Acts  xi,  30  we  have  shown  in  our  note 
on  that  verse.  Paul  does  not  say  that 
the  visit  here  narrated  was  his  first 
after  that  of  i,  18.  Hence  this  going 
up  to  Jerusalem  was,  beyond  question, 
the  attendance  from  Antioch  to  the 
Council.  The  time,  persons,  and  busi¬ 
ness  is  the  same  in  both  narratives. 
Titus  is  doubtless  included  in  the  cer¬ 
tain  other  of  them  of  Acts  xv,  2,  and 
was  taken  by  Paul,  as  a  young  Gentile 
Christian,  to  test  the  question  whethci 
he  should  be  required  to  be  circurn 


A.  D.  5  7. 


CHAPTER  II. 


217 


with  Barnabas,  and  took  Titus  with 
me  also.  2  And  I  went  up  by  rev¬ 
elation,  band  communicated  unto 
them  that  gospel  which  I  preach 
.among  the  Gentiles,  but  1  privately 
\o  them  which  were  of  reputation, 

b  Acts  15.  12. - 1  Or,  never  ally. - c  Phil.  2. 16 ; 

1  Thess.  3.  5. 

cised.  Verse  3.  Probably  Titus  was 
with  Paul  at  Corinth  when  writing  this 
epistle. 

2.  By  revelation — Note  on  Acts  1 
xv,  4.  Paul  was  publicly  appointed  to 
go  to  Jerusalem  to  discuss  the  question 
of  circumcision,  and  he  was  doubtless 
divinely  admonished  to  go  and  settle 
the  query  of  his  apostleship.  So  the 
parents  of  Jesus  were  concurrently  ad¬ 
monished  by  the  death  of  Herod  and 
by  divine  intimation  to  return  from 
Egypt.  Prof.  Lightfoot  has  collected 
three  other  such  concurrences.  Acts 
ix,  29,  30,  compared  with  Acts  xxii,  17, 
etc.;  Acts  xiii,  2-4;  and  Acts  xv,  28. 
Paul  mentions  this  revelation  to  show 
that  his  apostleship,  and  the  sanction 
of  his  apostleship,  came  alike,  not  from 
man,  but  from  God.  Communicated 
—  Explained,  set  forth.  It  was,  no 
doubt,  a  matter  of  great  interest  to 
those  home  apostles  to  know  the  secret 
of  this  young  evangelist’s  power  of 
winning  Gentiles  to  Christ,  of  spread¬ 
ing  the  gospel  over  distant  lands,  and 
of  building  churches  in  the  great  me¬ 
tropolises.  Before  the  assembling  in 
full  council,  those  of  reputation — the 
pillars  —  had  consultation  with  him 
privately,  to  form  their  preparatory 
opinion.  These  pillars  were  (verse  9) 
James,  Cephas,  and  John.  Lest,  de¬ 
pends  upon  communicated.  Run .  . . 
in  vain — This  does  not  mean  lest  my 
work  should  appear  to  be  in  vain,  but 
lest  ff  should  be  rendered  vain.  He 
entered  into  full,  harmonious  concert 
with  the  pillars  of  the  Palestinean 
Church,  lest  they  should,  by  fatal 
opposition  through  misunderstanding, 
destroy  all  his  work.  The  opposition 
of  the  pillars  implied  the  opposition 
of  the  entire  apostolic  college,  and  the 
entire  Palestinean  Church.  This  would, 
to  all  human  view,  be  a  devastating 
division  in  the  .young  religion;  and,  as 


lest  by  any  means  CI  should  run, 
or  had  run,  in  vain.  3  But  nei¬ 
ther  Titus,  who  was  with  me,  be¬ 
ing  a  Greek,  was  compelled  to  be 
d  circumcised  :  4  And  that  be¬ 

cause  of  e  false  brethren  unawares 

d  Acts  15.  24 ;  16. 3 ;  1  Cor.  9.  20. e  Acts  15. 1, 24 ; 

_ 2  Cor.  11,  26. _ 

historically  cutting  off  Paul’s  Churcfa  s 
from  the  original  fountain  head,  would 
have  destroyed  them,  as,  perhaps,  the 
Churches  of  Galatia  were  destroyed, 
and  still  more  completely. 

3.  Neither  Titus.  .  .circumcised — 
Titus  is  here  put  forth  as  a  living  fact 
in  proof  of  what  the  pillars  did  not 
require.  He  was  placed  by  St.  Paul 
among  them  as  an  uncircumcised  Gen¬ 
tile  Christian,  and  they  yield  the  point 
of  circumcision.  Paul,  according  to  his 
ground,  could  circumcise  his  Gentile 
converts,  as  he  did  Timothy,  if  expe¬ 
dient,  without  any  surrender  of  the 
principle.  But  they  could  not  accept 
one  uncircumcised  Christian  without 
admitting  that  there  could  be  Christi¬ 
anity  without  circumcision.  We  can, 
therefore,  clearly  see  why  Paul  could 
circumcise  Timothy  and  insist  that  Ti¬ 
tus  should  not  be  circumcised.  And 
Paul,  doubtless,  puts  this  case  to  the 
Galatians  as  an  answer  to  the  argument 
drawn  from  his  circumcising  Timothy. 

4.  And  that  —  The  refusal  to  cir¬ 
cumcise  him.  False  brethren — The 
different  sections  of  the  Council  we 
have  classified  into  four ,  (Acts  xv,  6,) 
and  the  false  brethren  are  the  fourth. 
We  are  able  to  put  our  finger  upon 

them.  They  tried  to  make  the  trouble 
at  Antioch,  (Acts  xv,  1,)  and  they  are 
succeeding  in  making  this  trouble  at 
Galatia.  Henan,  in  his  Life  of  Paul, 
(following  Baur,)  identifies  class  four 
with  three ,  and  insists  that  this  faction 
are  the  true  primitive  Christians.  Paul, 

then,  was  really  an  innovator — the  fab¬ 
ricator  of  a  new  Christianity — which 
was,  in  fact,  a  better  than  the  original. 
All  which  is  elaborate  nonsense.  Not 
only  have  we  Luke’s  gospel  and  Acts, 
but  we  have  the  epistles  of  these  very 
pillars  —  Peter,  James,  and  John  — 
to  show  us  that  the  Christianity  of  all 
three  is  identical  with  that  of  Paul. 


218 


GALATIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


brought  in,  who  came  in  privily  to 
spy  out  our  f  liberty  which  we  have 
in  Christ  Jesus,  sthat  they  might 
bring  us  into  bondage :  5  To  whom 
we  gave  place  by  subjection,  no, 
not  for  an  hour;  that  hthe  truth 

/Chap.  3.  25;  5.  1, 13. - £7  2  Corinthians  11.  20; 

chap.  4.  3,  9. 


Unawares  brought  in  —  Luke  says, 
that  they,  so  far  from  being  the  real 
primitive  disciples ,  were  certain  of 
the  sect  of  the  Pharisees.  They  be¬ 
longed  to  the  zealot  class  of  Hebrews 
described  in  our  note  on  Acts  vi,  1, 
who  became  the  Fbionites  of  later 
Church  history.  The  quarrel,  in  fact, 
began  at  the  murmuring  of  the  Helle¬ 
nistic  widows.  We  have  noted  at 
Acts  xv,  7  that  these  Pharisees  prop¬ 
erly  formed  no  part  of  the  assembly, 
but  were  unawares  brought  in.  They 
were  wholly  overridden  by  the  decision 
of  the  Council. 

5.  We — The  delegation  from  An¬ 
tioch.  To  the  apostles  and  the  ortho¬ 
dox  Church  there  was  a  deference ;  but 
these  factionists  demanded  subjection, 
which  was  not  yielded  an  hour.  The 
very  truth  of  the  gospel  was  at 
stake.  You — Galatians  and  all  other 
Gentile  Christians. 

6-10.  Having  dismissed  the  case  of 
the  Judaists  and  the  Council,  Paul 
now  touches  the  question  vital  with 
the  Galatians:  What  were  your  final 
relations,  Paul,  with  the  pillars  ?  And 
this  he  now  answers.  These  pillars,  on 
whom  you  so  much  lean,  though  they 
are  only  my  co-equal  apostles,  agreeing 
that  Peter  and  myself  had  one  Chris¬ 
tianity  yet  different  fields,  gave  to 
me  and  Barnabas  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship.  Undoubtedly  there  are 
slightly  disparaging  terms  of  expres¬ 
sion  regarding  the  apostles,  and  these 
arise  from  two  sources :  1 .  St.  Paul 
uses  terms  derived  from  liis  first  impres¬ 
sions  on  arriving  at  Jerusalem.  He 
had  been  but  transiently  there  since 
his  schooling  under  Gamaliel.  He  had 
been  “roughing  it  ’’  for  fourteen  years 
as  foreign  missionary.  On  arriving  at 
the  sacred  capital  he  finds  three  apos¬ 
tles  looming  up  as  pillars,  as  if  not 


of  the  gospel  might  continue  with 
you.  6  But  of  those  *  who  seemed 
to  be  somewhat,  whatsoever  they 
were,  it  maketh  no  matter  to  me; 
k  God  accepteth  no  man’s  person : 
for  they  who  seemed  to  be  somewhat 

^Verse  14;  chap.  3.  1;  4.  16. - i  Chap.  6.  3. 

k  Act 8  10.  34 ;  Rom.  2.  11. 


only  the  apostolate,  but  the  Church, 
seemed  all  but  embodied  in  them.  It 
costs  him  some  effort  to  adjust  his  con¬ 
ceptions  to  this  seeming,  and  to  present 
his  history  in  a  fore-council  to  them. 
2.  He  intimates  that  the  Galatians,  in 
subjecting  his  apostolate  to  the  decis¬ 
ion  of  these  pillars,  do  make  them 
over  tall,  and  he  is  willing  to  diminish 
the  surplusage.  He,  too,  is  a  pillar , 
and  all  the  pillars  are  of  equal  height. 
There  is  no  proof,  and  no  probability, 
that,  as  Renan  maintains  from  this 
passage,  any  contrariety  existed  be¬ 
tween  Paul  and  these  apostles.  Chris¬ 
tianity  was  not  thus  divided  into  two 
hostile  camps. 

6.  Seemed  to  be  somewhat — In 

special  contrast  to  those  who  seemed 
to  be  no-what  at  all  —  the  factionists. 
From  this  point  the  narrative  flows  in  a 
clear  yet  troubled  current,  like  a  pure 
stream  rippling  among  pebbles.  The 
reader’s  eye  may  leap  from  this  clause 
to  verse  9,  where  Paul  fairly  begins 
again,  all  that  intervenes  being  a  tan¬ 
gle  of  parentheses.  The  main  thought 
is,  that  the  three  seeming  pillars  ac¬ 
cepted  him  as  a  fourth.  Whatsoever 
...person — These  clauses  are  a  first 
parenthesis ;  for  they  connect  subor¬ 
dinate^  with  somewhat.  No  matter 
to  me — Paul  here  retraces  his  impres¬ 
sions  at  the  time.  He  brought  his  case 
before  them  as  accidental,  not  essen¬ 
tial,  superiors.  Their  position  was  of 
no  importance  to  him.  Accepteth . . . 
person  —  Prof.  Lightfoot  notes  that 
this  phrase  in  the  Old  Testament  He¬ 
brew  means  to  favour  one ,  without  nec¬ 
essarily  including  any  invidious  sense. 
But  in  the  New  Testament  Greek  the 
word  person — originally  signifying  an 
actor’s  theatrical  mask — acquires  the 
idea  of  something  assumed  upon  and 
over  the  real  being  To  accept  the  per - 


A.  D.  57. 


CHATTER  II. 


219 


in  conference  added  nothing  to 
me:  7  But  contrariwise,  mwhen 
they  saw  that  the  gospel  of  the  un- 
circumcision  n  was  committed  unto 
me,  as  the  gospel  of  the  circumcis¬ 
ion  was  unto  Peter;  8  (For  he 
that  wrought  effectually  in  Peter 
to  the  apostleship  of  the  circum¬ 
cision,  °the  same  was  p  mighty  in 
me  toward  the  Gentiles ;)  9  And 

£2  Cor.  12. 11. - m  Acts  13.  46;  Rom.  1.  5;  11.13; 

1  Tim.  2.  7 ;  2  Tim.  i.  11. - n  1  Thess.  2.  4. - 

o  Acts  9.  15 ;  13.  2 ;  22.  21 ;  26. 17, 18 ;  1  Cor.  15. 10 ; 
chap.  1.  16;  Col.  1.  29. 

son,  then,  is  to  favour  him,  not  for  or 

according  to  his  real  desert  or  qual¬ 
ity,  but  according  to  some  external  ad¬ 
vantages,  as  rank,  dress,  wealth,  repu¬ 
tation.  Paul,  appearing  at  Jerusalem, 
was  conscious  that  his  call  was  equally 
divine;  his  qualifications,  at  least,  as 

great;  his  labours  and  successes  more 
abundant.  And  so  he  knew  the  divine 
Eye  saw.  These  pillars  are  lofty  met¬ 
ropolitans,  and  I  am  a  hard  looking 

itinerant;  but  God  is  not  deceived  bv 

‘  «/ 

externals.  Added  nothing — In  spite 
of  their  seeming.  They  imparted  to 
me  no  new  gospel.  I  had  derived  from 
Christ  by  revelation  all  they  could  tell 
me.  Quite  the  reverse,  as  he  will  next 
show. 

7.  Contrariwise — Instead  of  under¬ 
taking  to  impart  to  me,  they  recognised 
my  co-equal  mission  with  the  chief  pil¬ 
lar  Peter.  Of  the  uncircumcision 
— Chiefly,  but  not  exclusively.  Paul 
could  convert  J ews  and  Peter  Gentiles, 
but  their  principal  fields  were  thus 
designated. 

8.  He  that  wrought — The  mission 
of  each  was  wrought  by  the  same 
God. 

9.  And — This  verse  gathers  up  the 
loose  threads  of  thought,  and  brings 
them  to  a  conclusion.  James — Some 
copies  name  Peter  first;  doubtless  an 
emendation  to  save  the  supremacy  of 
Peter.  Lightfoot  notes  here,  First,  that 
James  is  styled  the  Lord’s  brother, 
because  the  transaction  there  narra¬ 
ted  occurred  before  the  martyrdom  by 
Herod  of  James,  son  of  Zebedee,  and 
so  the  distinctive  epithet  was  neces-  j 
sary.  James,  son  of  Alpheus,  though  | 


when  James, Cephas,  and  John,  who 
seemed  to  be  9  pillars,  perceived 
r  the  grace  that  was  given  unto 
me,  they  gave  to  me  and  Barna¬ 
bas  the  right  hands  of  fellowship; 
that  we  should  go  unto  the  heathen, 
and  they  unto  the  circumcision. 
10  Only  they  would  that  we  should 
remember  the  poor  : * * * * * * 7  8 9  the  same 

which  I  also  was  forward  to  do. 
"  — . —  ■  ■  ■  ■ 

V  Chap.  3.  5. - q  Matt,  16. 18;  Eph.  2.  20 ;  Rev. 

21.  14. - rRom.  1.  5;  12.  3.  6;  15.  15;  1  Cor. 

15.  10;  Eph.  3.  8. - «Acts  11.  30;  24.  17;  Rom. 

15.  25 ;  1  Cor.  16.  1 ;  *2  Cor.  chaps.  8.  9. 

an  apostle,  was  too  little  prominent  to 
create  ambiguity.  Second.  James  is 
here  named  first  as  being  chief  in  Jeru¬ 
salem  ;  Peter  is  elsewhere  first,  as  be¬ 
ing  every- where  else  superior  to  James. 
Seemed  to  be — To  my  eye  as  I  sur¬ 
veyed  things  in  Jerusalem.  Pillars — 
An  ordinary  but  graceful  metaphor,  to 
designate  a  statesman  as  a  pillar  of 
State,  or  an  eminent  minister  as  a  pil¬ 
lar  in  the  Church.  As  the  last  it  may 
be  supposed  derived  from  the  columns 
of  temples.  See  note  on  Acts  xix,  27. 
St.  Ignatius  says,  “  The  pillars  of  the 
world — the  apostles.”  Grace — Both 
the  apostolic  office  and  his  noble  en¬ 
dowments  therefor.  Right  hands — 
As  recognition  of  his  co-equal  apostle¬ 
ship.  And  this  fact  was  a  complete 
refutation  of  the  troublers  among  the 
Galatians  as  of  the  pseudo-criticisms 
of  Renan  and  his  German  masters. 

10.  Remember  the  poor — In  ac¬ 
cordance  with  -the  custom  of  Jews  in 
foreign  lands  who  sent  in  contributions 
to  the  poor  of  Palestine.  As  the  He¬ 
brew  Christians  bore  the  brunt  of  Jew¬ 
ish  persecution,  so  it  was  due  from  the 
Churches  abroad,  whose  fountain  head 
the  Holy  Land  had  been,  to  aid  them  in 
their  distresses.  Forward  to  do — 
And  did  on  a  large  scale. 

4.  Paul’s  apostolic  rebuke  of  the 
apostle  Peter,  11-21. 

This  is  the  closing  step  of  Paul’s 
proof  of  the  reality  and  independence 
of  his  apostleship.  The  proof  rises  in 
climax.  First,  he  lived  for  years  apart 
from  the  apostles ;  next,  he  met  and 
was  acknowledged  by  them  ;  last,  he 
encountered  the  chief  apostle  and  sue- 


220 


GALATIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


1 1  *  But  when  Peter  was  come 
to  Antioch,  I  withstood  him  to  the 
face,  because  he  was  to  be  blamed. 

t  Acts  15.  35. 

cessfully  rebuked  him — rebuked  him 
upon  the  very  point  in  debate  among 
the  G  niatians — circumcision. 

Not  only  was  this  climax  truly  con¬ 
clusive  for  the  Galatians,  but  it  is  very 
decisive  against  the  infallibility  of  Pe¬ 
ter,  as  well  as  of  the  popes  claiming 
succession  from  Peter.  It  raises,  also, 
an  important  question  as  to  the  per¬ 
sonal  inspiration  of  the  apostles.  On 
this  last  question  we  may  say  that  we 
do  not  consider  the  authority  of  the 
New  Testament  books,  as  a  rule  of 
faith,  to  depend  solely  on  the  exemp¬ 
tion  of  the  writers  from  error.  Their 
authority,  both  for  facts  and  doctrine, 
is  sustained  by  the  testimony  of  the 
Apostolic  Church,  which,  in  the  age  of 
miracle,  martyrdom,  and  discerning  of 
spirits,  recognised  these  books  as  the 
highest  and  truest  records  of  Christian 
history  and  doctrine,  all  under  the 
guidance  of  the  divine  Head  of  the 
Church.  This  very  rebuke  of  Peter 
by  Paul,  and  the  grounds  of  that  re¬ 
buke,  were  thus  sanctioned  by  the 
spontaneous  spirit  of  the  Church  under 
guidance  and  inspiration  of  the  Spirit 
of  Christ;  that  same  guidance  by  which 
the  New  Testament  canon  was,  for  the 
most  part,  silently  and  spontaneously 
formed  by  the  mind  of  the  Church. 

With  regard  to  the  primacy  of  Peter, 
nothing  but  the  necessity  of  their  case 
could  induce  any  parties  to  deny  that  in 
this  whole  passage,  vv.  6-21,  it  is  the 
feeling  of  Paul,  and  his  purpose,  to  show 
that  in  all  respects  he  was  the  official 
apostolic  equal  of  Peter.  Such  is  the 
feeling,  as-  our  notes  show,  pervading 
the  clauses  of  vv.  6-9.  Nor  will  Paul  let 
the  matter  rest  until  he  has  proved  his 
point  by  showing  himself  before  the 
Church  as  a  public  rebuker  of  the  se¬ 
nior  apostle  on  this  most  momentous 
question  of  both  faith  and  practice. 
Neither  the  supremacy  nor  the  infalli¬ 
bility  of  the  bishop  of  Rome  can  stand 
before  these  powerful  paragraphs.  It 
is  no  wonder  that  Luther  held  this 
epistle  to  be  the  great  charter  of  the 


1*2  For  before  that  certain  came 
from  James,  uhe  did  eat  with  the 
Gentiles:  but  when  they  were  come, 

_ ^  Acts  10.28;  11.  3. _ 

Church’s  freedom  from  the  despotism 
of  the  tiara. 

11.  When  Peter  was  come  to 

Antioch — After  the  Jerusalem  Coun¬ 
cil,  and  before  Paul  and  Barnabas  left 
on  their  separate  journeys.  Acts  xv, 
39,  40.  Antioch  was,  as  we  have 
amply  shown,  (Acts  xi,  19-30,  where 
see  notes,)  a  new  Christian  centre, 
after  Jerusalem  ;  the  metropolis  of  Gen¬ 
tile  Christianity,  the  stronghold  of  the 
anti-circumcisionists  against  the  pow¬ 
erful  influence  of  the  mother  city.  It 
was  all  important  in  order  to  suppress 
the  Gentile  repudiation  of  circumcision 
in  the  Church  that  Antioch  should  suc¬ 
cumb.  The  Church  was  built  up  to 
its  present  flourishing  condition  largely 
by  the  joint  ministries  of  Barnabas  and 
Paul,  and  it  was  their  province  to  main¬ 
tain  the  independence  of  Antiochian 
Christian  Gentilism.  When  Peter,  the 
senior  apostle,  arrived  at  Antioch, 
therefore,  fresh  from  the  Jerusalem 
Council,  it  was  a  great  gain  for  Gentil¬ 
ism  that  he  disregarded  Jewish  limi¬ 
tations,  and  did  eat  with  the  Gen¬ 
tiles.  This  separation  at  the"  table, 
produced  by  the  Jewish  laws  of  diet, 
was  not  only  a  symbol  of  division  but 
of  caste.  It  rendered  a  common  love- 
feast  and  a  common  communion  impos¬ 
sible.  It  made  a  horizontal  separation 
by  which  the  Jewish  class  was  to  be 
a  higher  grade  in  the  Church.  This, 
too,  even  where  the  Gentile  class  was 
permitted  to  remain  uncircumcised.  It 
made  degradation  the  price  of  uncir¬ 
cumcision.  To  be  blamed — Literally. 
he  was  condemned ;  that  is,  bv  his  own 
deed. 

12.  Certain  came  from  James — 

This  may  mean  that  they  came  from 
the  Church  of  James  at  Jerusalem. 
It  may  be,  also,  that  they  came  from 
James  himself,  but  entirely  misrepre¬ 
sented  James,  insisting  on  a  rule  that 
James  did  not  assert.  It  may,  finally, 
be  that  James  really  and  truly,  at  this 
time,  meant  that  G  entile  Antioch  should 
submit,  and  concede  that  while  cir- 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  II. 


221 


he  withdrew  and  separated  him¬ 
self,  fearing  them  which  were  of 
the  circumcision.  13  And  the  oth¬ 
er  Jews  dissembled  likewise  with 
him ;  insomuch  that  Barnabas  also 
was  v  carried  away  with  their  dis- 

V  Job  15. 12 ;  Eph.  4. 14 ;  Heb.  13. 9. - w  Verse  5. 

cumcision  should  not  be  obligatory  upon 
Gentile  Christians,  yet  uncircumcised 
Gentile  Christians  should  be  excluded 
from  the  Jewish  Christian  table.  This 
would  have  been  to  establish  a  Hindoo 
caste  in  the  Christian  Church.  How 
James  really  stood,  however,  among 
parties,  we  have  noted  on  Acts  xv,  6. 
Fearing  them — This  body  of  deputies 
from  J ames  must  have  swept  in  upon 
Antioch  with  an  overwhelming  power 
thus  to  have  overawed  the  senior  apos¬ 
tle.  It  looked  like  a  final  defeat  of 
Christian  liberty.  For,  conquered  here 
in  its  fortress  at  Antioch,  where  else 
could  it  raise  its  head  ? 

13.  Other  J ews — All  the  converted 
Jews  at  Antioch.  The  whole  Judaic 
Church !  Barnabas  also  was  carried 
away — The  apostle’s  fellow-leader  in 
building  up  this  fortress  of  freedom  I 
Young  Paul  alone  is  left,  of  all  the 
Jews,  to  champion  Gentile  rights.  It 
was  the  very  Thermopylm  of  the  con¬ 
test.  Dissimulation — In  acting  from 
fear  contrary  to  their  own  sense  of 
duty ;  perhaps  even  trying  to  conceal 
their  previous  freedom  with  Gentiles. 

14.  The  truth  of  the  gospel — 
Which  makes  all  one  in  Christ.  Be¬ 
fore  . . .  all — Which  must  have  been  in 
a  public  assembly  of  the  Church.  And, 
verse  11,  it  was  a  rebuke  to  the  face. 
This  was,  perhaps,  the  most  decisive 
stroke  of  Paul’s  life  in  the  cause  of 
Gentile  Christian  emancipation.  It 
saved  Antioch,  and  rolled  the  over¬ 
whelming  wave  of  Judaism  back. 

Upon  the  words  of  Paul  (vv.  14-21) 
there  are  differences  of  opinion.  Prof. 
Lightfoot  does  not  believe  that  they 
were  really  uttered,  but  holds  tlxat  Paul 
loses  himself,  as  it  were,  in  the  writing, 
and  runs  into  discourse  for  the  Gala¬ 
tians.  Others  think  that  Paul’s  speech  to 
Peter  closes  with  ver.  14.  We  suppose 
that  Paul,  commencing  with  his  literal 


simulation.  14  But  when  I  saw 
that  they  walked  not  uprightly  ac¬ 
cording  to  wthe  truth  of  the  gos¬ 
pel,  I  said  unto  Peter  x  before  them 
all,  y  If  thou,  being  a  Jew,  livest 
after  the  manner  of  Gentiles,  and 

x  1  Timothy  5.  20. - y  Acts  10.  28*  11.  3. 

words  in  ver.  14,  gives  in  what  follows  a 
free  summary  of  the  grounds  taken  by 
him  in  this  conference  with  Peter.  It  is 
not  probable  that  nothing  else  was  said 
save  this  brief  isolated  speech.  Proba¬ 
bly  interchanges  of  remark  took  place, 
and  Paul  was  led  to  lay  here  that  ex¬ 
plicit  platform  of  justification  by  faith 
alone,  which  he  subsequently  expanded 
in  the  book  of  Romans.  As  that  book 
was  written  about  the  same  time  with 
this  book,  the  phraseology  of  both  is 
not  a  little  shaped  in  the  same  modes 
and  forms. 

a.  Paul's  declaration  of  his  gospel  to 
Peter ,  14-21. 

The  purpose  of  Paul  in  this  speech 
is  to  put  an  end  to  this  paltering  be¬ 
tween  law- justification  and  Christ-justi- 
fication.  If  we  are  justified  by  Christ, 
why  need  we  law  observances?  We 
analyze  these  verses  as  follows : — 14.  If 
you,  Peter,  a  bom  Jew,  rely  on  Christ- 
justification,  why  make  even  Gentiles 
law-keepers?  15,  16.  We  born  Jews 
certainly  have  flung  ourselves  on  Christ 
as  our  sole  justification.  17.  But  if, 
while  relying  on  Christ- justification, 
we  admit  ourselves  by  law-keeping  to 
be  still  unjustified  sinners,  is  Christ 
to  submit  to  being  made  tributary  to  a 
real  non- justification  ?  By  no  means. 
18.  For  such  we  really  make  him  when, 
by  law-keeping,  we  build  up  that  law- 
justification  we  once  destroyed,  ana 
so  make  our  self  in  Christ  an  unjus¬ 
tified  transgressor.  19-21.  There  is, 
then,  but  one  sole  v:ay  of  justification. 
The  law  itself  kills  and  drives  us  to 
Christ  for  life.  We  are  dead  to  the  law, 
or  Christ  has  needlessly  died.  Christ, 
without  the  old  law,  is  our  sole  life. 

14.  If  thou — Peter.  Livest  after 
the  manner  of  Gentiles — Unfolding 
the  fact,  doubtless  well  remembered  by 
Gentil  es  present,  how  he  lived  before 
the  men  from  James  arrived.  Com- 


222 


GALATIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


not  as  do  the  Jews,  why  compel- 
lest  thou  the  Gentiles  to  live  as  do 
the  Jews?  15  z  We  who  are  Jews 
by  nature,  and  not  a sinners  of  the 
Gentiles,  10  b Knowing  that  a 
man  is  not  justified  by  the  works 
of  the  law,  but  cby  the  faith  of  Je¬ 
sus  Christ,  even  we  have  believed 
in  Jesus  Christ,  that  we  might  be 
justified  by  the  faith  of  Christ,  and 
not  by  the  works  of  the  law:  for 
d  by  the  works  of  the  law  shall  no 
flesh  be  justified.  17  But  if,  while 
we  seek  to  be  justified  by  Christ, 
we  ourselves  also  are  found  e  sin¬ 
ners,  is  therefore  Christ  the  minis- 

z  Acts  15.  10,  11. a  Matt.  9.  11 ;  Eph.  2.  3, 12. 

- b  Acts  13.  38,  39. - cllom.  1.  17;  3.  22,  28; 

8.  3;  chap.  3.  24;  Heb.  7.  18,19. - /Psa.  143.  2; 

Rom.  3.  20 ;  chap.  3. 11. - e  1  John  3.9. - -/'Rom. 

8.  2. - g  Rom.  6. 14;  7.  4,  6. 

pellest  thou  the  Gentiles — By  force 
of  liis  example,  after  these  men  arrived. 

15.  By  nature — By  birth.  Sinners 
—  Unjustified ,  either  by  law  or  Christ. 

16.  Knowing — The  principle  of  jus¬ 
tification — not  by  law,  but  by  Christ 
alone — is  in  this  verse  expressed  with 
manifold  reiteration,  for  sake  of  empha¬ 
sis.  This  was,  perhaps,  occasioned  in 
some  degree  by  the  colloquy  between 
the  two  apostles.  The  clauses  know¬ 
ing  .  .  .  Christ,  are  antecedent ;  the 
clauses  even. .  .law,  are  consequent; 
the  clause  for  . .  .justified,  expresses 
the  great  Christian  axiom  on  which  the 
whole  is  based. 

17.  Are  found — By  our  own  con¬ 
fession,  expressed  in  keeping  the  law. 
Sinners — Are  in  an  unjustified  state. 
Is  therefore  Christ,  confessedly  on 
our  part,  the  minister  of,  the  contrib¬ 
utor  to,  sin,  or  non- justification  ? 

1 8.  And  our  law-keeping  does  place 
Christ  in  this  condition  ;  for  if  I  build 
again  the  law- justification,  which  I 
destroyed,  by  rejecting  it  for  Christ, 
I  make  myself  unjustified — a  trans¬ 
gressor. 

19.  For  I.  . .  am  dead  to  the  law 

— As  a  means  of  justification  and  life; 
and  that,  too,  through  the  law,  which 
provides  penalty,  but  not  pardon,  for 
the  sinner ;  death,  not  life. 

20.  Taking  refuge  from  the  law  with 


ter  of  sin?  God  forbid.  18  For 
if  I  build  again  the  things  which  I 
destroyed,  1  make  myself  a  trans¬ 
gressor.  19  For  I  f  through  the 
law  earn  dead  to  the  law,  that  I 
might  hlive  unto  God.  *20  I  am 
•crucified  with  Christ:  neverthe¬ 
less  I  live;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ 
liveth  in  me:  and  the  life  which  I 
now  live  in  the  flesh  k  I  live  by 
the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God,  1  who 
loved  me,  and  gave  himself  for 
me.  21  I  do  not  frustrate  the 
grace  of  God:  for  mif  righteous¬ 
ness  come  by  the  law,  then  Christ 
is  dead  in  vain. 

h  Rom.  6.  11 ;  2  Cor.  5.  15 ;  1  Thess.  5. 10  ;  Heb. 

9.  14;  1  Pet.  4.  2. - i  Rom.  6.  6;  chap.  5.  24;  6.  14. 

- kl  Cor.  5.  15;  1  Thess.  5.  10;  1  Pet.  4.  2. - 

ZChap.  1.  4;  Eph.  5.  2;  Titus  2.  14. - raChap. 

3.  21 ;  Heb.  7.  11 ;  see  Rom.  11.  6;  chap.  5.  4. 

Christ,  I  am  identified,  and  so  cruci¬ 
fied,  with  him.  Christ  died  from  sin, 
and  I  die  to  sin.  Liveth  in  me — Is 
the  life  of  my  life.  Live ...  in  the 
flesh  —  Has  a  deeper  life,  which  is 
Christ. 

21.  I  do  not  thus,  like  the  legalist 
and  Judaizer,  frustrate,  that  is,  make 
useless,  the  grace  of  God :  for  if 
righteousness,  that  is,  justification  and 
pardon,  are  by  the  law,  then  Christ 
died  (not  in  vain,  but)  needlessly. 
There  was  no  demand  for  grace  or 
atonement  if  law  gave  righteous¬ 
ness. 

The  following  extract  from  Stanley’s 
notice  of  “The  Clementines”  (see  our 
note,  2  Cor.  x,  1,)  illustrates  the  as¬ 
saults  against  which  Paul  here  defends 
himself:  “In  an  argument  between  Si¬ 
mon  [Magus]  and  Peter,  in  which  the 
former  insists  on  the  superiority  of  vis¬ 
ions  as  evidence  to  our  Lord’s  dis¬ 
courses,  the  latter  on  that  of  actual 
intercourse,  Peter  concludes  as  follows: 
‘If,  then,  Jesus  our  Lord  (6  ’b \aovq  ij^iCjv) 
was  seen  in  a  vision,  and  was  known 
by  thee,  and  conversed  with  thee,  it 
was  in  anger  with  thee  as  an  adver¬ 
sary  that  he  spoke  to  thee  through  vis¬ 
ions  and  dreams,  and  even  through  out¬ 
ward  revelations.  But  can  any  one  be 
made  wise  to  teach  through  a  vision? 
If  thou  sayest  that  he  can,  why  then 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  III. 


223 


CHAPTER  III. 
FOOLISH  Galatians,  *  who 
hath  bewitched  you,  that 
ye  should  not  obey  bthe  truth,  be¬ 
fore  whose  eyes  Jesus  Christ  hath 


a  See  chapter  1.  6;  2.  5;  5.  7. - b  Chapter 

2.  14 ;  5.  7. 


did  our  Master  abide  and  converse  with 
his  disciples,  not  sleeping  but  awake, 
for  a  whole  year  ?  And  how  shall  we 
believe  the  very  fact  that  he  was  seen 
of  thee  ?  And  how  could  he  have  been 
seen  of  thee,  when  thou  teacliest  things 
contrary  to  his  teaching?  And  if,  by 
having  been  seen  and  made  a  disciple 
by  him  for  one  hour,  thou  becamest 
an  apostle,  then  expound  what  he  has 
taught,  love  his  apostles,  fight  not  with 
me  who  was  his  companion.  For  me, 
the  firm  rock,  the  foundation  of  the 
Church,  even  me  thou  did  “  withstand” 
openly  ( avdfioTrjuag ).  If  thou  hadst  not 
been  an  adversary,  thou  wouldst  not 
have  calumniated  me,  and  reviled  my 
preaching,  to  deprive  me  of  credit  when 
I  spoke  what  I  had  heard  myself  in  in¬ 
tercourse  with  the  Lord ;  as  if  I  were 
to  be  blamed,  I  whose  character  is  so 
great.  Or  if  thou  sayest  that  I  was 
condemned  by  my  own  act,  (nareyvcja- 
Hevov,)  thou  accusest  God  who  revealed 
Christ  to  me,  and  attackest  him  who 
blessed  me  because  of  that  revelation. 
But  since  thou  wishest  truly  to  work 
with  the  truth,  now  learn  first  from  us 
what  we  learned  from  him ;  and  when 
thou  hast  become  a  disciple  of  the  truth, 
then  become  a  fellow- worker  with  us.” 
Compare  Gal.  i,  1,  12,  15-20 ;  1  Cor. 
ix,  1;  2  Cor.  x,  16;  xi,  1-5,  and  espe¬ 
cially  St.  Paul’s  own  words  (Gal.  ii,  1 1) 
in  the  account  of  the  feud  at  Antioch 
—  avreaTTjv ,  .  .  .  Kareyvc)o/j,£vog.'n  See 
note,  2  Cor.  x,  1. 

In  this  speech  Paul  makes  Peter’s 
error  the  starting  point  to  give,  per¬ 
haps,  his  first  fixed  exposition  of  the 
contrast  between  law  and  grace.  Por 
the  Jew  to  perform  a  sacrifice,  or  the 
papist  to  say  a  certain  number  of  pater¬ 
nosters  as  an  act  which  in  itself  com¬ 
pensated  or  atoned  for  sin,  was  a  legal, 
worthless,  unsaving  work.  The  true 
way  is,  by  a  seif -consecrating  faith  to 


been  evidently  set  forth,  crucified 
among  you  ?  2  This  only  would  I 
learn  of  you,  Received  ye c  the  Spir¬ 
it  by  the  works  of  the  law,  d  or  by 
the  hearing  of  faith  ?  3  Are  ye  so 


c  Acts  2.  38;  8. 15;  10.  47 ;  15.  8;  verse  14;  Eph. 
1.  13 ;  Heb.  6.  4. - d  Rom.  10.  16, 17. 


surrender  my  all  to  Christ,  by  him  to 
be  empowered  to  walk  in  all  the  ways 
of  holiness.  And  here  he  spreads  for 
his  Galatians  a  platform  on  which  they 
should  stand,  but  which  some  sorcery 
is  deluding  them  to  desert. 

- - 

PART  SECOND. 

BIBLICAL  ESTABLISHMENT 
OF  FAITH -JUSTIFICATION 
THROUGH  CHRIST,  iii-iv,  31 

CHAPTER  III. 

1 .  Introductory  expostulation 
against  their  apostasy  from  faith 
to  works,  1-4. 

1.  O  foolish  Galatians  —  A  bold 
apostrophe ;  especially  bold  as  being  to 
be  read  to  their  congregations.  Fool¬ 
ish — Defective,  either  in  the  posses¬ 
sion  or  the  use  of  the  spiritual  faculty  ; 
unintuitive.  Bewitched  —  Fascinat¬ 
ed,  spellbound.  The  spell  or  formula 
of  uttered  words,  or  the  power  of  the 
eye,  or  of  the  touch,  as  in  modern  an¬ 
imal  magnetism,  enabled,  as  was  sup¬ 
posed,  the  magician  to  possess  the 
will  and  control  the  action  and  being  of 
his  victim.  So,  in  popular  fancy,  the 
snake  possessed  the  power  of  eye  to 
charm  the  bird  into  his  fangs.  Before 
whose  eyes — They  were  fascinated 
away  in  spite  of  the  most  attractive  of 
objects  before  their  eyes,  namely, 
Christ  crucified.  Set  forth — Forth  - 
written,  as  by  a  public  inscription  or 
nailed-up  advertisement. 

2.  This  only — Earnestly  emphatic, 
as  if  this  one  consideration  alone  were 
decisive.  The  Spirit  —  They  had, 
since  they  embraced  Christ,  been  con¬ 
scious  of  the  blessed  testimony  of  the 
Spirit.  In  it  was  supreme  demonstra¬ 
tion.  How  received  ye  it  ?  Hear¬ 
ing  of  faith? — The  listening  of  faith 
to  the  voice  of  the  gospel. 


224 


GALATIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


foolish  ? e  having  begun  in  the  Spir-  eth  to  you  the  Spirit,  and  worketh 
it,  are  ye  now  made  perfect  by  f  the  miracles  among  you,  doeth  he  it 
flesh?  4  g  Have  ye  suffered  2so  many  by  the  works  of  the  law,  or  by  the 
things  in  vain?  if  it  he  yet  in  vain,  hearing  of  faith?  6  Even  as  *Abra- 
5  lie  therefore  hthat  minister-  ham  believed  God,  and  it  was 3 4  5ac- 


Chap.  4.  9, — r/Heb.  7.  16;  9.  10. - pHeb.  10. 

35,  36 ;  2  John  8. - 1  Or,  so  great. 


h  2  Cor.  3.  8. - i  Gen.  15.  6;  Rom.  4.  3,  9,  21,  22 ; 

James  2.  23. - 2  Or,  imputed. 


3.  Begun.  .  .made  perfect — In  the 

paragraph  iv,  1-9  he  more  fully  illus¬ 
trates  that  advancing  development  is 
from  law  to  spirit,  as  from  childhood  to 
adulthood. 

4.  Suffered — Appeal  to  their  mem¬ 
ory  of  persecutions  suffered  by  them 
for  Christ.  If  it  can  be,  alas !  yet  in 
vain.  The  history  of  their  sufferings 
for  the  gospel  when  first  preached  to 
them  by  Paul  is  not  recorded  ;  but  the 
analogy  of  Luke's  narrative  of  the  per¬ 
secutions  in  Lycaonia  and  elsewhere 
justifies  the  belief  that  these  are  the 
subject  of  St.  Paul’s  allusion.  Calling 
these  sufferings  to  mind,  his  heart  is 
touched  with  sorrow  to  think  that  their 
apostasy  from  the  faith  should  so  nul¬ 
lify  their  former  constancy. 

2.  The  Abrahamic  faith-cove¬ 
nant — identical  with  the  Christian 
faith-covenant — is  superior  to  law, 
which  works  curse,  5-14. 

5.  He — God.  Ministereth — Abun¬ 
dantly  supplies.  Worketh  miracles 
—  Rather,  inworketh  within  you  mirac¬ 
ulous  powers.  Endoweth  you  with  the 
power  of  performing  miracles.  This 
assumes  that  the  Galatians  had  per¬ 
formed  miracles,  but  not  as  Judaizers. 
Faith  —  In  its  various  uses  in  the 
Bible  the  word  faith  ranges  through 
the  various  meanings  of  belief,  trust, 
fidelity,  trustworthiness.  And  in  the 
Christian  signification  of  justification, 
these  four  ideas  are  embraced ;  though 
in  particular  cases  some  one  of  the 
four  may  be  most  prominent.  And 
true  faith,  beginning  with  belief,  runs 
through  and  includes  the  other  three. 
The  man  who  lias  this  faith  in  God  is 
in  sympathy  with  God.  And  in  spe¬ 
cial  ages  of  divine  dispensation  that 
sympathy  becomes  the  medium  of  su¬ 
pernatural  intercourse,  and  so,  as  in 
the  apostolic  age,  even  with  these  Ga¬ 
latians  there  were  the  inworkings  of 


miraculous  powers.  And  Paul  here 
appeals  to  them  to  say  whethei  these 
were  not  the  result  of  faith. 

6.  Even  as  —  These  connective 
words  imply  that  the  last  interrogation 
has  the  force,  as  often,  of  a  strong  af¬ 
firmation.  Abraham — So  in  Romans, 
written  near  the  same  time,  Abraham 
is  adduced  as  an  illustrious  exemplar 
of  faith.  The  notes  on  Rom.  iv  are 
essentially  a  comment  upon  this  pas¬ 
sage.  But,  as  Prof.  Lightfoot  has  ful¬ 
ly  shown,  Abraham  had  long  been  a 
standing  model  of  faith  in  Jewish  liter¬ 
ature,  both  among  the  Greek- Jews  of 
Alexandria,  of  whom  the  chief  repre¬ 
sentative  was  Philo,  and  among  the 
Rabbinical  Jews  of  the  Babylonian 
school,  who  retained  much  of  ancient 
tradition.  Thus,  in  the  Apocrypha, 
(1  Mac.  ii,  52,)  Mattathias,  father  of  the 
Maccabees,  enumerating  a  line  of  He¬ 
brew  worthies,  begins  with  “  Was  not 
Abraham  found  faithful  in  temptation, 
and  it  was  imputed  unto  him  for  right¬ 
eousness?”  And  so  in  the  Rabbini¬ 
cal  school  it  was  said,  “Great  is  faith, 
whereby  Israel  believed  on  Him  that 
spake  and  the  world  was.  For  as  a 
reward  for  Israel’s  having  believed  in 
the  Lord,  the  Holy  Spirit  dwelt  on 
them ...  In  like  manner  thou  findest 
that  Abraham,  our  father,  inherited 
this  world  and  the  world  to  come,  sole¬ 
ly  by  the  merit  of  faith,  whereby  ho 
believed  in  the  Lord ;  for  it  is  said,  And 
he  believed  in  the  Lord,  and  he  counted 
it  to  him  for  righteousness .”  A  doctrine 
of  faith  essentially,  yet  rot  wholly, 
true,  existed,  therefore,  in  the  pre- 
Christian  Jewish  Church.  The  faith 
extolled  by  the  Jewish  rabbi  was  too 
often  an  intense  doctrinal  monotheism, 
a  mere  bigoted  sticking  to  Judaism.  It 
was  said.  “  As  soon  as  a  man  has  mas¬ 
tered  the  thirteen  heads  of  the  faith, 
firmly  believing  therein,  he  is  to  bo 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  III. 


225 


counted  to  him  for  righteousness. 
7  Know  ye  therefore  that  k  they 
which  are  of  faith,  the  same  are 
the  children  of  Abraham.  §  And 
the  Scripture,  foreseeing  that  God 
would  justify  the  heathen  through 
faith,  preached  before  the  gospel 
unto  Abraham,  saying,  mIn  thee 

k  John  8.  89;  Romans  4.  11,  12,  16. - 1  See 

Romans  9. 17 ;  verse  22. 


loved  and  forgiven,  and  treated  in  all 
respects  as  a  brother;  and  though  he 
may  have  sinned  in  every  possible  way, 
he  is,  indeed,  an  erring  Israelite,  and 
is  punished  accordingly;  but  still  he 
inherits  eternal  life.”  Hence  faith 
was  not  only  a  supremely  meritorious 
virtue,  but  a  substitute  for  other  vir¬ 
tues.  St.  Paul  and  Christianity  recon¬ 
structed  the  doctrine  of  faith  in  four 
ways : — First ,  in  Christ  crucified  there 
was  presented  a  new  object  of  faith, 
awakening  the  profoundest  emotions 
of  our  being ;  second ,  in  the  substitu¬ 
tive  atonement  there  was  conditioned 
an  abandonment  of  all  self-merit,  all 
merit  in  the  faith  itself,  and  a  salvation 
purely  gracious  was  substituted;  third , 
the  faith  by  which  this  salvation  is  at¬ 
tained  is  a  complete  surrender  of  the 
whole  being  to  Christ  and  to  all  ho¬ 
liness  of  heart  and  life;  fourth ,  that 
holiness  of  life,  springing  from  the 
heart,  is  wrought  in  the  being  by  the 
gift  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  by  Christ 
bestowed  consequently  upon  the  faith. 
Paul’s  Galatians  had  had  the  crucified 
One  presented  to  their  faith,  and  ac¬ 
cepted,  (verse  1 ;)  they  had  received 
the  Spirit  and  run  well;  yet  after 
having  entered  into  the  full  glory  of 
the  Christian  faith  they  were  relaps¬ 
ing  into  the  cold  Jewish  twilight.  Ac¬ 
counted.  .  .for  righteousness  —  Not 
that  the  faith  was  so  great  a  merit  that 
it  became  a  righteousness  of  character ; 
but  by  this  faith  Abraham  gave  himself 
over  to  God,  and  was  by  God  pardoned 
of  his  sins,  and  accepted,  and  strength¬ 
ened  into  a  holiness  of  soul  and  conduct. 
Notes,  Rom.  iv,  3,  4,  16,  and  17. 

The  Christian  faith  and  blessing  be¬ 
ing  identical  with  the  Abrahamic,  Paul 
ehows  the  Galatians  how  they  are  go- 

Vol.  IV. - 15 


shall  all  nations  be  blessed.  9>  So 
then  thev  which  be  of  faith  are 
blessed  with  faithful  Abraham. 
10  For  as  many  as  are  of  the 
works  of  the  law  are  under  the 
curse:  for  it  is  written,  “Cursed  is 
every  one  that  continueth  not  in 
all  things  which  are  written  in 

m  Gen.  12.  8 ;  18. 18 ;  22. 18 ;  Acts  3.  25. n  Deut. 

27.  26 ;  Jer.  11.  3. 


ing  out  from  Abraham,  Christ,  faith,  and 
grace,  into  Moses,  law,  judgment,  and 
curse.  So  far  from  becoming  truer  sons 
of  Abraham  by  circumcision,  they  are 
going  out  from  the  Abrahamic  sonship. 

7.  Know  ye — The  Greek  verb  may 
be  either  the  imperative  or  the  indica¬ 
tive,  but  the  former  suits  more  the  im¬ 
perative  style  of  the  whole  passage. 
Be  ye  well  assured  that  faith  makes 
you  truer  sons  of  Abraham  than  birth 
or  circumcision. 

8.  Scripture,  foreseeing — A  per¬ 
sonification  of  Scripture,  as  in  verse  22  ; 
a  strong  proof  that  Paul  views  Scrip¬ 
ture  as  God  speaking.  The  Jewish 
writers  used  the  expressive  phrase, 
What  saw  the  Scripture  f  Heathen, 
as  well  as  nations  below,  the  same  in 
Greek  as  the  word  Gentile,  verse  14. 
Preached  before  the  gospel  —  Pre¬ 
evangelized,  pre- announced  the  glad  news. 
The  gospel  of  Christ  and  the  gospel  of 
Abraham  are  one,  the  latter  being  ear¬ 
liest  preached,  and  by  Jehovah  him¬ 
self.  In  thee — See  note,  Rom.  v,  12. 
That  the  posterity  is  in  the  progenitor, 
as  the  oak  is  said  to  be  in  the  acorn,  is 
not  a  physical  fact,  but  a  conception  of 
the  imagination  by  which  truths  are  for¬ 
cibly  impressed  on  the  mind.  The  root 
and  causation  of  their  blessedness  is 
in  thee.  All  nations — All  Gentiles, 
so  not  Jews  alone.  This  quotation  is  a 
blending  of  Gen.  xii,  3,  and  xviii,  18; 
a  double  promise  in  one. 

9.  Of  faith  —  Out  from  (e/c)  faith. 
Notes  on  Luke  xx,  35,  and  Acts  viii,  38. 

10.  In  contrast  with  the  blessing 
they  were  under  by  faith,  comes  now 
the  curse  they  incur  by  law.  It  arises 
from  the  fact  that  every  one  of  them 
continueth  not  in  all  things ...  to 
do  them.  Deut.  xxvii,  26.  The  law 


226 


GALATIANS. 


A.  I).  .'•,7 


the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them, 
il  But  °that  no  man  is  justified 
by  the  law  in  the  sight  of  God,  it 
is  evident  :  for,  p  The  just  shall 
live  by  faith.  12  And  nhe  law 
is  not  of  faith:  but,  rThe  man 
that  doeth  them  shall  live  in  them. 
13  9  Christ  hath  redeemed  us  from 


0  Chapter  2.  16. - V  Habakkuk  2.  4;  Romans 

1.  17;  Hebrews  10.  38. - q  Romans  4.  4,  o; 

10.  5,  6;  11.  6. - r  Leviticus  18.  5;  Nehemiah 

9.29;  Ezekiel 20. 11 ;  Romans  1(K6. _ 

making  no  allowance  for  failure,  and  no 
provision  of  pardon  for  transgression, 
condemns,  sentences,  and  executes 
every  man.  This  is  the  condition  in 
which,  on  the  law  side,  every  one  of 
us,  on  awaking,  finds  himself.  He  is 
a  sinner.  The  law,  which  he  lias 
broken,  knows  not  mercy. 

11.  In  the  sight  of  God— However 
it  may  be  in  the  sight  of  man.  Men 
can  easily  lower  law  for  themselves 
and  for  each  other.  They  can  easily 
pardon  themselves  and  each  other  for 
transgression  of  law.  But  how  are 
law  and  pardon  in  the  sight  of  God, 
is  the  great  question.  Note,  Rom.  iv,  2. 
The  j ust ...  by  faith.  Note,  Rom.  i,  17. 

12.  Law  is  not  of  (out  from)  faith 
— Law  has  no  justifying  power  flowing 
out  from  faith,  but  from  the  perfect 
doing.  Doeth  them — Lev.  xviii,  5. 

13, 14.  How  do  we  get  from  Moses  and 
law  to  Abraham  and  faith?  Christ,  by 
bearing  the  curse  of  the  law  for  us, 
lets  the  blessing  of  Abraham  come 
on  us.  The  promise — In  its  fulfilment. 

13.  Redeemed — The  Greek  word 
signifies  to  buy  of,  to  redeem ,  as  from 
slavery.  Here  we  are  said  to  be  re¬ 
deemed  out  from  (ek)  the  curse  of 
the  law.  Us  —  Some  commentators 
(including  Alford)  limit  this  us  to 
the  Jews,  inasmuch  as  the  law  here 
quoted  is  Mosaic  law.  But  the  Mosa¬ 
ic  law  was  the  moral  universal  law 
brought  out  with  particular  manifesta¬ 
tion.  The  decalogue  was  the  absolute 
universal  law  itself,  and  all  the  Mosaic 
enactments  were  either  special  points 
of  the  decalogue,  or  special  provisions 
for  giving  the  decalogue  efficiency. 
Hence  the  curse  is  of  the  universal 
law,  and  the  us  is  all  mankind.  A 


the  curse  of  the  law,  being  made 
a  curse  foi  us:  for  it  is  written, 
Cursed  is  every  one  that  hangeth 
on  a  tree  :  1  i  u  That  the  blessing  of 
Abraham  might  come  on  the  Gen¬ 
tiles  through  Jesus  Christ;  that  we 
might  receive  v  the  promise  of  the 
Spirit  through  faith. 

>f  Rom.  8.  3;  2  Cor.  5.  21 ;  chap.  4.  5. - ZT>eut 

21.  23. - u  Rom.  4.9,  16. - ??Isa.  32.  15;  44.  3, 

Jer.  31.  33;  32.  40;  Ezek.  11.  19;  36.  27;  Joel  2. 
28,  29;  Zech.  12.  10;  John  7.  39;  Acts  2.  33. 

curse — The  object  cursed,  as  being  an 
embodiment  of  the  condemnation,  is 
energetically  called  the  curse  itself. 
See  note,  2  Cor.  v,  21.  Very  probably, 
as  Prof.  Lightfoot  remarks,  the  fewness 
of  adjectives  in  the  Hebrew  produces 
this  using  the  noun  for  the  adjective. 
Written — Dent,  xxi,  23.  Moses  there 
enacted  that  when  a  malefactor  was 
first  executed  and  his  body  afterwards 
hung  on  a  tree,  he  should  be  taken 
down  and  buried  before  night,  “  for  he 
that  is  hanged  is  accursed  of  God.” 
Prof.  Lightfoot  gives  upon  this  expres¬ 
sion  a  very  interesting  but  extendpd 
note.  The  word  “  accursed, n  being 
susceptible  of  an  active  force,  is  by 
most  Jewish  authorities  rendered  mal¬ 
edictory,  or  insulting  to  God.  Paul  s 
rendering  is  derived  from  the  Septua- 
gint,  and  accords  with  Judges  ix,  57. 
Lightfoot  conjectures  that  the  other 
rendering  obtained  currency  in  later 
times,  when  the  Jewish  patriots  were 
often  impaled  by  the  Syrians  or  cruci¬ 
fied  by  the  Romans,  and  kept  exposed 
until  they  putrefied  and  disintegrated 
on  the  cross.  The  literalism  of  the 
Jews  would  require,  by  the  Septuagint 
translation,  that  all  these  were  cursed; 
and  the  other  rendering  was  adopted  to 
avert  such  appalling  consequences.  Still 
later,  this  last  rendering  served  against 
Christians,  as  it  enabled  the  Jews  to  hold 
that  the  crucified  Jesus  was  an  insult 
to  God.  Nevertheless,  notwithstand¬ 
ing  Lightfoot’s  putting  of  this  last  point, 
Paul’s  translation  would  seem  as  suit¬ 
able  to  the  reproacliful  purpose  of  the 
Jews  as  the  other. 

14.  That — Depends  upon  redeemed 
in  verse  13.  The  promise — That  is, 
the  blessing  contained  in  the  promise. 


A.  I).  57. 


CHAPTER  III. 


227 


15  Brethren,  I  speak  after  the 
manner  of  men ;  w  Though  it  be  but 
a  man’s  3  covenant,  yet  if  it  be  con¬ 
firmed,  no  man  disannulleth,  or  ad- 
deth  thereto.  16  Now  x  to  Abra¬ 
ham  and  his  seed  were  the  promises 
made.  He  saith  not,  And  to  seeds, 
as  of  many ;  but  as  of  one,  And  to 
thy  seed,  which  is  y  Christ.  17  And 

w  Heb.  9.  17. - 3  Or,  testament. - a?  Gen.  12. 

3.  7 ;  17.  7 ;  verse  8. - y  1  Cor.  12.  12. 

3.  This  identity  of  the  Abraham- 
ic  and  Christian  faith-covenant  is 
not  broken  by  the  Mosaic  interval 
of  law,  15-18. 

G-od’s  engagement  to  Abraham  to 
bless  the  nations  in  his  Seed  (namely, 
Christ)  was  a  complete,  immutable  com¬ 
pact  ;  under  it,  and  not  by  the  law,  the 
inheritance  of  Canaan  was  held.  That 
underlying  compact  lasted  throughout 
the  age  of  the  Mosaic  law  until  Christ. 

15.  Brethren  —  The  distinct  treat¬ 
ment  of  the  blessed  compact  with  Abra¬ 
ham  calls  up  the  apostle’s  more  tender 
emotions,  and  he  begins  it  with  a  fra¬ 
ternal  word  in  a  gentler  tone.  Man¬ 
ner  of  men — As  men  speak  and  think 
in  their  business  contracts.  But  a 
man’s — Even  then  its  conditions  are 
held  binding  and  permanent ;  how 
much  more  if  it  be  God’s  covenant  or 
contract.  Confirmed  —  Put  into  its 
completed  shape  and  made  binding  up¬ 
on  the  faith  of  the  parties.  No  man 
disannulleth — Except  by  a  new  agree¬ 
ment  on  both  sides.  Addeth — Nei¬ 
ther  party  can  change  the  terms  or  add 
to  them.  In  our  constitutional  govern¬ 
ments  it  is  a  fundamental  principle  that 
legislatures  cannot  impair  contracts. 

1 6.  To  Abraham  .  . .  promises 
made — In  Gen.  xv  the  covenant  was 
made  by  God  with  Abraham,  under  the 
regular  forms  and  ceremonies  of  a  con¬ 
tract  or  treaty,  to  give  him  the  inher¬ 
itance  of  Canaan.  To  seeds,  as  of 
many  —  To  this  many  difficulties  are 
raised.  For,  first,  it  is  plain  that  the 
singular  Seed  is  used  as  a  noun  of  mul¬ 
titude,  and  so  is  of  many.  It  is  so 
used  in  Gen.  xvii,  4,  5,  and  by  Paul 
himself,  verse  29.  Second,  the  plural, 
seeds,  is  never  used  to  signify  posterity, 


this  I  say,  that  the  covenant,  that 
was  confirmed  before  of  God  in 
Christ,  the  lawT,  2  which  was  four 
hundred  and  thirty  years  after,  can¬ 
not  disannul,  athat  it  should  make 
the  promise  of  none  effect.  18  For 
if  bthe  inheritance  be  of  the  law,  cit 
is  no  more  of  promise:  but  God 
gave  it  to  Abraham  by  promise. 

z  Exod.  12.  40,  41. - a  Rom.  4.  13, 14;  verse  21. 

b  Rom.  8.  17. - c  Rom.  4. 14. 

but  only  in  the  literal  vegetable  sense. 
To  this  we  may  reply,  first,  that  Paul’s 
statement,  that  the  Seed  is  Christ,  or 
Messiah,  is  literally  true.  For  it  was 
in  the  Seed,  Christ,  that  really  and  truly 
the  nations  were  to  be  blessed,  and  by 
the  Jewish  race  only  secondarily  and 
from  him.  So  to  him  the  inheritance 
and  the  promise,  verse  19,  were  truly 
given,  and  to  the  tribes  only  as  means 
for  his  appearance.  So  that  the  apos¬ 
tle’s  limitation  of  the  Seed  to  him  has 
a  primal  truth.  Next  it  is  to  be  not¬ 
ed  that  all  Paul  says  is,  that  the  sin¬ 
gular  form  of  the  word  Seed  enables 
us  congruously  to  read  this  limitation 
of  the  term  to  Christ  into  the  text  of 
the  promise.  If  it  were  plural,  seeds, 
or  any  equivalent  term,  as  children ,  or, 
descendants ,  this  could  not  be  done.  The 
very  fact  that  Paul  .so  soon  as  verse  29 
uses  the  singular,  seed,  as  equivalent 
to  heirs,  shows  that  he  does  not  mean 
that  the  plural  form  is  necessary  to  a 
plural  meaning. 

17.  And  this  I  say — And  the  point 
I  here  make  is  this.  In  Christ,  is 
rejected  by  the  best  critics  as  a  false 
reading.  Four  hundred  and  thirty 
years — On  the  chronological  discrep¬ 
ancies  here,  (with  which  St.  Paul’s  rea¬ 
soning  has  nothing  to  do,)  consult  note 
on  Gen.  xv,  13.  Law.  .  .cannot  dis¬ 
annul — Through  the  whole  period  of 
the  law  the  promise  holds  valid,  ty¬ 
ing  Abraham  to  Christ.  The  law 
overlies  the  promise,  but  does  not 
supersede  or  abolish  it. 

18.  Nor  must  the  law  be  credited 
as  the  ground  of  the  inheritance  ;  for 
law  and  promise  are  contrary  things : 
and  the  historic  truth  is,  that  God 
gave  it  to  Abraham  by  promise. 


228 


GALATIANS. 


A.  P.  57, 


19  Wherefore  then  serveth  the 
law  ?  d  It  was  added  because  of 
transgressions,  till 0  the  seed  should 
come  to  whom  the  promise  was 
made ;  and  it  was  f  ordained  by  an¬ 
gels  in  the  hand  &of  a  mediator. 
20  Now  a  mediator  is  not  a  medi¬ 
ator  of  one, h  but  God  is  one.  21  Is 


d  John  15.  22 ;  Rom.  4. 15 ;  5.  20 ;  7.  8, 13 ;  1  Tim. 

1.  9. - e  Verse  16. - -/Acts  7.  53 ;  Heb  2.  2.  — 

0  Exod.  20.  19,  21,  22 ;  Deut.  5.  5,  22,  27,  31  ;  John 


4.  Real  purpose  of  the  law  — 
namely,  to  advance  us  to  Christ 
and  blessedness,  19-29. 

If  the  Abrahamic  promise  is  thus 
prior  and  superior  to  the  Mosaic  law, 
what  are  the  position,  value,  and  pur¬ 
pose  of  the  law?  It  met,  exposed, 
and  punished  transgression  during  the 
interim  between  the  giving  of  the  prom¬ 
ise  and  the  coming  of  Messiah.  The 
Galatians  must,  therefore,  understand 
that  the  Mosaic  legislation  was  but  a 
temporary  and  subordinate  expedient. 
To  leave  the  older  Abrahamic- Messi¬ 
anic  promise,  and  fall  back  to  law,  is, 
therefore,  an  apostasy. 

19.  Because  of  transgressions — 
“  How  is  this  to  be  interpreted  ?  Is 
it  to  check  transgression  ?  or  is  it  rath¬ 
er  to  create  transgression  ?  for  ‘  where 
no  law  is,  there  is  no  transgression.’ 
Rom.  iv,  15.  Thus  law  reveals,  (Rom. 
iii,  20,)  provokes,  (Rom.  vii,  7,  13,)  mul¬ 
tiplies,  (Romans  v,  20,)  sin  or  trans¬ 
gression.”  —  Ligktfoot.  Undoubtedly 
all  these  meanings ;  for  in  all,  the  law 
fails  to  give  life  to  those  who  do  not 
keep  it."  The  Seed  — The  Messiah. 
Note,  verse  16.  To  whom  the  prom¬ 
ise  was  made — The  promise  was  ad¬ 
dressed  to  Abraham,  and  made  to  him 
subordinately ;  but  it  was  made  to 
the  Seed,  the  Redeemer,  in  the  divine 
purpose,  and  supremely.  Ordained 
by  angels  —  See  note  on  Acts  vii,  53. 
Mediator — Moses. 

20.  A  mediator,  or  middle-man,  is 
one  who  stands  between  two  parties 
to  transact  a  business  in  which  they 
are  mutually  engaged.  The  two  par¬ 
ties  to  the  law  were  God  and  the  Jews ; 
and  Moses  was  mediator  in  seeing  to 
the  parts  to  be  performed  by  the  two 
parties.  Not. .  .of  one — Mediation  of 


the  law  then  against  the  promises 
of  God?  God  forbid:  'for  if  there 
had  been  a  law  given  which  could 
have  given  life,  verily  righteous¬ 
ness  should  have  been  by  the  law. 
22  But  kthe  Scripture  hath  con¬ 
cluded *  1  all  under  sin,  mthat  the 
promise  by  faith  ot  Jesus  Christ 


1.  17;  Acts  7.  38;  1  Tim.  2.  5. - A  Rom.  3.  29,  30. 

- i  Chap.  2.  21. - k  Verse  8. - 1  Rom.  3.  9, 

19,  23 ;  11.  32. - m  Rom.  4.  11, 12, 16. 


a  law  supposes  two :  a  law  giver  and  a 
law  keeper.  But  God  is  one — He  is 
law  giver;  and  he  requires,  in  order 
that  the  law  may  give  life,  the  other, 
namely,  a  law  keeper.  If  there  fail  to 
be  a  law  keeper,  then  the  saving  power 
of  the  law  fails,  and  the  Galatians  must 
resort  to  grace  and  promise,  or  die. 

2 1 .  Law . . .  against  the  promises 
— They  are  very  diverse ;  but  do  they 
oppose  each  other  as  foes,  to  collide 
with  and  destroy  each  other?  God 
forbid— By  no  means.  They  both  aim 
at  the  same  results — holiness  and  life. 
And  if  men  would  accord  with  law, 
they  would  by  law  attain  to  holiness 
and  life.  But  though  the  law  is  all 
right,  the  men  are  not ;  and  the  bless¬ 
ed  result  is  to  be  attained  by  Christ, 
grace,  and  promise.  The  latter  is 
substitute  to  gain  the  same  end  that 
the  former  attempts,  but  fails  to  gain. 
Given  life— Eternal,  blessed  life,  by 
perfect  law-keeping,  such  as  angels 
possess. 

22.  But — But  the  reversive  con¬ 
junction  introduces  the  terrible  reverse 
fact.  The  Scripture  —  Revelation ; 
not  in  one  passage  or  so  alone,  but  in 
its  whole  tenor.  Hath  concluded 
Or  shut  up ;  that  is,  in  thought  and 
declaration.  What  Scripture  is  here 
represented  as  doing,  God  is  said  to  do 
in  Romans  xi,  32.  Taking  us  off  from 
the  basis  of  law,  yielding .  that  we  are 
completely  under  sin,  Scripture  flings 
us  upon  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  for  le- 
demption.  All — Neuter  gender  in  the 
Greek,  so  as  to  signify  the  race  as  a 
whole  mass.  All,  as  in  the  nature  of  a 
fallen  parent  and  under  a  perfect  law, 
are  under  sin ;  and  viewed  as  living 
human  individuals  are  sure,  sooner  or 
later,  to  sin.  Apart  from  Christ  there 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  III. 


229 


might  be  given  to  them  that  be¬ 
lieve.  23  But  before  faith  came, 
we  were  kept  under  the  law,  shut 
up  unto  the  faith  which  should  af¬ 
terwards  be  revealed.  24  Where¬ 
fore  "the  law  was  our  schoolmaster 
to  bring  vs  unto  Christ,  "that  we 
might  be  justified  by  faith.  25  But 
after  that  faith  is  come,  we  are 

n  Matt.  5.  17;  Rom.  10.  4;  Col.  2.  17;  Heb.  9. 

9,  10. - o  Acts  13.  39;  chap.  2.  16. - v  John 

1.  12;  Rom.  8. 14-16;  chap.  4.  5;  1  John  3.  2. 

would  be  no  hope  of  holiness  and  life 
for  any  one  of  them.  The  introduction 
of  a  Saviour  was  the  requisite  condition 
of  the  propagation  of  the  race.  See 
note,  Rom.  xi,  32.  To  them  that  be¬ 
lieve — Even  under  Jesus  Christ  there 
is  a  law,  the  law  of  faith  and  self-sur¬ 
render.  But  this  law  gracious  aids  en¬ 
able  us  to  keep,  and  find  a  remed}?-  for 
our  short  comings.  But  beware  of  in¬ 
ferring  that  the  promise  secures  an  un¬ 
conditional  salvation. 

23.  Before  faith  came — As  offered 
in  the  gospel  of  the  crucified  Jesus. 
Kept  —  The  Greek  word  signifies 
watched,  as  by  a  military  guard ;  under 
sentinels.  Law — As  a  military  for¬ 
tress.  Shut  up — The  doors  of  our 
stronghold  locked,  and  we  imprisoned ; 
in  confinement,  yet  in  safety.  Unto 
the  faith — Our  future  and  only  outlet. 
Which  should  afterwards  be  re¬ 
vealed —  Rather,  faith,  which  was 
about  to  be  revealed.  The  faith  was 
in  its  essence  and  power  operated 
during  the  time  of  the  law.  It  lay  in 
the  underlying  promise  of  the  Abra- 
hamic  covenant  throughout  the  whole 
period.  It  lies  in  the  designs  of  God’s 
mercy  even  under  the  heathen  dispen¬ 
sation.  But  in  their  dim  and  dark 
dispensation,  that  faith  is  afterwards 
to  be  revealed. 

24.  Wherefore  —  Rather,  so  that. 
In  strict  accordance  with  the  above 
image  of  a  fortress  is  the  image  next  to 
be  introduced — a  tutor.  Our  school¬ 
master  —  Rather,  our  private  tutor  or 
monitor.  A  boy  was  anciently  placed 
under  care  of  an  elder  person,  perhaps 
a  cultured  slave,  to  attend  him,  and 
guard  his  manners  and  morals.  Unto 
Christ — As  the  monitor  brings  the 


no  longer  under  a  schoolmaster. 

26  For  ye  Pare  all  the  children 
of  God  by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus. 

27  For  as  many  of  you  as  have 
been  baptized  into  Christ r  have  put 
on  Christ.  28  8  There  is  neither 
Jew  nor  Greek,  there  is  neither 
bond  nor  free,  there  is  neither  male 
nor  female:  for  ye  are  all  ‘one  in 

#  Rom.  6.3. - f  Rom.  13.  14. - sRom.  10.  12; 

1  Cor.  12.  13;  chap.  5.  6;  Col.  3.  11. - tfJolm 

10.  16 ;  17.  20.  21 ;  Eph.  2.  14-16 ;  4.  4,  15. 

boy  to  a  well-mannered  manhood,  so 
the  law  brings  us  to  justification  by 
faith  through  Christ.  The  monitor  is 
not  represented  as  bringing  us  to 
Christ’s  school,  but  into  full  emancipa¬ 
tion,  as  of  adulthood  and  freedom. 

25.  Faith  is  come — The  announce¬ 
ment  of  justification  by  faith  is  an  an¬ 
nouncement  of  maturity  and  liberty. 
We  are  no  longer  under  a  monitor. 
We  are  inspired  with  a  living  spirit  of 
free  action  towards  right  and  holiness. 
We  have  wisdom,  strength,  freedom. 

26.  Children  —  Rather,  full  grown 
sons.  Ye — Ye  Galatians,  so  far  forth 
as  ye  maintain  your  emancipation  from 
law  by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus. 

27.  Baptized  into  Christ — As  the 
external  form  and  act  of  the  internal 
faith  of  the  last  verse.  We  majr  be 
baptized ;  but  it  is  the  faith  which 
makes  it  really  and  truly  a  baptism  in¬ 
to  Christ.  Paul  introduces  this  bap¬ 
tism  as  that  public  proof  and  profession 
by  which  the  Galatians  had  publicly 
bound  themselves.  Into  Christ — As 
into  the  embodiment  of  redemption,  ho¬ 
liness,  and  eternal  life.  Have  put  — 
Rather,  the  Greek  aorist,  put  alone.  A 
strict  rendering  is,  whosoever  were  bap~ 
tized  into  Christ  put  on  Christ ,  that  h, 
in  the  act  of  baptism.  For  though  the 
saving  faith  exist  before  the  baptism, 
and  may  exist  without  the  baptism,  yet 
the  apostle  objectively  dates  the  full 
union  to  Christ  with  its  consummation, 
external  as  well  as  internal,  at  baptism. 
Put  on  Christ — In  salvation  upon  the 
soul ;  in  Christian  profession  upon  the 
external  life. 

28.  Neither  Jew  nor  Greek — In 

the  offer  of  salvation  by  Christ  all  are 
on  a  level ;  in  the  salvation  received 


230 


GALATIANS. 


A.  D.  57 


1 


Christ  Jesus.  29  And  uif  ye  be 
Christ’s,  then  are  ye  Abraham’s 
seed,  and  v  heirs  according  to  the 
promise. 

CHAPTER  IV. 


NOW  I  say,  That  the  heir,  as 
long  as  he  is  a  child,  differeth 


nothing  from  a  servant,  though  he 
be  lord  of  all ;  2  But  is  under  tu¬ 

tors  and  governors  until  the  timo 
appointed  of  the  father.  3  Even 
so  we,  when  we  were  children. 
awere  in  bondage  under  the  ’ele¬ 
ments  of  the  world:  4  But  bwhen 


^Genesis  21.  10,  12;  Romans  9.  7;  Hebrews 
11.18. - v  Romans  8.  17;  chap.  4.  7,  28;  Ephe¬ 

sians  3.  6. 

all  are  one.  The  Jew  loses  his  pre¬ 
eminence,  and  sits  at  the  same  commun¬ 
ion  with  the  Greek.  Greek — A  rep¬ 
resentative  name  for  all  Gentiles.  Bond 
nor  free  —  Though  ranks  are  not  at 
once  overthrown,  yet  the  terms  of  sal¬ 
vation,  and  the  enjoyment  of  its  gift, 
are  as  free  to  slave  as  to  master,  to 
.one  colour  as  to  another.  Male  nor 
female  —  The  terms  and  privileges  of 
salvation  know  no  sex.  All  one — One 
gospel,  one  Church  of  the  justified,  one 
final  heaven. 

29.  Abraham’s  seed. .  .the  prom¬ 
ise — The  promise  in  the  Abrahamic 
covenant.  See  notes  on  vv.  16-18. 

CHAPTER  IY. 

5.  The  development  from  Juda¬ 
ism  or  Gentilism  to  Christianity, 
parallel  to  the  development  from 
childhood  into  manhood,  1-8. 

Paul  here  unfolds,  with  marked  clear¬ 
ness,  his  “doctrine  of  development,” 
and  charges  therefrom  that  the  Gala¬ 
tians  have  reversed  the  law  of  progress, 
and  “advanced  backwards.”  He  had 
hinted  this  view  in  iii,  3,  25,  and  now 
fully  expands  the  view.  In  the  present 
chapter,  vv.  1,  2  describe  the  child  in 
pupilage  and  advancement ;  3-7  the 
parallel  pupilage  and  growth  of  moral 
life;  8-11  describe  and  rebuke  the  Ga¬ 
latian  retrograde  movement. 

1.  The  heir — Whether  the  father  be 
living  or  not,  he  is  heir.  The  divine 
Father  ever  lives.  Child — Literally, 
an  infant;  but  the  word  is  intended  to 
cover  the  whole  period  of  minority, 
which,  by  Roman  law,  terminated  at 
twenty-five.  Differeth  nothing  from 
a  servant  —  That  is,  in  the  respects 
mentioned  in  the  next  verse.  Lord  of 
all — That  is,  inherently  and  by  law; 
though  externally  subjected  for  his  own 


a  Verse  9;  chap.  2.  4;  5.  1;  Col.  2.  8,20;  Heb. 

9. 10. - 1  Or,  rudiments. - b  Gen.  49. 10 ;  Dan. 

9.  24;  Mark  1.  15;  Eph.  1.  10. 

good  to  the  judgment  of  others.  So  the 
child  of  God,  a  servant  in  exterior,  is 
interior  heir  of  God,  and  lord  of  all  the 
blessedness  of  eternity. 

2.  But — The  items  of  his  servile  ex¬ 
ternal  conditions.  Under  tutors  — 
The  guardians  of  his  person.  And 
governors — The  trustees  of  his  prop¬ 
erty.  He  is  thus  a  prisoner  in  his  own 
domains,  a  servant  in  his  own  lordship. 
Time  appointed — His  close  of  twenty- 
five  years* 1 * 2 3  minority — the  time  appoint¬ 
ed  by  law.  Of  the  father — This  does 
not  mean  that  the  father  appoints  the 
time ;  but  it  is  the  time  by  which  the 
father  is  limited,  and  grants  him  the 
rights  of  majority. 

3.  Even  so — Introducing  the  paral¬ 
lel  growth  of  the  child  and  of  race  in 
religion.  The  nice  adjustment  of  paral¬ 
lel  terms  and  phrases  must  be  specially 
marked.  Children  answers  to  child, 
verse  1 ;  bondage  to  servant ;  ele¬ 
ments  to  tutors  and  governors. 
We — That  Gentiles  as  well  as  Jews 
are  included  as  children  and  heirs  is 
clear  from  verse  8.  Gentilism  is  thus 
viewed  in  its  aspect  of  a  preparatory 
dispensation,  a  previous  stage  to  Chris¬ 
tianity.  See  notes  on  Acts  xvii,  22,  23. 
Elements — The  Greek  word  is  de¬ 
rived  from  a  root  signifying  a  row,  or 
any  objects  standing  in  rows,  ranks,  or 
orders.  Hence  it  became  a  term  for 
the  letters  of  the  alphabet.  And  as  na¬ 
ture  is  viewed  in  rows  and  orders,  so  it 
came  to  signify  the  element*  of  nature , 
which  were  then  held  to  be  earth,  air, 
fire,  and  water.  Thence,  from  their 
visible  order,  or  from  their  orderly 
measurement  of  time,  the  term  was  ap¬ 
plied  to  the  heavenly  bodies,  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars.  By  the  phrase  ele¬ 
ments  of  the  world,  here,  most  of 
the  ancient  interpreters  understood  the 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


231 


the  fulness  of  the  time  was  come, 
God  sent  forth  his  Son,  c  made 
a  of  a  woman,  emade  under  the 
law,  5  fTo  redeem  them  that 
were  under  the  law,  e  that  we 

c  John  1.  14;  Rom.  1.  3;  Phil.  2.  7;  Heb.  2.  14. 

• - d  Gen.  3.  15;  Isa.  7.  14;  Micah  5.  3;  Matt.  1. 

23;  Luke  1.  31. 6  Matt.  5.  17  ;  Luke  2.  27. 

heavenly  bodies ,  as  objects  of  worship 
among  Gentiles.  But  that  does  not  fit 
the  parallelism  between  the  child  and 
the  early  human  race.  The  parallelism 
requires  that  alphabetic  elements 
should  be  understood,  adjusted  to  un¬ 
der  tutors.  These  elements  are  of 
the  world  in  that  sense  of  the  world 
in  which  it  is  in  antithesis  to  the 
Christian  Church,  and  so  includes  Ju¬ 
daism  in  its  adverse  aspect,  as  well  as 
Gentilism.  The  latter  is  viewed  in  its 
most  favourable  aspect  in  order  to  its 
being  associated  with  Judaism.  Both, 
then,  are  viewed  as  unknowing  Christ, 
yet  preparatory  to  Christ. 

4.  Fulness . . .  time — Parallel  to  the 
time  appointed,  verse  2,  at  which  the 
minor  became  major  in  age.  The  ful¬ 
ness  of  the  time  is,  therefore,  the  com¬ 
pletion  of  the  maturing  period,  in  which 
the  nations  are  ready  for  the  advent  of 
Christ  and  Christianity.  The  historic 
process  is  going  on  until  “  the  wheels 
of  time  ”  have  completed  their  revolu¬ 
tion,  and  the  clock  of  time  points  to  the 
second  and  strikes  the  hour.  God  is 
prompt  to  the  instant.  Sent  forth  his 
Son — For  the  purpose  of  emancipating 
the  heir  from  his  tutors  and  govern¬ 
ors.  Roman  law  had  its  processes  for 
this  purpose;  the  divine  law  has  a 
method  of  its  own.  The  divine  Father 
sends  an  elder  brother  to  assume  sub¬ 
jection  and  emancipate  us,  the  child, 
with  himself.  Made  of  a  woman — 
That  he  might  be  our  brother.  Un¬ 
der  the  law — Rather,  under  law ,  the 
article  not  being  in  the  Greek.  Made 
of  a  woman  is  parallel  to  child,  ver.  1 ; 
made  under  law  is  parallel  to  under 
tutors  and  governors,  verse  2. 

5.  Them — The  we  of  verse  3.  Re¬ 
ceive  the  adoption  of  sons — Par¬ 
allel  to  the  emancipating  the  child  from 
his  servile  minor  state  as  a  servant 
into  his  free  sonship  and  inheritance. 


might  receive  the  adoption  of 
sons.  6  And  because  ye  are  sons, 
God  hath  sent  forth  hthe  Spirit 
of  his  Son  into  your  hearts,  cry¬ 
ing,  Abba,  Father.  7  Wherefore 

/Matt.  20.  28;  chap.  3. 13 ;  Eph.  1.  7  ;  Tit.  2.  14; 

Heb.  9. 12 ;  1  Pet.  1. 18, 19. - g  John  1. 12 ;  chap. 

3.  26;  Eph.  1.  5. - 7tRom.  5.  5. 

6.  Ye  are  sons — As  the  minor  does 
not  cease  to  be  a  son  upon  attaining  his 
majority.  The  Spirit  of  his  Son — 
Not  merely  in  the  rationalistic  inter¬ 
pretation — “the  temper  of  a  true  Christ¬ 
ian” — but' the  divine  Spirit  indwelling. 
So  Bishop  Pearson:  “Here  the  Son  is 
distinguished  from  the  Father,  as  sent 
by  him ;  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Son  is 
distinguished  from  the  Father,  as  sent 
by  the  Father  after  he  had  sent  the 
Son.  And  this  our  Saviour  hath  taught 
us  several  times.  Johnxiv,  26;  xv,  26. 
Hence  we  conclude  that  the  Holy 
Ghost,  although  he  be  truly  and  prop¬ 
erly  God,  is  neither  God  the  Father 
nor  God  the  Son.”  So  also  Mr.  Locke: 
“  He  could  not  be  called  the  Spirit  of 
the  Son  any  otherwise  than  as  pro¬ 
ceeding  from  the  Son ;  so  that  it  is 
evident  he  proceeds  from  the  Father 
and  the  Son.”  Into  your  hearts — 
See  note  on  Rom.  viii,  26.  Crying — 
It  is  the  very  Spirit  itself  which  in  our 
hearts  utters  the  cry.  Not  only  is 
there  a  groaning,  (Rom.  viii,  26,)  as  for 
a  deliverance,  but  there  is  a  cry,  as 
ascending  from  our  hearts  to  the  Fa¬ 
ther  on  high.  Abba,  Father — Both 
the  popular  Hebrew  and  the  Greek 
form  of  the  'name  are  given  in  un¬ 
doubted  symbol ;  we  think  that  both 
Jew  and  Gentile  are  united  in  this 
blessed  co-sonship  with  the  Son.  In 
the  heart  of  either  alike  the  indwelling 
Spirit  sendeth  up  the  rilial  cry.  Yet 
this  mode  of  double  wording  arose  from 
the  fact  that  Hebrews  largely  spoke 
two  languages,  and  Greeks  would,  in 
approximate  Christianity,  often  become 
Hebraized.  Schoettgen  is  quoted  by 
Lightfoot  as  giving  a  specimen  of  the 
title  my  lord ,  addressed  in  both  He¬ 
brew  and  Greek  by  a  Jewish  ^oman 
to  a  judge.  Compare  Mark  xiv,  36,  and 
Rom.  viii,  15. 

The  word  abba ,  signifying  father  iu 


232 


GALA!  IANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


thou  art  no  more  a  servant,  but  a  I  of  God, 


son;  'and  if  a  son,  then  an  heir  of 
God  through  Christ.  8  Howbeit 
then,  k\vhen  ye  knew  not  God, 

1  ye  did  service  unto  them  which 
by  nature  are  no  gods. 

9  But  now,  ,n  after  that  ye  have 
known  God,  or  rather  are  known 

iRoin.  8.16;  chap.  3.  29. - &  Ephesians  2.  12; 

1  Thess.  4.  5. - 2  Rom.  1.  25;  1  Cor.  12.  2;  Kph. 

2.  11;  1  Thess.  1.  9. - ml  Cor.  8.  3;  13.  12; 

2  Tim.  2.  19. 

Hebrew,  is  the  original  of  the  ecclesias¬ 
tical  terms  abbot ,  abbe ,  and  abbey ,  in 
modern  European  languages. 

7.  No  more  a  servant  —  Even  in 
form  and  law  like  the  minor  child  in 
verse  1.  A  son  —  In  the  full  privi¬ 
leges  of  thy  majority,  and  the  full 
abundance  of  thy  inheritance. 

8.  Ye  knew  not  God — Alluding  to 
the  fact  that  the  main  body  of  the  Ga¬ 
latian  Church  had  been  pagans.  Did 
service  —  You  were  not  merely  like 
the  slave  of  verse  1,  but  were  actual 
slaves  and  worshippers  of  false  tutors 
and  governors,  namety,  them  which 
are  no  gods.  By  nature — But  only 
in  the  fanc}r  of  their  worshippers. 

6.  Consequent  folly  of  their  re¬ 
lapse  from  faith-justification  into 
old  legalism,  9-20. 

9.  But  now  —  After  your  adult 
growth  and  knowledge.  Known  God 
— Not  merely  as  a  false  Jupiter  or  a  dim 
Jehovah,  but  as  father  through  Christ. 
Rather.  .  .  known  of  God — No  longer 
like  children  committed  to  governors 
and  tutors,  and  overlooked  by  their 
father ;  but  like  children  to  whom 
the  Father  hath  sent  the  Spirit  of 
sonship,  who  hears  them  crying,  and 
knows  them  as  his  sons.  How — Im¬ 
perative  rebuke !  How  can  so  pre¬ 
posterous  a  turn  be  made.  Weak — 
As  childhood.  Beggarly — Penniless 
as  the  minor  state.  Elements — The 
first  letters,  hieroglyphs,  and  child- 
pictures  of  pupilage.  That  is  the  cir¬ 
cumcision,  the  holidays,  and  the  rituals 
of  either  Judaism  or  paganism.  Weak 

• — Impotent  to  strengthen  spiritually 
the  soul  in  its  full  growth.  Beggarly 
— Poor  in  any  thing  that  can  satisfy 
an  immortal  spirit. 


how  turn  ye  2  again  to 
°the  weak  and  beggarly  3 elements, 
whereunto  ye  desire  again  to  be 
in  bondage  ?  lO  pYe  observe 
days,  and  months,  and  times,  and 
years.  Ill  am  afraid  of  you,  9  lest 
I  have  bestowed  upon  you  labour 
in  vain.  12  Brethren,  I  beseech 

n  Chap.  3.  3;  Col.  2.  20. - 2  Or,  back. - 

o  Rom.  8.  3;  Heb.  7.  18. - 3  Or,  rudiments , 

verse  3. - jj  Rom.  14.  5;  Col.  2.  16. - tfCbap. 

5.  2,  4 ;  1  Thess.  3.  5. 

10.  Observe  days  —  The  sabbaths 

of  Judaism,  the  ritual  days  of  paganism. 
That  the  heathen  also  observe  days 
we  have  a  striking  illustration  from  the 
fact  that  the  days  of  our  Christian 
week  bear  each  the  name  of  a  pagan 
divinity,  as,  indeed,  do  some  of  our 
months.  Months — The  feasts  of  new 
moons.  Times — Seasons,  as  passover, 
pentecost,  etc.  Years — The  sabbatic, 
or  seventh  year ;  the  jubilee,  every 
fiftieth  year.  Wieseler  reckons  that 
the  then  passing  year  was  a  sabbatic. 
But  the  jubilee  was  then  truly  no 
longer  observed.  Paul  enumerates  all 
these,  not  as  being  actually  kept,  but 
because  the  Galatians  were  making  up 
with  puerile  system  their  whole  ritual 
calendar.  It  seems,  perhaps,  strange 
that  Paul  does  not  name  circumcision 
as  one  of  the  beggarly  elements. 
But  against  that  he  warns  them  in 
verse  2  ;  in  words  impljdng  that  they 
had  not  yet  gone  so  far  as  that. 

11.  I  am  afraid  of  you,  lest  — 
The  Greek  indicative  implies  that  he 
assumes  that  which  he  fears  was  an 
accomplished  fact. 

a.  Earnest  expostulation  in  view  of 
his  and  their  past  mutual  history  and 
the  conduct  of  his  opponents ,  12-20. 

Paul  tenderlv  reminds  the  Galatians 
of  their  cordial  reception  of  his  first 
preaching,  12-16;  hints  the  selfishness 
of  their  seducers,  17,  18;  and  makes 
appeal  to  their  sympathetic  emotions, 
vv.  19,  20. 

12.  Brethren  —  Beginning,  as  at 
iii,  15,  a  new  and  gentler  strain.  Be — 
Omitting  the  interpolated  italic  words, 
we  render,  Become  as  I,  because  I  as  you. 
The  meaning  is,  become  as  I  became 
when  I  left  Judaism  and  rejected  these 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


OOQ 

JjO  o 


you,  be  as  I  am;  for  I  am  as  ye 
are:  rye  have  not  injured  me  at 
all.  13  Ye  know  how  s  through 
'nfiraiity  of  the  flesh  I  preached 
the  gospel  unto  you  lat  the  first. 
14  And  my  temptation  which  was 
in  my  flesh  ye  despised  not,  nor 
rejected;  but  received  me  uas  an 
angel  of  God,  v evert  as  Christ  Je¬ 
sus.  15  4  Where  is  then  the  bless¬ 
es  Cor.  2.  5. - .91  Cor.  2.  3;  2  Cor.  11.  30;  12. 

7,  9.— £  Chap.  ]  6. - u  2  Sam.  19.  27 ;  Mai.  2.  7 ; 

sec  Zech.  12.  8. 

beggarly  elements;  because  I  be¬ 
came  as  you  then  were,  when  you,  as 
Gentiles,  rejected  them.  Let  us  agree 
as  we  agreed  when  T  first  preached  the 
gospel  to  you.  Ye  have— The  Greek 
aorist  omits  the  have.  Render,  Ye  did 
not  wrong  me  at  all ;  that  is,  when  I 
first  preached  to  you.  So,  verse  14,  ye 
despised  not . . .  but  received. 

13.  Through  infirmity — Rather,  on 
account  of  infirmity,  or  bodily  illness. 
A  visitation  of  St.  Paul’s  thorn  in  the 
flesh  (note,  2  Cor.  xii,  7)  detained  him 
at  Galatia ;  and  in  spite  of  its  draw¬ 
back  on  his  oratory  the  Galatians  cor¬ 
dially  received  him  and  his  message. 
At  the  first  —  The  Greek  meaning 
seems  to  be,  at  the  former  of  two  visits. 

14.  My  temptation — The  truer  read¬ 
ing  seems  to  be,  your  temptation.  That 
is,  your  temptation ,  from  my  infirmity, 
to  reject  me  with  contempt.  Ye  de¬ 
spised  not — This  verb  seems  to  require 
that  Paul  considers  temptation  to  be 
a  sort  of  designation  of  his  infirmity : — 
your  temptation,  to  wit,  my  infirmity, 
you  despised  not.  The  Greek  for  de¬ 
spised  not  is  an  idiomatic  term  for 
that  meaning;  kljtiTTvoaT c,  ye  spit  not 
out  As  an  angel — So  divine  seemed 
my  message  that  ye  treated  me  as  a 
divine  messenger.  As  Christ  Jesus 
— Lord  of  all  angels,  whose  testimony 
stands,  even  though  contradicted  by  an 
angel,  i,  8. 

15.  Where .  . .  blessedness  —  The 
blessedness  is  the  self-felicitation  ex¬ 
pressed  by  the  Galatians  in  their  first 
joy  in  the  gospel.  They  have  grown 
cold,  and  St.  Paul  now  demands  what 
has  become  of  that  first  joy  and  love, 
for —  In  illustration  of  the  original 


edness  ye  spake  of  ?  for  I  bear 
you  record,  that,  if  it  had  been  pos¬ 
sible,  ye  would  have  plucked  out 
your  own  eyes,  and  have  given 
them  to  me.  10  Am  I  therefore 
become  your  enemy,  w  because  1 
tell  you  the  truths?  17  They 
x  zealously  affect  you,  but  not  well ; 
yea,  they  would  exclude  5  you,  that 
ye  might  affect  them.  18  But  it 

v  Matt.  10.  40 ;  Luke  10. 16 ;  John  13. 20 ;  1  Thess. 

2.  13. - 4  Or,  What  was  then. - wChap.  2.  5, 

14. - a?  Rom.  10.  2;  2  Cor.  11.  2. - 5  Or,  us. 

glow  of  that  blessedness.  If. .  .possi- 
ble-^-If  I  could  have  been  adequately 
benefitted  by  so  costly  a  gift.  Eyes — 
We  see  not  the  slightest  reason  to  in¬ 
fer  from  this  expression,  with  Alford, 
that  St.  Paul  had  himself  weak  eyes. 
The  passage  is  the  hyperbole  of  pas¬ 
sionate  affection. 

16.  Therefore. .  .enemy — Is  it  in¬ 
ferable  from  the  immense  change  on 
your  part?  The  truth  —  Por  telling 
them  the  truth  is  he  who  was  once 
their  angel  now  their  enemy?  The 
change  was  neither  in  the  truth  nor 
its  apostle,  but  in  themselves.  So  is 
it  with  backsliders  and  apostates ;  the 
truth  and  its  minister  they  once  loved 
they  often  now  dread  and  bate. 

When  was  it  that  he  so  spoke  the 
truth  as  to  incur  this  enmity  ?  Not  at 
his  first  visit,  commentators  reply,  for 
then  he  was  as  an  angel  to  them. 
Nor  in  this  letter,  for  they  have  not  as 
yet  read  it.  Therefore,  at  his  second 
visit,  Acts  xviii,  23,  it  is  said.  Never¬ 
theless  he  told  them  no  new  truth  at 
that  second  visit.  The  very  reason 
why  he  is  now  deemed  their  enemy  is, 
because  he  is  the  fixed  representative  of 
the  same  unchanging  truth,  at  his  first 
visit,  his  second,  and  in  this  epistle. 

17.  They — The  unnamed  propagat¬ 
ors  of  Judaism  in  the  Galatian  Church. 
Affect  you — Court  you,  flatter  you, 
zealously  cultivate  you.  But  not  well 
— Not  honourably  for  them,  not  bene¬ 
ficially  to  you.  I  am  your  enemy,  for¬ 
sooth,  for  telling  truth;  they  your 
friends,  by  telling  untruth.  Exclude 
you— Shut  you  off  from  Christ,  his 
Church,  and  me,  to  themselves  alone. 
Ye  might  affect  —  Court,  bo  zealous 


234 


GALATIANS. 


A.  IX  57. 


is  good  to  be  zealously  affected  al¬ 
ways  in  a  good  thing ,  and  not  on¬ 
ly  when  I  am  present  with  you. 
B9  *  My  little  children,  of  whom 
I  travail  in  birth  again  until  Christ 
be  formed  in  you,  20  I  desire  to 

y  1  Cor.  4.  15;  Philera.  10;  James  1.  18. 

partisans  for  them.  St.  Paul  holds 
the  cross  of  Christ  as  the  true  centre, 
from  which  these  separatists  wished  to 
form  a  clique  of  followers. 

18.  Zealously  affected  —  Rather, 
courted ,  treated  with  friendly  zeal.  In 
a  good  thing — In  a  rigid  way ,  for  a 
good  purpose.  Connect  always  with 
and  not  only  as  antithetical.  1  ad¬ 
mit  that  the  being  treated  with  zealous 
attentions,  if  rightly  done,  is  a  good 
thing ;  and  that  not  only  when  I  am 
present  with  you  to  render  them,  but 
always,  my  little  children,  of  whom  1 
travail  in  birth  until  Christ  is  imaged 
in  your  characters. 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  paraphrase 
connects  verse  17  to  18,  as  a  single 
sentence,  as  Ellicott,  Lightfoot,  and 
Wordsworth.  This  avoids  a  detach¬ 
ment  of  verses  19,  20  into  a  separate 
fragment,  and  connects  both  clauses 
present  with  you  in  the  same  para¬ 
graph. 

19.  My  little  children  —  My  dar¬ 
lings.  An  expression  of  endearment 
repeatedly  used  by  St.  John,  but  here 
alone  by  St.  Paul.  Little  children  he 
may  well  call  them ;  for  he  is  now  in 
figure  their  mother,  in  pangs  of  child¬ 
birth,  to  bring  them  forth  in  the  like¬ 
ness  of  Christ.  Again  —  Clearly  ex¬ 
pressing  the  thought  of  a  second  re¬ 
generation. 

20.  Desire  ...  be  present  —  The 

mention  of  being  present  in  verse  18 
now  recurs  to  him  in  the  form  of  a  most 
affectionate  wish.  Change  my  voice 
— From  doubt  and  rebuke  to  confi¬ 
dence  and  commendation.  For —  With 
my  present  view  of  you  at  this  dis¬ 
tance.  I  stand .  . .  doubt — My  sad  po¬ 
sition  is,  that  your  Christian  persever¬ 
ance  is  a  dubious  matter. 

8.  Superiority  of  faith  over  le¬ 
galism  illustrated  by  the  history  of 
Sarah  and  Hagar,  21-v,  1. 


be  present  with  you  now,  and  to 
change  my  voice;  for  6 1  stand  in 
doubt  of  you. 

21  Tell  me,  ye  that  desire  to  be 
under  the  law,  do  ye  not  hear  the 
law  ?  22  For  it  is  written,  that 

6  Or,  I  am  i>erj>lezted  for  you. 

21.  Tell  me — As  if  after  an  inter¬ 
val  since  writing  the  last  tenderer  par¬ 
agraph,  St.  Paul  resumes  the  more  se¬ 
vere  and  imperative  strain  of  ii,  1-7. 
Desire ..  .under  the  law — The  ob¬ 
servers  of  seasons,  as  in  verse  10. 
Hear  the  law  —  The  Jews  did  hear 
the  law  read  to  them  in  the  syna¬ 
gogue  every  sabbath ;  but  Paul  de¬ 
mands  now  whether  they  will  hear  it 
with  the  earnest  ear  of  the  soul.  He 
is  going  to  frame  for  these  legalists  an 
argument  after  the  style  and  manner 
of  their  own  legal  teachers. 

The  ensuing  allegorical  exposition  of 
the  Abrahamic  history  was  shaped  af¬ 
ter  a  form  of  composition  current  in 
the  Jewish  schools.  The  passage  lias 
been  much  attacked  by  adverse  criti¬ 
cism,  and  even  evangelical  expositors. 
It  is  asked,  Was  this  Old  Testament 
narrative  allegory,  and  not  true  his¬ 
tory  ?  Or,  if  true  history,  can  we  sup¬ 
pose  that  this  combination  of  events 
and  characters  was  divinely  framed  to 
evolve  this  lesson  deduced  by  St.  Paul  ? 

All  these  difficulties  would  have  van¬ 
ished,  we  think,  in  a  moment  if  our 
commentators  had  noted — what  none 
of  them  seems  to  have  done — that  Paul 
has  merely  here  put  into  an  allegorical 
form  the  very  same  thought  as  in  log¬ 
ical  form  he  gives  in  Rom  ix,  6-10, 
(where  see  our  notes.)  The  thought 
simply  is  this:  That  Christianity  does, 
by  its  very  nature,  disclose  an  under¬ 
lying  subsense  in  the  Old  Testament ; 
not  only  in  its  ritual,  but  in  its  history 
And  an  allegory  is  simply  an  external 
surface  history  under  which  there  lies 
an  internal  subsense. 

22.  It  is  written  —  The  ordinary 
deferential  form  of  quotation  from  the 
old  canon.  Gen.  xvi  and  xxi.  Abra¬ 
ham — The  great  representative  of  the 
covenants,  both  old  and  new.  Two 
sons — That  Ishmael,  the  natural-born. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


235 


Abraham  had  two  sons,  ztlie  one 
by  a  bondmaid,  "the  other  by  a 
free  woman.  23  But  he  who  teas 
of  the  bondwoman  bwas  born  af¬ 
ter  the  iiesh ;  c  but  he  of  the  free 
woman  was  by  promise.  24  Which 

t  Gen.  eh.ip.  16. - a  Gen.  21.  2. - b  Rom.  9.  7, 8. 

e  Gen.  18.  10,  14;  21.  1,  2;  Heb.  11.  11. 

as  distinguished  from  Isaac,  as  miracle- 
born,  represents  the  unregenerate  as 
distinguished  from  the  Church  of  the 
regenerate,  and  especially  represents 
the  falsely  regenerate,  who  seek  salva¬ 
tion  by  work  and  law  as  distinguished 
from  the  truly  regenerate,  who  seek 
salvation  by  faith  in  Christ,  we  have 
explicitly  shown  in  our  note  on  Bom. 
ix,  8.  And  it  is  from  this  standpoint 
that  the  false  expositions  of  Stuart,  and 
Calvinistic  interpreters  in  general,  of 
Rom.  ix,  8,  is  clearly  shown;  and  by 
consequence  the  falseness  of  their  en¬ 
tire  interpretation  of  the  book  of  Ro¬ 
mans. 

The  correspondent  points  between 
the  outer  and  inner  meaning  of  the  his¬ 
tory  appear  in  the  following  synopsis: 

Hagar,  the  old  cove-  Sarah,  the  new  cove¬ 
nant.  nant. 

Ishmael  and  the  le-  Isaac  and  the  justified 

galists.  by  faith. 

Sinai.  Zion  ? 

Old  Jerusalem.  Heavenly  Jerusalem. 

In  bondage.  In  freedom. 

Cast  out  of  heirship.  Heirs  with  the  Son. 

The  doctrine  of  this  programme  is 
equally  clear  and  true.  Isaac,  as  mi¬ 
raculously,  under  promise,  born  of 
Sarah,  is  type  of  all  the  faithful, 
who  are  freely  justified  by  faith,  and 
heirs  of  the  new  Jerusalem;  while 
Ishmael,  as  born  of  the  alien  bond- 
woman,  is  palpable  type  of  the  falsely 
regenerate  by  law  and  works,  who  are 
still  adhering  to  old  Jerusalem,  are  in 
legal  bondage,  and  bound  to  be  cast 
out  of  the  inheritance.  And  St.  Paul 
has  as  much  right  to  frame  this  into  a 
full  allegory,  giving  it  a  conceptual 
form  to  occupy  the  imagination  and 
memory  of  his  readers,  as  any  man 
would  to  shape  it  into  a  metaphor,  a 
poem,  or  a  parable. 

23.  After  the  flesh — Not  by  mira¬ 
cle  and  promise,  as  Isaac  was,  but  in 
the  ordinary  mode.  And  so  he  is  suit- 


things  are  an  allegory :  for  these 
are  the  two  7 covenants;  the  one 
from  the  mount d  Sinai,  which  gen- 
deretli  to  bondage,  which  is  Agar. 
25  For  this  Agar  is  mount  Sinai 
in  Arabia,  and  8answeretli  to  Je- 

7  Or,  testaments. - <ZExod.  19.  1,  &c. ;  Deut. 

33.  2. 8  Or,  is  in  the  same  rank  with. 

able  type  of  the  unregenerate;  and,  as 
under  bondage,  he  is  type  of  the  falsely 
regenerate  under  law  and  works;  just 
like  their  Judaizing  apostles  and  all 
their  converts  in  Galatia  or  elsewhere. 
See  note,  Rom.  ix,  8. 

24.  Which  things — Not  the  Greek 
pronoun  a,  which ,  but  utivll,  which  sort 
of  things.  The  Old  Testament  histories 
of  this  kind.  Christian  verity  under¬ 
lies  the  whole  old  dispensation.  Are 
an  allegory — A  literal  history  with  a 
spiritual  subsense.  The  Greek  word 
uhTiyyopovpcva,  may  signify  either  are 
spoken  allegorically ,  or,  are  allegorized. 
The  latter  is  the  meaning  here  ;  imply¬ 
ing  that  the  literal  history  is  by  Christ¬ 
ian  truth  thus  spiritualized.  This  spir¬ 
itualizing  arises  from  the  very  relation 
of  the  new  dispensation  to  the  old ;  the 
latter  infusing  a  new  and  grander  im¬ 
port  into  the  former.  These — Hagar 
and  Sarah.  Are- -That  is,  represent. 
Their  position  in  the  history  assigns 
them  that  typism.  Two  covenants 
— That  of  law  and  works ,  and  that  of 
gospel  and  faitlc;  yet  the  latter  really 
underlying  the  former  through  the 
whole  old  history.  See  note  on  Rom. 
ix,  5-13.  From  the  mount  Sinai — 
For  the  decalogue  is  The  Law;  all  the 
rest  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  ritual, 
the  liistor}",  and  the  prophecy,  being  but 
adjuncts  to  give  that  law  power  and 
effect.  Gendereth  to  bondage  — 
As  Hagar  bore  children  to  bondage,  so 
does  the  Sinaitic  covenant  produce  sons 
under  circumcisional  bondage  to  the 
heav}r  ritual.  Under  this  bondage  the 
Galatians  are  perversely  ambitious  to 
place  themselves.  Which  is — Corre¬ 
sponds  to. 

25.  For — To  give  proof  of  this  cor¬ 
respondence.  This  Agar  —  The  this 
is  the  Greek  article  in  the  neuter  gender, 
and  can  agree  with  Hagar  only  as  a 
thing ;  that  is,  as  an  element  or  factor 


236 


GALATIANS. 


A.  D.  57 


rusalem  which  now  is,  and  is  in 
bondage  with  her  children.  26  But 

o 

_ e  Isa.  2.  2 ;  Heb.  12.  22 ; 

in  this  allegory.  Is — Represents.  The 
neuter  verb  often  implies  representa¬ 
tion  ;  as  “  the  candlesticks  are  the  seven 
Churches/’  “the  stars  are  the  angels  of 
the  Churches.”  And  in  Christ’s  words, 
this  bread  is  my  body.  Answereth 
— Co-ordinates  with,  or  stands  in  par¬ 
allel  row  with.  Jerusalem — St.  Paul 
here  uses  the  old  Hebrew  word  for 
Jerusalem,  not  the  modern  Greek  form, 
indicating  thereby  that  he  speaks  not 
so  much  of  the  present  concrete  Jeru¬ 
salem — of  walls  and  houses — as  of  the 
conceptual  Jerusalem,  symbolized  by 
this  material  Jerusalem,  namely,  fallen 
J udaism,  the  obsolete  theocracy.  N o w 
is — Not  the  Jerusalem  of  the  holy  old 
past,  nor  of  the  future ;  but  the  faded 
Jerusalem  of  the  present,  deserted  by 
God,  effete  and  enslaved,  and  bound  to 
a  speedy  destruction.  In  bondage — 
Bound  in  the  fetters  of  the  law,  after 
the  grace  and  glory  in  the  law  have  de¬ 
parted.  Her  children — The  Judaistic 
apostles  and  their  Galatian  converts. 
Of  the  clause  this  Agar  is  mount 
Sinai  in  Arabia,  we  have  given  what 
we  conceive  to  be  the  true  interpre¬ 
tation.  But,  1.  By  another  reading, 
adopted  by  Lightfoot,  the  first  words 
of  the  verse  are,  For  the  mountain  Sinai 
is  in  Arabia.  The  phrase  in  Arabia,  is 
then  made  to  signify  that  the  connexion 
between  Hagar  and  Sinai  is,  that  both 
are  Arabian.  To  the  Sinaitic  peninsula, 
apparently,  Hagar  fled,  Gen.  xvi,  7-14. 
The  Arabians  are  called  sons  of  Hagar, 
(Baruch  iii,  23 ;)  Ilagar’s  name  is  illustri¬ 
ous  in  Arabian  legends ;  and  Arab  tribes 
are  called  Hagarenes,  Psalm  lxxxiii,  7, 
and  Hagarites,  1  Cliron.  v,  19.  Hence 
Hagar  represents  Sinai,  as  both  being 
Arabian.  All  this  is  far-fetched  and 
feeble.  2.  Clnysostom  is  quoted  as  say¬ 
ing  that  Hagar  means  rock,  and  thus 
Sinai  is  named  Hagar — rock  in  the  Ara¬ 
bic  language.  Hence  it  is  said,  that  in 
Arabia,  means  in  the  language  of  Ara¬ 
bia  ;  and  so  St.  Paul  identifies  Hagar 
and  Sinai  here  by  oneness  of  name. 
But,  first,  there  is  no  sufficient  proof  that 
Sinai  was  called  Hagar  in  Arabic,  and 


e  Jerusalem  which  is  above  is  free, 
which  is  the  mother  of  us  all. 

Rev.  3.  12 ;  21.  2,  10. _ 

the  word  Hagar  does  not  etymologi¬ 
cally  signify  rock,  but  one  who  flees ,  be¬ 
ing  cognate  with  hegira,  the  term  for 
the  flight  of  Mohammed.  The  word  for 
rock  is  not  Ilagar,  but  Chagar.  See 
Lightfoot’s  learned  dissertation. 

2G.  Jerusalem.  .  .above — Literally, 
the  above ,  or  upper  Jerusalem.  The  samo 
Greek  phrase  Josephus  uses  to  desig¬ 
nate  the  upper  city  of  Jerusalem ;  and  a 
parallel  phrase,  the  upper  city,  was  used 
in  Athens  to  designate  the  Acropolis. 
Paul  does  not,  however,  mean  the  up¬ 
per  part  of  the  then  present  Jerusalem, 
but  a  spiritual  Jerusalem,  higher ,  not 
only  than  the  material  one,  but  higher 
than  the  conceptual  one, — the  old  the¬ 
ocracy  ;  —  namely,  the  new  theocra¬ 
cy,  the  Church  of  the  New  Testament. 
This  is  called  in  Hebrews  xii,  22,  the 
heavenly  Jerusalem:  not  because  it  is 
heavenly  in  locality,  but  heavenly  in  na¬ 
ture.  And  in  Rev.  xxi,  John  beholds 
the  glorified  counterpart  of  this  earth¬ 
ly-heavenly  Jerusalem  descend  from 
heaven,  and  identify  itself  with  the 
earthly-heavenly  Jerusalem,  (the  beloved 
city  of  Rev.  xx,  9.)  In  Paul’s  allegory 
the  correspondent  item  to  Sinai  is  not 
formally  supplied,  and,  as  the  above  sy¬ 
nopsis  shows,  Zion  seems  to  be  needed. 
Yet  St.  Paul  skips  it,  really  because, 
though  needed  to  make  out  a  regular 
programme,  it  is  not  needed  for  the 
complete  exhibition  of  the  truth.  AVie- 
seler  furnishes  in  good  Greek  the  apos¬ 
tle’s  “missing  link”  (as  quoted  by 
Schmoller)  thus:  “The  second  cove¬ 
nant  from  mount  Zion,  bearing  children 
unto  freedom,  which  is  Sarah.  For 
Zion  is  a  mountain  in  the  Land  of  Prom¬ 
ise,  and  corresponds  to  Jerusalem,  for 
she  is  free  with  her  children.”  Is 
free — Her  legal  bonds  are  fallen  off. 
She  is  like  Sarah,  whose  name  meant 
princess — free  and  queenly.  Mother 
of  us  all— Not  a  barren  princess,  as 
Sarai  was,  but  a  miraculously  fertile 
mother  of  countless  free  and  princely 
sons.  They  are  the  very  progeny  pre¬ 
dicted  by  Jehovah,  to  be  as  numerous 
I  as  the  stars  of  heaven. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


237 


27  For  it  is  written, f  Rejoice,  thou 
barren  that  bearest  not;  break  forth 
and  cry,  thou  that  travailest  not: 
for  the  desolate  hath  many  more 
children  than  she  which  hath  a  hus¬ 
band.  28  Now  we,  brethren,  as 
Isaac  was,  are  s  the  children  of 
promise.  29  But  as  then  hhe  that 
was  born  after  the  flesh  persecuted 

./"Isa.  54. 1. - g  Acts  3.  25 ;  Rom.  9.  8 ;  chap.  8. 29. 

A  Gen.  21.  9. - ^Chap.  5.  11;  6.  12. 

27.  Written  —  St.  Paul  adorns  his 
allegory  with  a  choice  gem  from  old 
prophetic  poetry.  Isa.  liv,  1.  The  pas¬ 
sage  is  clearly  Messianic,  and  is  spoken 
in  view  of  the  gathering  in  of  the  Gen¬ 
tiles,  verse  3.  She  who  was  barren, 
and  that  travailed  not,  has  now  a  nu¬ 
merous  offspring.  The  barrenness,  ac¬ 
cording  to  Paul,  is  the  effeteness  of  fall¬ 
en  Judaism,  and  the  new  fertility  is  the 
life  and  increase  of  new  Christianity. 

28.  We,  brethren — The  direct  ap¬ 
plication  of  the  allegory  to  the  present 
company .  W e — N ot  as  seeking  circum¬ 
cision,  but  as  reposing  faith  in  Christ. 
As  Isaac . . .  children  of  promise  — 
Isaac’s  miraculous  generation  is  type  of 
our  miraculous  regeneration.  The  prom¬ 
ise  of  his  birth,  first  made  by  Jehovah 
to  Abraham,  is  part  of  the  covenant  by 
which  man  is  regenerate  through  Christ. 

29.  Then  .  .  .  now  —  The  persecu¬ 
tion  of  Isaac  by  Ishmael  is  identical 
with  the  persecution  of  faithful  Christ¬ 
ians  by  circumcised  Jews  and  Judaists. 
Isaac  and  the  faithful  Christians  are 
alike  the  born  after  the  Spirit,  as 
Ishmael  and  the  Judaists  are  alike  the 
born  after  the  flesh.  And  this 
verifies  the  statement  of  our  note  on 
Rom.  ix,  8.  Persecuted,  seems,  at 
first,  to  be  a  severe  word  for  mocking, 
(in  Gen.  xxi,  9,)  describing  Ishmael’s 
demeanour  to  Isaac ;  and  still  more  for 
the  Hebrew,  which  is  “  laughing,”  and 
the  Septuagint,  which  is  “  playing.” 
But,  somehow,  it  was  Ishmaelite  play¬ 
ing  ;  arousing  the  indignation  of  Sarah, 
confirmed  by  Jehovah  ;  was  the  t}rpe  of 
future  wars  between  the  two  races, 
and,  as  here,  the  type,  of  the  persecu¬ 
tion  of  the  good  by  the  bad. 

30.  Nevertheless — In  spite  of  the 


him  that  teas  horn  after  the  Spir¬ 
it,  ‘even  so  it  is  now.  30  Never¬ 
theless  what  saith  k  the  Scripture  ? 
1  Cast  out  the  bondwoman  and  her 
son:  for  mthe  son  of  the  bond- 
woman  shall  not  be  heir  with  the 
son  of  the  free  woman.  31  So  then, 
brethren,  we  are  not  children  of  the 
bondwoman,  n  but  of  the  free. 

k  Chap.  3.  8,  22. - 1  Gen.  21. 10, 12. - m  John 

8.  35. - n  John  8.  36;  chap.  5.  1, 13. 

apparent  triumph  of  these  persecutions. 
Cast  out — It  is  the  destiny  of  the  per¬ 
secutor  to  be  rejected  and  reprobated. 
The  bondwoman — The  rejected  Jew¬ 
ish  Church.  Her  son  —  The  converts 
they  make  in  Galatia  to  circumcision. 
Shall  not  be  heir — Shall  not  inherit 
the  kingdom  of  God  by  faith.  Free 
woman — The  New  Testament  Church¬ 
es  ;  free  because  released  from  the 
heavy  yoke  of  Judaism. 

31.  So  then — Wherefore.  That  is, 
it  results  as  an  inference  from  all  this 
that  we,  uncircumcised  believers.  The 
bondwoman  —  In  the  Greek  the  arti¬ 
cle  is  significantly  omitted  from  bond- 
woman,  but  inserted  before  free. 
There  are  many  Churches  in  bondage, 
but  there  is  but  one  Church  free 
through  Christ.  The  various  false  re¬ 
ligions,  even  though  they  had  not  cir¬ 
cumcision,  had  still  severer  rites,  (see 
note  v,  12,)  and  quite  as  cumbrous 
rituals;  Christianity  is  the  free  re¬ 
ligion  of  the  heart.  Professor  Light- 
foot  gives  in  illustration  an  allegory  on 
the  same  passage  of  Old  Testament 
history  by  the  eminent  Jewish  theolo¬ 
gian  of  Alexandria,  the  contemporary 
(though  earlier)  of  Paul,  Philo. 

Philo  makes  the  allegory  illustrate 
the  principle  that  divine  wisdom,  in 
order  to  be  fruitful  to  the  human  soul, 
must  be  aided  by  human  science ;  a 
true  and  valuable  doctrine.  Abraham 
is  the  human  soul ;  he  marries  Sarah, 
whose  name,  signifying  “princess,” 
shows  that  she  represents  divine  wis¬ 
dom  ;  but  the  marriage  is  barren.  Divine 
wisdom  advises  that  he  form  connec¬ 
tion  with  Hagar,  who  comes  from 
Egypt,  the  land  of  science,  and  whose 
name  —  “  sojourning  ”  —  indicates  the 


238 


GALATIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  Y. 

QTAKD  fast  therefore  in  athe 
iO  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath 
made  us  free,  and  be  not  entangled 
again  bwith  the  yoke  of  bondage. 

a  John  8.  32 ;  Romans  6.  18. - 1)  Acts  15.  10; 

human  and  transitory.  Then,  first, 
this  marriage  is  fruitful,  and  the  result 
is,  that  the  barren  becomes  more  pro¬ 
lific  than  the  previously  fruitful. 

Professor  Lightfoot  shows  several 
points  in  which  Philo’s  allegory  is  in¬ 
ferior;  but  one  is  most  important  of 
all;  which  is,  that  while  Philo’s  al¬ 
legory  is  unbased,  Paul’s  is  really  con¬ 
tained  in  the  history.  The  correspond¬ 
ences  in  Philo  are  imaginary,  while 
in  Paul  they  are  real. 

CHAPTER  Y. 

1.  Therefore  —  The  separation  of 
this  verse  from  the  last  chapter  is  un¬ 
fortunate,  as  this  therefore  closely 
connects  it  therewith.  Ye  are  free 
sons  of  the  free,  stand  fast  therefore 
in  freedom.  Liberty  —  From  the  old 
ritualism.  It  is  not  the  high  freedom 
from  sin,  guilt,  and  depravity,  wrought 
by  Christ,  which  is  here  specified;  but 
the  emancipation  from  old  Judaism. 
This  verse  is  perplexed  with  various 
readings,  yielding  slightly  different 
meanings.  With  liberty  Christ  has  made 
us  free ,  stand  fast  therefore.  Or,  unto  or 
for  freedom  Christ  has  made  us  free. 
Neither  of  these  is  to  be  preferred  to 
the  received  translation.  Stand  fast. 
— Opposed  both  to  being  moved  and 
to  bowing  down.  Keep  both  a  firm  po¬ 
sition  and  an  erect  attitude ;  firm ,  as 
not  being  displaced  by  the  onset  of  your 
assailants ;  erect ,  as  not  bowing  to  their 
yoke.  Yoke — Like  bondwoman  in 
chap,  iv,  30,  is  without  the  definite  ar¬ 
ticle.  The  Galatians  had  been  mostly 
Gentiles ;  yet  St.  Paul’s  again  implies 
that  their  fall  into  a  Judaism  is  simply 
a  relapse  into  a  ritualism  now  null,  and 
essentially  to  be  identified  with  the 
heathen  ritualism  they  had  left.  Note, 
chap,  iv,  31.  Dead  Judaism  and  eth- 
nicism  are  equally  Christless.  And 
that — the  conclusion  and  seal  of  the 
whole  argument — is  the  basis  of  the 
following  closing  exhortation. 


2  Behold,  I  Paul  say  unto  you, 
that  cif  ye  be  circumcised,  Christ 
shall  profit  you  nothing.  3  For  I 
testify  again  to  every  man  that  is 
circumcised,  dthat  he  is  a  debtor 

chap.  2.  4;  4.  9. - c  Acts  15.  1. - d  Chap.  3.  10. 


PART  THIRD. 

EXHORTATION  TO  STEAD¬ 
FASTNESS  IN  CHRISTIAN 

DUTY,  v,  2— vi,  18. 

1.  Admonitory  warnings  to  main¬ 
tain  their  freedom  from  circumcis¬ 
ion  and  legalism,  2-12. 

2.  Behold,  I  Paul — The  apostle 

throws  all  his  emphasis  and  all  his  au¬ 
thority  into  this  warning.  If  this  fail, 
his  Galatians  are  lost.  They  would  re¬ 
lapse  into  Ebionism,  and  in  all  proba¬ 
bility  become  an  apostate  people.  If 
ye  be  circumcised — Become  circum¬ 
cised;  that  is,  as  was  now  required 
as  necessary  to  justification.  Shall — 
Will.  Profit  you  nothing — Seeing 
ye  seek  justification  not  from  Him,  but 
from  the  Law.  Ye  are  Jews  rejecting 
the  Messiah.  As  Chrysostom  (quoted 
in  Greek,  by  Alford)  says:  “He  that 
becomes  circumcised,  does  it  for  fear 
that  he  cannot  be  justified  without  the 
law,  and  so  disbelieves  the  power  of 
grace ;  but  the  disbeliever  in  grace  re¬ 
ceives  no  salvation  from  grace.”  So 
in  Acts  xv,  1 :  “  Certain  men  said,  Ex¬ 
cept  ye  be  circumcised  after  the  man¬ 
ner  of  Moses,  ve  cannot  be  saved.” 
This  was  a  very  different  sort  of  cir¬ 
cumcision  from  that  of  Timothy  by 
Paul,  Acts  xvi,  3 ;  a  mere  physical  act 
performed  in  order  to  remove  obstacles 
to  his  success  in  the  ministry. 

3.  Debtor  to  do  the  whole  law 
— Debtor,  or  obligated  thus,  because  the 
act  of  circumcision  made  the  man  not 
a  “proselyte  of  the  gate,”  but  a  “prose¬ 
lyte  of  righteousness,”  thereby  hiking 
upon  him  all  the  obligations  of  the  Jew, 
rejecting  Christ,  (Acts  vi,  1,)  and  so 
making  him  debtor,  not  only  to  the 
ritual  law,  but  the  moral.  So  Gal.  iii,  10, 
“  As  many  as  are  of  the  works  of  the 
law  are  under  the  curse:  for  it  is  writ¬ 
ten,  Cursed  is  every  one  that  continueth 
not  in  all  things  which  are  written  in 
the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them.” 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  V. 


239 


to  do  the  whole  law.  4  e  Christ  is 
become  of  no  effect  unto  you,  who¬ 
soever  of  you  are  justified  by  the 
law;  fye  are  fallen  from  grace. 
5  For  we  through  the  Spirit  s  wait 
for  the  hope  of  righteousness  by 
faith.  6  For  h  in  Jesus  Christ 
neither  circumcision  availeth  any 

e  Rom.  9.  31,32;  chap.  2.  21. - /*Heb.  12. 15. - 

ff  Rom.  8.  24,25;  2  Tim.  4.8. - h  1  Cor. 7.19;  chap. 

I  28;  6.  15;  Col.  3.  11. - i  1  Thess.  1.  3;  James 

- - « 

4.  Christ... of  no  effect — Literal 
Creek,  Ye  are  abolished  from  Christ;  a 
very  energetic  phrase.  It  states  in  very 
strong  language  the  fact,  that,  how¬ 
ever  true  their  previous  Christian  faith 
and  character,  the  act  of  circumcision, 
as  required  by  the  Judaists,  involved 
a  complete  apostasy,  and  loss  of  both 
justification  and  regeneration.  Fallen 
from  grace — There  is  no  grace  from 
Christ  for  you,  and  you  are  under  the 
law  and  complete  condemnation. 

5.  Wait  for  the  hope — Hope,  here, 
means  the  object  hoped  for ;  the  hope- 
object.  See  notes,  Rom.  viii,  24;  Col.  i,  5 ; 
Titus  ii,  13;  Heb.  vi,  18.  Note  also  on 
promise,  iii,  14.  Righteousness — As 
this  righteousness  is  waited  for ,  many 
commentators  understand  it  of  the  final 
justification  at  the  judgment. 

6.  For — We  as  Christians  wait  this 

faith- justification  for  the  following 

reason.  Nor  uncircumcision — The 

freedom  from,  or  avoidance  of,  circum¬ 

cision  will  not  justify  us,  nor  the  per¬ 
formance  of  circumcision  as  a  mere 

bodily  act  condemn  us.  Worketh  by- 
love — In  Paul’s  view  the  true  faith 
always  truly  worketh.  Good  works 
are  the  direct  and  immediate  effect  of 
true  faith.  The  work  is  the  test  of 
the  trueness  of  the  faith.  The  faith 
justifies  the  man  before  God,  as  by  it 
the  man  comes  into  that  position  by 
which  justifying  grace  can  flow  from 
God  upon  him,  (see  notes,  Rom.  iv,  6 ; 
iv,  24  ;  vi,  1-23  ;  x,  10,)  and  works ,  by 
their  evidence,  justify  him  as  being  a 
man  of  true  faith.  By  love — A  faith 
might  work  evil  through  hate ;  but  holy 
faith  works  good  by  love.  For  when 
we  have  true  faith,  God’s  approving 
Spirit  pours  love  into  the  heart,  pre¬ 
disposing  to  works  of  all  good. 


thing,  nor  uncircumcision ;  but 
1  faith  which  worketh  by  love. 
7  Ye  kdid  run  well; * 4 5 6 * * * *  11  who  did 
hinder  you  that  ye  should  not  obey 
the  truth  ?  8  This  persuasion  com- 
eth  not  of  him  "Ghat  calleth  you. 
9  nA  little  leaven  leaveneth  the 
whole  lump.  10  T  have  confi- 

2.  18,  20,  22. - kl  Cor.  9.  24. - 1 Chap.  3.  1. - 

1  Or,  who  did  drive,  you  back. - m  Chnp.  1. 6. 

- n  1  Cor.  5.  6;  15.  33. - o2  Cor.  2.  3;  8.  22. 

7.  Did  run  well — Their  faith  was 
true,  their  love  was  sincere,  their 
works  were  good.  The  term  run  is 
the  apostle’s  favourite  metaphor  of  a 
Christian  race.  He  whose  spirit  is 
full  of  faith,  and  heart  is  full  of  love, 
will  run  that  race  with  divine  vigour. 
Hinder — The  Greek  is  a  military  term 
designating  the  impeding  the  march 
of  an  army  by  breaking  up  bridges  and 
roads.  The  Galatian  Christian  army 
was  marching  at  rapid  rate  when  old 
J udaism  blocked  their  course. 

8.  This  persuasion — The  Greek  for 
persuasion  is  another  form  of  the 
word  faith,  and  is  here  used  as  an  an¬ 
tithesis  to  the  true  faith  named  above. 
It  may,  like  the  English  persuasion, 
be  taken  in  an  active  or  passive  mean¬ 
ing  ;  that  is,  it  may  mean  this  proselyt¬ 
ing  you  by  Judaists,  or  this  credulity 
in  believing  Judaism.  Very  clearly  it 
here  means  the  former  of  the  two,  as 
referring  to  the  who,  and  the  did  hin¬ 
der  of  the  last  verse.  The  who  is 
the  same  as  the  he  that  troubleth  in 
verse  10.  The  did  hinder  is  the  pres¬ 
ent  persuasion  to  become  circumcised, 
coming  from  the  who.  And  this  who 
is  the  little  leaven  of  the  next  verse. 
Him. .  .calleth  you — God,  or  Christ. 
Note,  verse  i,  6.  The  present  term  im¬ 
plies  that  God  is  in  permanent  act  of 
calling  the  Christian.  The  whole  pas¬ 
sage  implies,  that  such  calling  neither 
secures  the  necessary  first  obedience 
of  the  called  nor  his  perseverance.  In 
that  sense,  no  calling  of  God  is  an  ‘‘ef¬ 
fectual  calling.” 

9.  A  little  leaven — St.  Paul  now 
hints  from  what  quarter  this  Judaistic 
persuasion  comes.  It  seems  to  have 
been  derived  from  a  single  person, 
(who,  verse  7 ;  he,  verse  1 0,)  aided  by 


240 


GALATIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


deuce  in  you  through  the  Lord, 
that  ye  will  be  none  otherwise 
minded:  but  rhe  that  troubleth 
you  shall  bear  his  judgment,  who¬ 
soever  he  be.  11  rAnd  I,  breth- 

V  Chap.  1.  7. <7  2  Cor.  10.  6. r  Chap.  6.  12. 

- «1  Cor.  15.  30;  chap.  4.  29;  6.  17. 

a  small  party  at  first,  (they,  verse  12,) 
who  produced  the  trouble.  This  is  so 
obvious  that  we  wonder  that  the  great 
body  of  commentators  refer  the  leav¬ 
en  to  circumcision,  on  the  ground  that 
circumcision,  though  a  little  matter, 
would  infect  their  whole  religious 
state.  Leaven  —  See  note  on  1  Cor. 
v,  6.  The  whole  lump  —  Small  in 
numbers  as  was  the  party  originating 
the  Judaistic  schism  in  the  Galatian 
Church,  it  was  in  danger  of  converting 
the  whole  body,  as  leaven  impregnates 
the  whole  loaf. 

10.  I .  . .  but  —  Mark  the  antithesis 
of  this  verse.  I  have  confidence  in 
you,  the  lump ;  but  woe  to  the  little 
leaven,  the  disturbers.  Paul  says  this 
partly  to  soften  his  tone  to  the  Church, 
and  partly  to  induce  a  division  between 
the  Church  and  its  seducers.  Have 
confidence — His  purelv  personal  feel¬ 
ing,  expressed  as  strongly  as  he  was 
able.  It  expressed  no  inspired  assur¬ 
ance  that  they  would  prove  true,  nor 
any  theological  dogma  that  all  Christ¬ 
ians  do  persevere.  In  you — Waver¬ 
ing  as  you  show  yourselves.  Through 
the  Lord — Literally,  in  the  Lord.  Same 
sense  as  in  Eph.  vi,  1.  Confidence  in 
. . .  the  Lord,  is  simply  not  inspired  but 
Christian  confidence.  Had  there  been 
a  failure  it  would  have  proved  St.  Paul’s 
human  fallibility,  but  would  not  have 
disparaged  his  inspiration  or  apostle- 
ship.  Par  less  does  it  imply  that  the 
Lord  inevitably  secures  the  persever¬ 
ance  of  all  who  put  their  faith  in  him. 
Otherwise — Than  your  acceptance  of 
my  gospel.  He  that  troubleth  you 
— Not  necessarily,  but  probably,  the  one 
leader  and  head  of  the  schism.  Bear 
his  judgment — Divine  condemnation, 
which,  for  so  grievous  a  sin,  would  be 
grievous  to  bear.  Whosoever  he  be 
— Even  though  he  came  from  Jerusa¬ 
lem  and  pretended  to  be  commissioned 
by  J  ames  the  apostle.  All  this  is  too 


ren,  if  I  yet  preach  circumcision, 

8  why  do  I  yet  suffer  persecution  ? 
then  is  lthe  offence  of  the  cross 
ceased.  12  UI  would  they  were 
even  cut  off  r  which  trouble  you. 

1 1  Cor.  1.  23. - u  Josh.  7.  25 ;  1  Cor.  5. 13 ;  chap. 

1.  8,  9. - v  Acts  15.  1,  2,  24. 

pointed  and  severe  not  to  indicate  an 
individual. 

11.  And  I,  brethren — In  antithesis 
to  the  above  whoever.  If  I  yet 
preach  circumcision — As  charged 
by  this  whosoever.  The  original 
charge  was  probably  at  first  based  on 
the  case  of  Timothy.  See  notes  on  Acts 
xvi,  3  and  Gal.  ii,  3.  Paul’s  policy  of 
becoming,  in  nonessentials,  all  things 
to  all  men — even  a  Jew  to  Jews — treat¬ 
ing  the  mere  act  of  circumcision,  where 
it  involved  no  vital  concession,  as  ad¬ 
missible — enabled  the  Judaist  to  pretend 
that  in  the  other  Pauline  Churches 
Paul  preached  circumcision.  Yet  — 
Since  my  conversion,  as  I  did  before 
my  conversion.  Why... suffer  per¬ 
secution — His  endurances  and  scars 
were  ample  proof  that  he  was  a  most 
consistent  and  uncompromising  oppo¬ 
nent  of  the  foundation  rite  of  Judaism. 
Yet — Continually,  while  I  am  continu¬ 
ally  preaching  circumcision.  Then 
— In  case  I  preach  justification  by  cir¬ 
cumcision  I  make  the  cross  a  mere  ap¬ 
pendage.  Offence . . .  ceased  —  There 
is  no  ground  for  all  these  hostilities  of 
Judaism  toward  me.  The  attacks  of 
these  Judaizers  are  my  defence.  They 
persecute  me.  and,  therefore,  they  are 
untrue  when  they  say  that  I  preach 
circumcision  elsewhere  than  in  Galatia. 

12.  I  am  so  far  from  preaching  cir¬ 
cumcision,  that  I  would  they  might 
inflict  upon  themselves  excision.  There 
is  clearly  an  antithesis  between  the 
circumcision  and  the  excision ;  but  the 
question  is,  what  excision  is  meant  ?  A 
large  number  of  modern  expositors  un¬ 
derstand,  with  our  English  translators, 
excision  from  the  Church.  And  Bei  gel 
sustains  the  antithesis  under  this  inter¬ 
pretation  in  words  which  we  shall 
leave  in  their  original  Latin :  “  Quern- 
admodum  preputium  per  circumcisio- 
nem  abscinditur,  ut  quiddam,  quo  carere 
decet  Israelitam;  ita  isti  tanquam  pre- 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  V. 


241 


13  For,  brethren,  ye  have  been 
called  unto  liberty;  only  w use  not 
liberty  for  an  occasion  to  the 

w  1  Corinthians  8.  9;  1  Peter  2. 16;  2  Peter 
2.  19;  Jude  4. 

putium  rejiculum  de  communione  sanc¬ 
torum  rejicientur  et  anathema  erunt.” 

But  those  who  best  knew  the  true 
meaning  of  the  Greek  term  for  this  ex¬ 
cision — the  old  Greek  commentators — 
give  another  sense  of  the  word;  a  sense 
which  the  decency  which  Christianity 
has  created  in  modern  times  induces 
many  to  believe  that  the  apostle  could 
hardly  have  intended.  The  same  Greek 
word  is  in  the  Septuagint  version  of 
Deut.  xxiii,  1,  for  one  made  a  eunuch. 
The  rite  of  circumcision  undoubtedly 
symbolized  the  cutting  olf  the  sensual 
from  our  nature;  and  it  is  wonderful 
that  among  some  heathen  the  same  rite 
was  so  increased  in  severity,  perhaps 
with  a  similar  meaning,  at  first,  as  to 
produce  a  complete,  relentless  emascu¬ 
lation.  Now  in  Galatia  it  was  probably 
no  more  repulsive  to  name  this  excision 
than  to  speak  of  circumcision.  The  city 
of  Pessinus,  capital  of  Galatia,  was  the 
seat  of  the  worship  of  Cybele,  whose 
priests  mutilated  themselves  as  a  relig¬ 
ious  rite.  In  literature,  in  public  dis¬ 
course,  and  in  conversation,  the  thought 
and  the  name  were  familiar.  St.  Paul, 
therefore,  in  language  at  that  time  en¬ 
tirely  inoffensive,  indignantly  preferred 
that  these  circumcisionists  should  go 
the  whole  extent,  and  turn  excisionists, 
priests  of  Cybele,  and  the  salvation  of 
his  Church  would  no  longer  be  endan¬ 
gered.  Circumcision  was  now  as  use¬ 
less  as  this  excision;  both  had  better 
be  abandoned  to  pagans,  and  Christians 
abstain  from  and  contemn  both  alike. 
And  this  indignant  expression  of  con¬ 
tempt  for  both  Paul  now  foll"\vs  with 
a  lesson  of  Christian  spiritual  purity. 

2.  But  this  freedom  from  circum¬ 
cision,  legalism,  and  ritualism  must 
not  pass  into  license,  13-26. 

Now  follows  a  beautiful  section  on 
Christian  morals.  Absolved  from  old 
stereotype  forms,  let  your  Christian  ho¬ 
liness  be  based  on  pure  and  simple  right. 
Yet  not  natural  and  economic  rectitude 
merely,  but  love,  under  aid  of  the  di- 

Vol.  IV.— 16 


flesh,  but  x  by  love  serve  one  an¬ 
other.  14  For  all  the  law  is  ful¬ 
filled  in  one  word,  even  in  this ; 

tel  Cor.  9.  19;  chap.  6.  2. - yMatt.  7.  12; 

22.  40;  James  2.  8. 

vine  Spirit,  will  lift  you  into  the  region 
of  a  divine  purity.  And  then  St.  Paul 
draws  us,  under  the  contrast  of  spirit 
and  flesh,  two  opposing  pictures.  The 
one  is  the  summation  of  Christian  vir¬ 
tues,  the  other  of  fleshly  vices.  Look 
first  on  this  picture  and  then  on  that, 
and  see  how  a  true  Christian  morality 
in  the  midst  of  heathenism  is  shaped, 
and  how  a  true  Christian  life  may  be 
lived.  Ages  may  progress,  civilization 
may  advance,  the  same  virtues  may  be 
variously  modified,  but  the  virtues  them¬ 
selves  are  eternal,  and  the  character 
formed  by  them  is  truly  immortal. 

13.  Called  unto  liberty  —  From 
the  burdensome  artificialities  of  the 
old  system  ye  are  emancipated  into  a 
pure  and  simple  heart-deep  religion. 
Use  not  liberty.  .  .to  the  flesh— St. 
Paul’s  liberty  offers  no  man  an  exemp¬ 
tion  from  the  law  of  right.  Let  no 
man  say,  that  under  Paul’s  gospel  I  am 
lawless,  and  nothing  I  do  is  sin.  Such 
make  their  liberty  an  occasion,  that 
is,  means,  or  chance,  or  pretext,  for  in¬ 
dulging  the  flesh.  By  flesh  here  is 
meant  all  opposed  to  the  spirit;  all 
that  is  unholy  in  man,  whether  of  mind 
or  body.  It  does  not  imply  that  all 
evil  lies  in  matter  or  in  the  body.  But 
as  flesh  is  the  transitory  element  of 
man,  so  the  word  is  used  for  all  that  is 
low,  earthly,  or  unholy.  By  love 
serve  —  As  faith  works  by  love,  so 
actions  produced  by  love  have  a  true 
freedom  in  them.  If  we  serve  an¬ 
other  from  love  we  feel  that  in  that 
service  we  are  free. 

14.  Law.  .  .love — From  the  law  of 
Moses  we  are  emancipated  into  the 
law  of  love.  While  that  love  in¬ 
spires  us  to  run  in  the  way  of  the  law, 
there  is  a  perfect  unity  of  love,  law, 
and  dbexty.  We  act  not  from  com¬ 
pulsion  of  law ;  we  are  in  that  sense 
not  under  law ;  because  our  heart 
freely  and  spontaneously  runs  with  the 
law.  Yet  if,  when  our  love  grows 
cold,  or  when  temptation  appeals  to 


242 


GALATIANS. 


A.T).  57. 


*Thou  slialt  love  thy  neighbour  as 
thyself.  15  But  if  ye  bite  and  de- 

z  Lev.  19.  18;  Matt. 


our  lower  nature,  we  sin  and  grow  dis¬ 
cordant.  the  law  revives  and  we  die. 

0 

It  is  when  our  hearts  and  will  vary 
from  the  law,  because  not  springing 
from  love,  that  we  feel  first  the  slavery, 
and  then  the  condemnation,  of  law. 
Fulfilled — Not  summed  up,  but  obeyed 
and  carried  out.  When  Paul  says  that 
all  the  law  is  fulfilled  in  love  to  our 
neighbour,  we  think,  contrary  to  most 
commentators,  that  he  means  all  the 
duties  of  man  to  man.  This  is  not 
“arbitrary”  limitation,  for  it  is  in  the 
sphere  of  mutual  human  duties  (one 
another,  vv.  13  and  15)  that  Paul  is 
speaking.  So,  also,  in  Pom.  xiii,  8-11. 
Paul  there  enumerates  several  com¬ 
mandments,  and  then  adds,  that  if 
there  is  any  other  commandment, 
it  is  briefly  comprehended  in  this 
saying,  namely,  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbour  as  thyself.  Of  course  in 
that  passage,  as  in  this,  we  must  un¬ 
derstand  Paul  as  speaking  within  the 
scope  of  the  second  table  of  the  Deca¬ 
logue.  It  is  no  doubt  true,  that  the 
holy  love  which  in  a  man  fulfils  one 
table,  will  also  fulfil  the  other.  But 
that  is  what  Paul  is  here  neither  saying 
nor  assuming.  Love  thy  neighbour 
as  thyself — Prom  this  clause  we  may 
assume,  1.  That  it  is  right  to  love 
thyself.  Self-love ,  not  exaggerated 
into  selfishness,  is  right.  Such  a  renun¬ 
ciation  of  self  as  does  not  desire  one's 
own  safety,  happiness,  wellbeing,  pres¬ 
ent  and  eternal,  forms  no  part  of  re¬ 
ligion.  2.  We  owe  duties  to  ourselves 
which  others  do  not  owe  to  us.  We 
cannot  demand  that  others  should  per¬ 
form  for  us  those  duties  which  we  owe 
to  ourselves.  Such  a  demand  would, 
on  our  part,  be  selfish  and  tyrannical. 
3.  We  owe  relative  duties  to  wife, 
husband,  parents,  children,  which  we 
cannot  demand  others  to  perform  for 
us  and  in  our  stead.  We  must  love 
our  neighbour  so  well  as  not  to  demand 
that  he  perform  for  us  those  duties  that 
belong  to  us.  We  must  leave  him  time 
and  liberty  to  perform  those  duties  for 


rour  one  another,  take  heed  that  j  e 
be  not  consumed  one  of  another. 


22.  39 ;  Rom.  13.  8,  9. 

himself  and  his  which  belong  to  him. 
4.  Reciprocally,  what  we  do  not  right¬ 
fully,  and  by  this  constitution  of  things 
demand,  of  our  neighbour,  our  neigh¬ 
bour  cannot  demand  from  us.  W'e  do 
not  claim  to  love  him  better  than  our¬ 
selves;  and  if  we  so  love  him  as  to  re¬ 
lease  him  from  performing  these  strict¬ 
ly  personal  duties  for  us,  we  may  re¬ 
lieve  ourselves  from  performing  his  for 
him.  If  we  claim  to  reduce  the  scale 
of  duties  to  be  performed  by  ourselves 
for  others,  we  must  reduce  the  scale  of 
duties  we  demand  from  others.  We 
adopt  thereby  the  rule  that  is  right 
and  fair  for  all. 

This  love  is  a  moral  principle.  It 
has  different  degrees  of  the  emotional 
in  different  temperaments.  And  when 
expressed  in  intellectual  and  practical 
terms  it  becomes  the  Golden  Rule. 

This  principle  of  love  needs  the 
blessed  Spirit  of  God  to  quicken  it  into 
a  true  life.  Nevertheless  the  law  of 
the  second  table  is  often,  apparently, 
more  completely  fulfilled  by  natural 
men  than  the  law  of  the  first.  There 
are  men  who,  in  practical  life,  are 
just,  fair,  and  benevolent  to  their  fel¬ 
low-man,  but  who  are  little  reverent, 
grateful,  or  devout  to  God,  their  true 
benefactor.  Judged  by  man,  they  are 
all  that  is  right;  judged  by  God,  what 
are  they? 

15.  But — The  contrast  to  the  love 
of  vv.  13,  14.  Bite.  .  .devour. .  .con¬ 
sumed — Terms  drawn  from  the  habits 
of  wild  beasts  in  the  order  of  climax. 
Bite  designates  the  momentary  out¬ 
bursts;  devour,  the  steady  purpose  of 
injury;  consume,  the  final  result  prob¬ 
able  to  both  parties.  For  all  these  the 
true  remedy  is  a  revival  of  love,  pow¬ 
erful  enough  to  purge  away  angers, 
hates,  and  strifes.  These  strifes  are 
the  results,  not  of  religion,  but  of  the 
want  of  it. 

16-18.  Traces  the  inward  struggle 
between  the  spirit  and  flesh,  with  the 
remedy.  The  remedy  is  given  first, 
verse  16,  and  last,  verse  18. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  V. 


243 


16  This  I  say  then,  aWalk  in  the 
Spirit,  and  2  ye  shall  not  fulfil  the 
lust  of  the  flesh.  17  For  b  the 
flesh  lusteth  against  the  Spirit, 
and  the  Spirit  against  the  flesh: 
and  these  are  contrary  the  one  to 
the  other;  cso  that  ye  cannot  do 


the  things  that  ye  would.  18  But 
d  if  ye  be  led  of  the  Spirit,  ye  are 
not  under  the  law.  10  Now  ethe 
works  of  the  flesh  are  manifest, 
which  are  these ,  adultery,  forni¬ 
cation,  uncleanness,  lasciviousness, 
20  Idolatry,  witchcraft,  hatred, 


aRora  6  12;  8.1,4, 12;  13.  14;  verse  25;  1  Pet. 
2.  11. - 2  Or ,  fulfil  not. - b  Rom.  7.  23;  8.  6,  7. 


o  RomT-  6-14;  8- 2- - elCor. 

3.  3,  Eph.  5.  3;  Col.  3.  o;  James  3.  14,  15. 


16.  This  I  say — On  this  rule  I  lay 
special  emphasis.  W  Ik  in  the  Spirit 
— As  the  true  preventive  of  the  inter¬ 
nal  strife  of  verse  17.  Walk  —  Live 
and  act.  In  the  Spirit — In  obedience 
to  conscience  and  Scripture  enlightened 
by  divine  influence. 

17.  For — Reason  for  the  need  of  so 
walking.  We  now  have  a  passage  sim¬ 
ilar  to  Romans  vii,  14-25,  describing 
the  struggle  alike  of  a  low  religious 
life  and  a  state  of  unregenerate  convic¬ 
tion,  from  which  a  self-surrendry  to 
the  Spirit  delivers  us.  The  Spirit 
against  the  flesh— The  verb  lusteth 
does  not  bear  to  be  repeated  after  Spir¬ 
it  j  but  some  other  verb,  as  stirretli , 
should  be  supplied.  And — Greek,  for. 
So  that — More  expressively,  the  Greek 
is,  in  order  that.  That  is,  the  Spirit 
impels  you  one  way  in  order  that  you 
may  not  do  the  evil  you  would,  and 
the  flesh  impels  you  the  other  way  in 
order  that  you  may  not  do  the  good 
you  would.  Ye  cannot— Greek,  ye 
may  not.  Ye  would — Your  resolu¬ 
tions  for  good  and  your  plans  of  sin  are 
alike  upset.  You  enjoy  neither  relig¬ 
ion  nor  the  world.  The  Lord  does  not 
allow  you  ease  in  sin,  the  world  does 
not  allow  you  enjoyment  in  God.  You 
are  a  miserable  whiffler  both  ways. 
What  is  the  remedy?  St.  Paul  has  al¬ 
ready  given  it.  Walk  in  the  Spirit— 
That  Spirit  is  already  doing  all  for  you 
he  can.  By  his  aids  you  must  do  for 
yourself  what  he  will  not  do  for  you. 
Your  selfhood  —  your  self  as  a  free 
agent  — must  exert  its  energies  and 
put  forth  the  decisive  act  by  which 
you  commit  yourself  to  the  Spirit, 
and  walk  in  the  Spirit.  It  is  this 
free  selfhood  that  Calvinism  ignores, 
and  expects  that  the  Spirit,  by  secur¬ 
ing  power,  will  fix  the  result,  and  thus 


it  destroys  the  very  foundations  of  free 
agency,  probation,  and  responsibility. 
One  man  is  saved  because  the  Spirit 
secures  his  assent  and  salvation ;  an¬ 
other  man  is  damned,  because  the  Spirit 
does  not  secure  his  salvation.  The 
present  passage  clearly  shows  that  be¬ 
tween  the  Spirit  doing  all  he  will,  and 
the  flesh  doing  all  it  can,  it  is  the  free 
agent,  by  aid  of  the  Spirit,  who  decides 
his  own  destiny.  The  Spirit  urges  and 
enables,  but  does  not  secure. 

18.  Led — By  your  submission  and 
following  of  his  drawings.  Not  un¬ 
der  the  law— Not  that  the  obligations 
of  the  moral  law  cease  to  rest  upon 
you,  but  that  by  the  full  accordance  of 
your  heart  with  the  law  you  feel  not 
the  presence  of  the  law. 

Yerses  19-21  present  the  summation 
of  the  works  of  the  flesh,  in  contrast 
with  verses  21-26,  which  present  the 
fruits  of  the  Spirit. 

19.  Works  of  the  flesh  are  mani¬ 
fest— Are  made  by  God  obvious  to  the 
human  conscience ;  yet  St.  Paul  gives 
them  both  to  show  the  shape  of  the 
new  Christian  morality  and  to  impress 
it  upon  the  newly-converted  Galatians, 
lie  doubtless  selects  those  transgres¬ 
sions  to  which  the  Galatians  were  most 
prone.  This  verse  gives  that  list  of 
vices  that  specially  belong  to  the  sen¬ 
sual  nature.  Adultery — The  lawless 
intercourse  of  the  married.  Omitted  by 
the  best  readings.  Fornication  —  Of 
the  unmarried.  Uncleanness  —  Gen¬ 
eral  impurity,  and  violations  of  sexual 
nature.  Lasciviousness  —  Wanton¬ 
ness,  recklessness  of  consequences  in 
sensualities. 

20.  Wicked  supernaturalisms  are  two. 
Idolatry— Worship  of  fictitious  dei¬ 
ties.  Witchcraft — Or  sorcery ,  the  use 
of  spells,  charms,  herbs,  and  manipula- 


244 


GALATIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


variance,  emulations,  wrath,  strife, 
seditions,  heresies,  21  Envyings, 
murders,  drunkenness,  revellings, 
and  such  like:  of  the  which  I  tell 
you  before,  as  I  have  also  told  you 

f\  Cor.  6.  9;  Eph.  5.  5;  Col.  3.  6;  Rev.  22.  15. 

tions,  to  produce  preternatural  effects. 
These  were  based  partly  in  falsehood, 
partly  in  preternatural  power  over  the 
nervous  system,  and  partly  in  demo¬ 
niac  agency.  Their  whole  was  ad¬ 
verse  to  God  and  religion.  Modern 
spiritualism  is  unquestionably  a  devel¬ 
opment  of  the  same  thing.  Where  ex¬ 
periments  are  made  for  scientific  pur¬ 
poses,  to  bring  out  and  publish  to  the 
world  the  truth  in  the  case,  a  proper 
thing  is  done;  but  the  truly  devilish 
indulgence  in  these  secret  workings  re¬ 
sults  in  all  the  base  consequences  for 
which  both  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New  condemns  them.  “  It  is  a  striking 
coincidence,  if  nothing  more,  that  sor¬ 
ceries  were  condemned  by  a  very  strin¬ 
gent  canon  of  the  Council  of  Ancyra, 
the  capital  of  Galatia,  about  A.  D.  314.” 
— Lightfoot. 

Now  follow  nine  vices  of  the  malign 
nature.  Hatred — The  general  oppo¬ 
site  of  love,  and  so  generally  including 
all  the  rest  of  the  nine.  These  follow 
in  a  degree  of  climax  ending  in  mur¬ 
der.  V ariance — Predisposition  to  di  s- 
sent,  even  without  self-interest.  Emu¬ 
lations — Strife  for  selfish  ascendency. 
Wrath — Selfish  strife  carried  to  an  an¬ 
gry  pitch.  Strife — Cliques  and  cabals 
angrily  maintained.  Seditions  —  Ra¬ 
ther,  strife  developed  into  distinct  and 
hostile  parties,  becoming  permanent  in 
heresies,  which  are  not  doctrinal  er¬ 
rors,  but  separations  into  hostile  organ¬ 
izations. 

21.  Envyings — Distinguished  from 
emulation.  The  latter  is  a  desire  to  equal 
or  excel  another ;  the  former  to  reduce 
another  below  ourselves.  Murder — 
The  completion  of  all  the  previous  ma¬ 
lignities.  Next  follow  the  indulgences 
of  appetite.  Revellings — Inclusive  of 
drinking,  feasting,  dancing,  etc.  And 
here  we  record  our  testimony  against 
all  dancing ,  even  in  private  circles.  It 
is  a  branch  of  a  whole  system  of  con- 


in  time  past,  that  fthey  which  do 
such  things  shall  not  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God.  22  But  &the 
fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy, 
peace,  longsuffering,  h  gentleness, 

a  John  15.  2;  Eph.  5.  9. - h  Col.  3. 12;  Jas.  3. 17. 

nected  revelry ,  just  as  card  playing  is  a 
branch  of  a  whole  connected  svstem 
of  venture  and  gambling.  Precisely  to 
the  degree  that  these  prevail,  especially 
with  the  connivance  of  the  Christian 
Church,  will  frivolity,  gliding  into  rev¬ 
elry,  extravagance,  and  irreligion,  pre¬ 
vail.  It  is  never  conducive  to  health, 
and  in  the  best  sanitary  institutions  is 
not  practised.  Told  you  in  time  past 
—  Referring,  doubtless,  to  his  testimo¬ 
nies  in  his  earlier  preaching  in  Galatia. 
They  had  been  warned  already  in  vocal 
announcement;  they  are  now  warned 
in  recorded  testimony.  It  is  a  deep 
and  solemn  warning.  Inherit — Note 
on  1  Cor.  vi,  9. 

22,  23.  The  cluster  of  the  fruits  of 
the  Spirit,  in  reverse  to  the  above 
works  of  the  flesh.  It  is  works  that 
are  produced  by  the  flesh,  and  fruit  by 
the  Spirit;  both  by  influence,  for  it  is 
the  man  himself  who  responsibly  pro¬ 
duces  both.  Rom.  vii,  4. 

There  is  a  grouping  of  these  “fruits” 
into  three  parts.  The  first  includes  the 
inner  graces,  as  love,  joy,  peace ;  the  sec¬ 
ond,  their  action  upon  others,  as  long- 
suffering,  gentleness,  goodness ;  the 
third,  manifold  traits  of  character,  as 
faith,  meekness,  temperance. 

22.  Three  inward  graces.  Love — 
Placed  at  the  head,  (as  hate  is  placed  at 
the  opposite  head  of  malign  emotions, 
verse  20,)  as  fountain  of  all  the  rest. 
Joy  —  Springing  from  sense  of  lovo 
from  and  to  God  and  man.  Peace — 
The  calmer  state  of  quiet  and  perma¬ 
nent  joy.  These  are  the  three  felici¬ 
ties  and  blessednesses  of  Christian  life, 
giving  existence  and  strength  to  all  the 
Christian  virtues. 

Next  come  the  three  active  graces 
of  longsuffering,  gentleness,  and  good¬ 
ness.  Longsuffering — Enduring  from 
others,  as  being  sustained  by  a  central 
love  and  peace  within.  Gentleness 
— A  kindly  di?  position  and  dealing  with 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  Y. 


245 


goodness,  k  faith,  23  Meekness, 
temperance : *  1 *  against  such  there 
is  no  law.  24  And  they  that  are 
Christ’s  mhave  crucified  the  flesh 
with  the  3  affections  and  lusts. 
25  n  If  we  live  in  the  Spirit,  let  us 
also  walk  in  the  Spirit.  26  *Let 

iRom  15.  14. k  1  Cor.  IB.  7. 1  \  Tim.  1.  9. 

- — mRom.  6.  (5;  13.  14;  chap.  2.  20;  1  Pet.  2. 11. 

- — 3  Or,  passions. 

others.  Goodness — In  active  benevo¬ 
lence. 

Next,  the  manifest  qualities  of  char¬ 
acter.  Faith  —  Good-faith,  fidelity, 
trustiness,  and  trueness. 

23.  Meekness — The  reverse  of  ar¬ 
rogance,  gentle,  unassuming  firmness. 
Temperance — Selfcontrol  in  the  grat¬ 
ification  of  appetites.  See  note  on  Acts 
xxiv,  25.  No  law — So  that  those  who 
possess  these  graces  by  the  power  of 
the  Spirit  come  in  collision  with  no 
moral  obligation.  They  are  lawless 
by  doing  without  law  all  that  the  law 
requires. 

We  suppose  that  these  lists  of  vices 
and  virtues  were  prescriptions  careful¬ 
ly  prepared  and  adjusted  to  meet  the 
case  of  the  Galatians,  enumerating  the 
faults  to  which  they  were  liable,  and 
the  graces  by  which  they  might  best 
be  corrected. 

24-26.  From  this  contrast  of  graces 
springing  from  love,  with  works  spring¬ 
ing  from  the  flesh,  Paul  deduces  the  les¬ 
son  placed  at  the  head  of  the  section, 
verse  13.  Keep  free  from  the  law  by 
subduing  the  flesh  through  the  Spirit, 
and  doing  all  the  law  requires,  not  by 
law,  but  by  love. 

24.  They  that  are  Christ’s — Who 
once  gave  themselves  over  to  him,  as 
you,  Galatians,  once  did.  Have  cru¬ 
cified —  The  Greek  aorist  crucified, 
(without  the  have,)  that  is,  when  you 
became  Christ’s.  And  having  so  done 
we  are  bound  not  to  let  the  flesh,  with 
its  affections  and  lusts,  revive  again 
and  produce  works.  And  in  the  next 
verse  he  shows  how. 

25.  In  the  Spirit  —  Rather,  by  the 
Spirit.  If,  at  our  conversion  and  since, 
our  regenerate  life  has  been  by  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Walk  in 
(rather  by)  the  Spirit — Let  our  prac- 


us  not  be  desirous  of  vainglory, 
provoking  one  another,  envying 
one  another. 

CHAPTER  YI. 

RETHREN,  ’if  a  man a  be  over¬ 
taken  in  a  fault,  ye  b  which  are 

n  Rom.  8.  4,  5 ;  ver.  16. - o  Phil.  2.  3. - 1  Or, 

although. - a  Rom.  14.  1;  15.  1;  Heb.  12.  13; 

James  5.  19. - b  1  Cor.  2.  15;  3.  1. 

tice  and  progress  be  by,  not  the  flesh 
but  the  Spirit. 

26.  Vainglory,  provoking .  .  .  en¬ 
vying —  Pointed  allusions  again  to 
these  traits  in  the  Galatians,  which 
were  ruining  their  Christianity. 

CHAPTER  YI. 

3.  Mutual  and  common  Church 
communion,  1-10. 

a.  Mutual  meek  reproof, \  1-5. 

1.  Brethren — Calling  their  affec¬ 
tionate  attention  to  a  new  start  of 
thought,  yet  strictly  connected  with 
the  vainglory  of  the  last  verse  of  the 
last  chapter.  The  new  thought  is, 
Correct  a  transgressing  brother  without 
airing  your  own  superiority.  Man — 
Though  speaking  specially  of  a  mem¬ 
ber  of  a  Christian  Church,  Paul  uses  the 
term  designating  us  as  a  responsible 
being,  carrying  the  term  consistently 
through  verses  3,  4,  5,  and  7.  Over¬ 
taken — Does  this  mean,  overtaken 
by  temptation,  and  inadvertently  in¬ 
volved  in  fault  ?  or,  detected  in  his 
fault  before  he  had  a  chance  to  escape  ? 
The  translators,  by  omitting  the  word 
Kal ,  even ,  and  giving  fault  where  the 
word  should  be  transgression ,  have  pre¬ 
ferred  the  former  sense,  making  it  a 
comparatively  venial  case.  The  truer 
rendering  would  be,  If  a  man  be  even 
unexpectedly  detected  in  the  very  act 
of  transgression.  And  the  real  thought 
is,  Even  in  the  most  unequivocal  case 
of  a  sinner,  reprove  and  restore,  not 
with  a  display  of  vainglory,  but  with 
meekness.  The  word  for  overtaken 
is  npoXyty&y,  foretoken ,  that  is,  taken 
before  he  could  escape.  Spiritual 
— Those  of  v,  16,  18,  25,  who  walk  in, 

and  are  led  by,  the  Spirit.  Even 
these  need  an  admonition  not  only  to 

restore  the  sinner,  but  to  restore  him 


246 


GALATIANS. 


•  A.  D.  57. 


spiritual,  restore  Such  a  one  cin  the 
spirit  of  meekness;  considering 
thyself,  d  lest  thou  also  be  tempted. 
2  eBear  ye  one  another’s  burdens, 
and  so  fulfil  ftlie  law  of  Christ. 


cl  Cor.  4.  21;  2  Thess.  3.  15;  2  Tim.  2.  25. - 

d  1  Cor.  7.  5. - e  Romans  15.  1;  chap.  5.  13; 

1  Thess.  5.  14. 

in  the  right  spirit.  No  earthly  sanc¬ 
tification  places  us  above  the  need  of 
admonition,  or  of  care  over  our  own 
spirit  and  methods.  Considering  thy¬ 
self —  St.  Paul  here  drops  into  the 
singular  number  very  forcibly  to  carry 
the  admonition  to  every  man’s  individ¬ 
ual  breast.  Thou— For  thy  spiritual¬ 
ity  exempts  thee  not  from  temptation ; 
nay,  it  may  have  its  own  to  vainglory 
and  censoriousness.  If  it  be  well  to 
“profess  s.?, notification,”  it  is  still  bet¬ 
ter  to  so  “live  i t  ”  as  that  others  should 
profess  it  for  you.  The  neighbours 
of  John  Brainard  said,  that  “he  was  as 
holy  a  man  as  ever  his  brother  David 
was ;  ”  though  John  is  not  recorded  as 
himself  so  saying.  Restore — Repair, 
reconstruct.  It  is  an  image  taken  from 
any  structure  broken  or  disarranged  by 
mishap.  It  may  refer  to  a  machine 
with  its  parts  disordered,  or  to  a  body 
with  its  limbs  dislocated,  or,  as  here, 
figuratively  to  a  soul  broken  or  dis¬ 
ordered  by  sin.  Tempted  —  St.  Paul 
delicately  avoids  fully  saying,  lest  thou 
also  he  caught  in  a  fall. 

2.  Bear  —  Instead  of  triumphing 
over.  Burdens  —  Frailties,  and  dis¬ 
graces  arising  from  frailties.  Your 
brother  had  his  heavy  liabilities  to  this 
sin;  he  has  now  the  weight  of  shame 
for  his  sin :  instead  of  putting  your 
holy  foot  upon  his  weakness,  put  your 
shoulder  under  his  load,  and  share  half 
or  all  the  pressure.  Thus  you  will  en¬ 
able  him  to  tread  the  straight  and  nar¬ 
row  path  again,  without  deviating  from 
it  yourself.  St.  Paul’s  one  another, 
implies  that  as  fellow  travellers,  each 
carrying  his  knapsack,  we  shall  per¬ 
petually  need  to  lend  each  other  a 
mutual  shoulder.  Fulfil — An  equally 
good  reading  makes  a  future,  ye  will 
fulfil.  Law  of  Christ — Namely,  the 
law  rf  love  14,)  and  liberty.  See 
James  i,  25. 


ti  For^if  a  man  think  himself  to 
be  something,  when  hhe  is  noth¬ 
ing,  he  deceiveth  himself.  4  But 
'  let  every  man  prove  his  own  work, 
and  then  shall  he  have  rejoicing  in 

./'John  13.  14;  15.  12;  James  2.  8;  1  John  4.  21. 

- U  Rom.  12.  3;  1  Cor.  8.  2. - h  2  Cor.  3.  5; 

12.  11. - i  1  Cor.  11.  28;  2  Cor.  13.  5. 

3.  For  if,  in  the  spirit  of  the  above 
vainglory,  forgetting  the  spirit  of 
meekness,  with  which  we  should 
bear.  A  man  .  .  .  something  —  A 

proper  corrector  and  restorer  of  others. 
The  maxim  is,  indeed,  general,  but  Paul 
uses  it  now  in  special  reference  here  to 
the  spiritual  reprover.  Nothing — 
As  he  truly  would  be,  if,  while  correct¬ 
ing  his  neighbour’s  fault,  he  is  falling 
into  vainglory.  Deceiveth  him¬ 
self — A  very  expressive  single  Greek 
word,  not  found  in  any  previous  au¬ 
thor,  perhaps  invented  by  St.  Paul,  and 
used  by  himself  again  in  Tit.  i,  10,  and 
may  be  rendered  clieats-his-own-brain. 

4.  Prove — In  the  manner  suggested 
by  St.  James  i,  25,  by  bringing  the  law 
of  love  to  bear  upon  his  work,  to  see 
if  it  is  a  work,  not  of  vainglory,  but 
of  love.  Work — His  work  of  re¬ 
proof;  but  inferentially  applicable  to 
all  other  moral  work  in  life.  That 
Paul  means  this  special  work  is  clear 
from  the  blessed  result  that  he  next 
deduces.  Rejoicing  —  A  true  glory 
instead  of  a  vainglory.  The  test  by 
which  we  are  to  prove  our  own 
work,  namely,  the  law  of  love,  is 
not  only  an  easy  one  but  a  delightful 
one:  easy,  because  we  can  easily  know 
whether  love  has  pervaded  our  whole 
work  or  not,  if  we  honestly  examine 
our  thoughts  in  the  act;  and  delight¬ 
ful,  if  we  find  that  the  work  of  reprov¬ 
ing  has  truly  been  a  work  of  meek , 
restoring  love.  To  find  this  love  in 
our  hearts  is  a  matter  of  rejoicing 
far  above  any  glory.  To  find  it  ab¬ 
sent  is  truly  to  catch  ourselves  in  a 
transgression  as  bad,  perhaps,  as  our 
fellow  sinners.  In  himself — In  his 
own  case,  as  it  stands  in  the  sight  of 
conscience  and  of  God.  Another — 
And  that  other  the  poor  transgressor 
over  whose  case  we  were  gathering 
glory  to  ourselves  in  pretending  to 


A  ]>.  57. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


247 


himself  alone,  and  k  not  in  another. 
5  For  1 * * * 5 6 7  every  man  shall  bear  his 
awn  burden. 

6  m  Let  him  that  is  taught  in  the 
word  communicate  unto  him  that 
teacheth  in  all  good  things.  7  n  Be 

&Luke  18.  11. - 1  Rom.  2.  6;  1  Cor.  3.  8. - 

m  Rom.  15.  27 ;  1  Cor.  9.  11. - n  1  Cor.  6.  9 ; 

15.  33. - o  Job  13.  9. 

restore  him.  The  words  rejoicing 

and  .other  should  both  have  the  article. 

He  shall  have  the  exultation  in  reference 

to  himself  alone,  and  not  to  the  other. 

5.  Prove  your  own  work,  for  each 
one  has  a  responsibility  laid  upon  him 
for  his  own  work.  You  are  as  re¬ 
sponsible  for  the  style  and  spirit  in 
which  you  restore  him,  as  he  is  for 
the  fault  from  which  you  work  to  re¬ 
store  him.  Every  man — You,  as  well 
as  the  transgressor.  His  own  burden 
— Each  must,  in  the  final  hour,  bear  his 
own  burden  of  frailty,  sin,  and  guilt. 
We  can  put  shoulder  under  each  other’s 
burdens  for  awhile,  but  the  time  must 
at  length  come  when  each  shall  answer 
for  himself  alone.  The  contradiction 
in  form,  with  consistency  in  truth,  be¬ 
tween  vv.  2  and  5,  is  intended  by  St. 
Paul,  in  order,  by  the  apparent  paradox, 
to  fasten  the  thought  upon  the  atten¬ 
tion  and  memory. 

b.  Mutual  co-operation  of  teacher  and 
Church  in  solemnly  responsible  and  un¬ 
wearied  good-doing,  6-10. 

6.  Communicate — Co-operate,  share 
with.  From  the  idea  of  carrying  com¬ 
mon  burdens  upon  common  shoulders, 
between  Church  brethren,  the  apos¬ 
tle  passes  to  a  common  co-operation 
between  teachers,  preachers,  and  peo¬ 
ple  in  all  good  doings.  With  Meyer, 
against  the  general  run  of  commenta¬ 
tors,  we  agree  that  good  things  refers, 
not  to  temporal  maintenance,  but  to 
Christian  and  Churchly  labours.  Leave 
not  Christian  activities  to  ministers 
and  teachers  alone.  Every  one  is  a  re¬ 
sponsible  labourer  in  the  probationary 
field.  Let  all  be  at  work,  and  always 
at  it. 

7.  Be  not  deceived — Beware  how 
you  work  amiss.  Mocked — God  can¬ 
not  be  put  off  with  lazy  not-doing,  or 
hypocritical  mis-doing .  Mocked  is 


not  deceived;  °God  is  not  mocked: 
for  p  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that 
shall  he  also  reap.  8  ^For  he  that 
soweth  to  his  flesh  shall  of  the 
flesh  reap  corruption ;  but  he  that 
soweth  to  the  Spirit  shall  of  the 

V  Luke  16.  25;  Rom.  2.  6;  2  Cor.  9.  6. - q  Job 

4.  8 ;  Prov.  11.  18 ;  22.  8 ;  Hos.  8.  7 ;  Rom.  8.  13 ; 
James  3.  18. 

derived  from  the  contemptuous  turning 
up  the  nose  at  one.  God  is  in  earnest, 
and  will  hold  the  nondoer  and  misdoer 
to  a  strict  account.  He  will  hold  all 
such  as  showing  contempt  to  himself. 
Soweth .  . .  reap  —  An  expressive  im¬ 
age  of  human  responsibility,  which  has 
been  noted  by  thoughtful  men  of  all 
ages.  As  according  to  the  seed  we 
sow  is  the  harvest  we  reap,  so  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  deeds  we  perform  is  the 
retribution  we  shall  receive.  Though 
the  retributions  of  God’s  judgment  are 
judicial,  there  is,  perhaps,  a  natural  side 
to  them.  They  may  be  at  once  both 
provided  penalties  and  natural  conse¬ 
quences. 

8.  To  his  flesh — Flesh  and  Spirit 

do  not  designate  the  different  fields  in 
which  we  sow,  nor  the  different  seeds, 
but  the  different  interests  to  please 
which  we  sow.  Yet  the  seed  is  differ¬ 
ent  according  to  the  different  interests 
in  which  we  sow,  as  the  responsible  act 
is  different  according  to  which  interest 
it  regards.  To  his  flesh — To  the  grat¬ 
ification  of  his  flesh.  Reap  cor¬ 
ruption — That  absolute  ruin  of  which 
bodily  putrefaction  is  the  image,  and 
which,  as  the  opposite  of  eternal  life,  is 
eternal  death.  Of  the  Spirit — As  the 
flesh  is  corruptible,  so  from  the  flesh 
is  reaped  corruption;  as  the  Spirit  is 
pure,  perfect,  living  and  eternal,  so  tite 
life  from  him  is  eternal  life.  There  is 
a  lower  and  a  higher  system  of  things 
in  life,  including  different  masses  of 
men.  The  one  is  the  system  of  the 
flesh,  particularly  conspicuous  in  a  sen¬ 
sual  age  like  the  present.  It  runs  to 
sensual  gratifications  and  excitements, 
to  the  revelling  room,  the  liquor  saloon, 
the  horse  race,  the  gambling  hell,  and 
the  theatre.  Opposite  to  this  is  the 
system  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  as¬ 
piration  ;  which  tends  to  the  school. 


248 


GALATIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


Spirit  reap  life  everlasting.  9  And 
Met  us  not  be  weary  in  well  doing: 
for  in  due  season  we  shall  reap,  8  if 
we  faint  not.  10  lAs  we  have 
therefore  opportunity,  Met  us  do 

r\  Cor.  15.  58;  2  Thess.  3.  13. - sMatt.  24.  13; 

-  _ lleb.  3.  6.  14. 

the  Christian  association,  the  Sabbath 
dedicated  to  self-improvement,  the  Bi¬ 
ble,  and  the  Church.  The  latter  ac¬ 
cords  with  the  healthful  recreation  in 
which  reason,  but  not  mere  animal,  is 
gratified.  The  former  tends  downward, 
and  ends  in  endless  ruin ;  the  latter  is 
upward,  and  rises  to  eternal  life.  Let 
no  one  be  deceived;  for  as  sure  as  God 
is  not  mocked,  these,  to  the  fleshly,  will 
be  the  result. 

9.  Not  be  weary — Like  the  reaper, 
through  the  long,  hot,  toilsome  day, 
the  good  man  is  sometimes'  likely  to 
faint.  Holy  life  has  its  weary  side 
to  it;  but  it  has,  too,  its  side  of  hope 
and  cheer.  In  well  doing — In  doing 
to  a akov,  the  honourable ,  the  excellent , 
in  contrast  to  the  flesh,  which  tends  to 
corruption,  and  is  base.  In  due  sea¬ 
son —  At  the  harvest  season  of  the 
world,  which,  however  distant  in  time, 
is  ever  near  in  its  value.  Reap  — 
Eternal  life  in  eternal  joy.  Faint  not 
—  And  decline  into  apostasy. 

1 0.  St.  Paul  nowr  reverts  back  to  the 
precept  of  verse  6,  in  enforcement  of 
which  the  deep  warning  of  7-9  was 
interposed.  Opportunity — Improving 
every  opening.  Do  good— Rather,  Let 
us  work ,  to  uyaObv ,  the  good,  the  true, 
the  highest  good.  Especially — Inas¬ 
much  as  they  are  often  excluded  from 
many  worldly  modes  of  gain,  and  are 
impoverished  by  persecution.  House¬ 
hold —  Belonging  to  the  great  family 
of  which  God  is  Father,  and  Christ  the 
elder  Brother.  With  this  solemn  and 
urgent  paragraph  our  epistle  comes  to 
its  essential  close. 

c.  Autographic  summary  of  the  epistle 
and  closing  benediction ,  11-18. 

“  At  this  point  the  apostle  tikes  the 
pen  from  his  amanuensis,  and  the  con¬ 
cluding  paragraph  is  written  with  his 
own  hand.  From  the  time  when  let¬ 
ters  began  to  be  forged  in  his  name 
(2  Thess.  ii,  2  ;  iii,  1  7)  it  seems  to  have 


good  unto  all  men ,  especially  unto 
them  who  are  of  Tthe  household 
of  faith. 

1 1  Ye  see  how  large  a  letter  I 
have  written  unto  you  with  mine 

t  John  9.  4. - u  \  Thess.  5.  15;  1  Timothy  6. 18. 

_ r  Kph.  2.  19. 

been  his  practice  to  close  with  a  few 
words  in  his  own  handwriting  as  a 
precaution  against  such  forgeries.  Fre¬ 
quently  he  confined  himself  to  adding 
the  final  benediction,  (2  Thess.  iii,  1 7, 18,) 
with  perhaps  a  single  sentence  of  ex¬ 
hortation,  as,  ‘If  any  one  love  not  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,’  etc.,  (1  Cor.  xvi, 
21-24,)  or,  ‘Remember  my  bonds.’  Cob 
iv,  1 8.  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  he 
seems  to  have  appended  the  ascription 
of  praise,  which  reads  like  a  postscript. 
Rom.  xvi,  25-27.  In  the  present  case 
he  writes  a  whole  paragraph,  summing 
up  the  main  lessons  of  the  epistle  in 
terse,  eager,  disjointed  sentences.  He 
writes  it,  too,  in  large  characters,  that 
his  handwriting  may  reflect  the  energy 
and  determination  of  his  soul.” — Prof. 
Liglitfoot. 

11.  Ye  see  how  large  a  letter  I 
have  written — More  accurately,  Be¬ 
hold,  ye.  in  what  large  letters  I  wrote  to 
you  with  my  own  hand.  “Letters”  is  the 
alphabetic  characters;  and  it  is  unques¬ 
tionable  that  he  refers  to  their  size,  not 
to  their  unshapeliness,  as  some  think. 
It  may  be,  as  Professor  Liglitfoot  says, 
that  the  largeness  of  their  size  was  in¬ 
tended  by  Paul  to  indicate  the  firmness 
of  his  purpose.  So  we  have  been  in¬ 
clined  to  think  that  John  Hancock’s 
large  signature  on  the  Declaration  of 
American  Independence  was  intended 
as  a  manly  defiance  of  the  ignominious 
death  he  dared  by  it.  But  we  are 
rather  inclined  to  think  that  St.  Paul 
calls  the  attention  of  the  Galatians  to 
the  distinctive  point  between  his  hand¬ 
writing  and  that  of  his  amanuensis. 
The  rapid  professional  writer,  doubt¬ 
less,  wrote  in  the  smaller  and  lighter 
hand.  Yet  both  purposes  may  have 
blended.  I  have  written — The  term 
called  the  epistolary  aorist  I  wrote.  The 
writer  speaks  as  at  the  standpoint,  or 
rather  timepoints  of  the  reader’s  perus¬ 
al,  and  says,  I  wrote  thus  and  so  to  you. 


A.  D.  57. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


249 


own  hand.  1 2  As  many  as  desire 
to  make  a  fair  show  in  the  flesh, 
v  they  constrain  you  to  be  circum¬ 
cised  ;  x  only  lest  they  >’  should 
sutler  persecution  for  the  cross  of 
Christ.  13  For  neither  they  them¬ 
selves  who  are  circumcised  keep 
the  law;  but  desire  to  have  you 
circumcised,  that  they  may  glory 
in  your  flesh.  14  zBut  God  for- 

w  Chapter  2.  3,  14. - x  Philippians  3.  18. - 

y  Chapter  5. 11. z  Philippians  3.  3,  7, 8. — —2  Or, 

u  hereby. 

The  summary  of  the  epistle  which 
follows  seems  intended,  in  some  degree, 
for  the  same  purpose  as  his  autograph, 
namely,  for  identification.  It  is  an  af¬ 
terpiece  adjustable  to  this  epistle  only. 
There  is  a  triumphant  tone  in  this 
entire  peroration.  Paul  lays  bare  the 
motives  of  his  opponents,  and  con¬ 
trasts  their  cowardly  courting  the  foe 
with  his  own  heroic  proclamation  of 
the  cross,  12-14.  He  pronounces  the 
nothingness  of  circumcision,  and  this 
efficacy  of  the  cross  as  the  blessed 
canon  of  the  true  Israel ;  and  sweeps 
away  every  obstacle  as  himself  bearing 
the  true  mark  of  Jesus,  15-17. 

12.  Fair  show — Literally,  a  good 
face.  In  the  flesh — As  opposed  to 
the  spirit,  in  external  and  unspiritual 
matters.  Constrain — By  persuasion, 
and  perhaps  menace.  Suffer.  .  .for 
the  cross — The  power  of  the  Sanhe¬ 
drin  was  great  and  extensive,  (note 
Acts  ix,  2,)  and  a  large  and  powerful 
body  of  Jews  lived  in  Galatia.  Hence 
the  Judaists  sought  to  avoid  persecu¬ 
tion  from  Judaism  by  uniting  circum¬ 
cision  with  Christianity.  The  cross — 
As  the  symbol  of  justification  without 
the  ritual. 

13.  For — Proof  of  the  motive  as¬ 
signed  above;  the  Judaists  disregard 
that  very  law  which  circumcision  is  'a 
pledge  to  keep.  Glory  in  your  flesh 
— May  make  a  merit  with  the  Jewish 
powers  of  having  converted  you  to 
circumcision.  The  Galatian  Judaists 
were,  therefore,  courting  the  lenity  of 
Judaism  to  escape  persecution.  To 
this  cowardice  St.  Paul  opposes  his 
own  fearless,  uncompromising  display 
of  the  cross. 


bid  that  I  should  glory,  save  in 
the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
2  by  whom  the  world  is  a  crucified 
unto  me,  and  I  unto  the  world. 
15  For  bin  Christ  Jesus  neither 
circumcision  availeth  any  thing, 
nor  uncircumcision,  but  ca  new 
creature.  16  dAnd  as  many  as 
walk  c  according  to  this  rule,  peace 
be  on  them,  and  mercy,  and  up- 

a  Rom.  6.  6 ;  chap.  2.  20. - b  1  Cor.  7. 19 ;  chap. 

5.  6;  Col.  3.  11. - c2  Cor.  5.  17.— — d  Psa.  125.  5. 

- e  Phil.  3.  16. 

14.  Glory — Their  glory  is  convert¬ 
ing  you  to  circumcision;  my  glory  is 
the  shame  and  suffering  of  the  cross. 
The  world,  which  you  court,  with  all 
its  glory.  Is  crucified — Is  ignomini- 
ously  reduced  to  death,  as  regards  me. 
I  unto  the  world — So  that  the  world 
and  I  are  even ;  we  are  nothing  to  each 
other,  so  far  as  our  seeking  glory 
from  each  other  is  concerned.  Paul 
uses  the  word  crucified  with  a  prompt 
boldness ;  as  if  to  face  down  the  scorn 
that  salutes  the  victim  of  that  shame¬ 
ful  death. 

15.  I  make  the  cross  all;  for  cir¬ 
cumcision  is  nothing,  just  as  uncir¬ 
cumcision  is.  Uncircumcision  is  no 

condition  of  salvation,  but  a  new  crea¬ 
ture,  or,  rather,  creation;  a  renovation 
through  Christ. 

16.  Rule — Kavuv,  that  is,  canon.  Dr. 
Westcott,  in  his  work  on  the  Canon, 
says,  “The  original  meaning  of  Kavijv 

(connected  with  TOp?  K-dvr;,  icdvva ,  can- 

na ,  [ canalis ,  channel,]  cane ,  canon )  is  a 
straight  rule;  as  a  ruler ,  or,  rarely,  the 
beam  of  a  balance ;  and  this  with  the 
secondary  notion,  either  (1)  of  keeping 
any  thing  straight,  or  (2)  testing  straight¬ 
ness,  as  a  carpenter’s  rule,  and  even, 
improperly,  a  plumb-line.”  From  this 
the  acknowledged  books  of  the  Bible 
are  called  the  canon ,  and  canonical.  St. 
Paul  lays  down  the  principle  of  the 
last  verse,  and  pronounces  a  benedic¬ 
tion  on  all  who  walk  (or,  a  better 
reading,  shall  walk)  according  to 
this  canon.  Israel  of  God — In  dis¬ 
tinction  from  the  Israel  of  the  flesh. 
In  this  terse  phrase  Paul  triumphant¬ 
ly  embodies  his  great  doctrine  that 


250 


GALATIANS. 


A.  D.  57. 


on  fthe  Israel  of  God.  17  From 
henceforth  let  no  man  trouble  me : 
for  &I  bear  in  my  body  the  marks 

./Rom.  2.  29;  4.  12;  9.  6-8;  chap.  3.  7,  9,  29; 

Phil.  3.  3. 

the  theocracy  has  left  the  old  ritual 
and  gone  with  the  new  Church  of  the 
Spirit. 

17.  From  henceforth — From  the 
time-point  of  the  laying  down  once  for 
all  of  this  unmovable  canon.  Trouble 
me — I  move  above  all  molestation  and 
obstacles  in  my  apostolic  course ;  for 
the  trueness  of  my  adherence  to  Christ 
is  placed  above  question  by  my  scars  in 
his  service.  Marks — Hriy/iara,  stig¬ 
mata ,  derived  from  orl^o,  to  prick ,  to 
brand ;  hence  a  brand  or  mark  of  own¬ 
ership  or  disgrace,  (as  our  English 
word  stigma ,)  either  pricked  in  or  burnt 
upon  the  body  of  man  or  beast.  Two 
kinds  of  stigmata  are,  1.  Upon  slaves, 
more  usually  those  who  had  tried  to 
escape,  and  then  the  marks  were  not 


of  the  Lord  Jesus.  18  Brethren, 
h  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
be  with  your  spirit.  Amen. 

£?2  Cor.  1.  5;  4.  10;  11.  23 ;  chap.  5. 11 ;  Col.  1.  24. 

A  2  Tim.  4.  22;  Philern.  25. 

only  a  security  to  the  owner  but  a  dis¬ 
grace  to  the  slave.  2.  Temple  slaves, 
or  persons  dedicated  to  some  duty, 
were  branded  upon  hand  or  neck,  and 
then  they  were  held  too  sacred  to  be 
touched.  We  might  suppose  that  it 
was  to  this  last  class  that  the  apostle 
alludes,  and  proclaims  that  his  scars  for 
Christ  are  his  brands  of  dedication  and 
ownership,  and  that  no  annoying  hand 
should  touch  him. 

18.  Brethren — In  the  Greek  this 
word  is  the  last  of  the  verse  and  of 
the  epistle.  “So,”  says  Bengel,  “he 
softens  with  the  final  word  the  sever¬ 
ity  of  the  whole  epistle.”  He  would 
part  with  them  as  brethren  j  whether 
they  truly  remained  brethren,  history 
does  not  reveal. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  EPHESIANS. 


- ♦  ♦♦ - 

Op  the  founding  of  the  Church  in  Ephesus  by  St.  Paul,  a  full  narra¬ 
tive  is  given  by  Luke,  Acts  xix,  where  see  our  notes.  The  twelve 
Johnite  disciples,  the  secession  from  the  synagogue  and  establishment 
of  preaching  in  the  academic  rooms  of  Tyrannus,  the  contests  with 
sorcery,  and  more  especially  the  opposition  and  commotion  of  the 
worshippers  of  Diana,  form  a  series  of  stirring  and  striking  narrations. 
Three  years,  in  round  numbers,  were  spent  in  this  great  work.  See 
our  Outline  History  commencing  this  volume. 

This  is  one  of  the  four  epistles  from  the  Roman  prison,  as  we  have 
noted  on  Acts  xxviii,  31.  Of  its  genuineness  no  doubt  has  ever  been 
entertained  in  the  Christian  Church  until  modern  criticism  raised  the 
question.  De  Wette  and  Bauer  maintain  it  to  be  not  the  work  of 
Paul;  and  Renan  places  it  among  the  “doubtful.”  Their  reasonings, 
too  captious  for  a  discussion  in  our  brief  space,  have  been  amply  an¬ 
swered  by  Meyer,  Eadie,  and  Alford. 

A  more  serious  doubt  exists  whether  the  epistle  was  addressed  to 
the  Ephesians ;  or,  at  any  rate,  to  them  alone.  This  doubt  arises  from 
two  sources  :  1.  There  are  no  greetings  in  the  'epistle,  although  Paul 
had  hosts  of  friends  in  Ephesus;  and  the  whole  epistle  is  like  a  re¬ 
ligious  essay  without  definite  reference  to  facts  or  circumstances.  To 
this  it  is  fairly  replied,  that  most  of  Paul’s  epistles  are  without  greet¬ 
ings  ;  and  there  is  no  good  reason  why  St.  Paul  should  not  write  a 
treatise  on  a  holy  model  Church  in  epistolatory  form,  and  send  it  to 
his  Ephesians.  But,  2.  Very  early  manuscripts  of  the  epistle  are  found 
without  the  words  “  in  Ephesus  ”  in  the  first  verse.  The  Sinaitic 
manuscripts  and  one  or  two  others  omit.  St.  Basil  and  Jerome  both 
say  that  ancient  copies  are  without  it.  And  hence  a  large  number  of 
our  best  biblical  scholars  conclude  that  this  was  an  encyclical  epistle  ; 
that  is,  it  was  sent  by  Paul  by  the  hands  of  Tycliicus  to  Asia  with 
the  space  left  blank  that  each  Church  in  that  section  might  insert  its 
own  name  in  a  copy  as  its  own.  But  to  this  there  is  a  mass  of  objections. 
How  happens  it  that  not  a  single  copy  has  ever  been  found  with  the 
name  of  any  other  Church  inserted  ?  The  majority  of  manuscripts  and 
versions  with  the  words  “  in  Ephesus”  inserted  is  overwhelming;  and 
even  Basil  and  Jerome  entertain  no  doubt  of  its  really  being  an  epistle 
to  Ephesus.  The  omission  of  the  words  “in  Ephesus,”  in  a  few  in¬ 
stances,  like  the  omission  of  the  words  “in  Rome,”  in  some  copies  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  may  have  arisen  from  the  desire  of  some 
Churches  to  give  to  their  own  copy  a  character  of  generality  by 


252 


INTRODUCTION  TO  EPHESIANS. 


removing  the  mention  of  a  particular  Church.  This  question,  it  will 
be  seen,  does  not  affect  the  authenticity  or  value  of  the  epistle. 

Over  this  memorable  Church,  after  Paul,  a  Timothy  and  an  apostle 
John  presided.  To  it  one  of  the  addresses  of  the  Apocalypse  was 
delivered,  picturing  its  spiritual  state.  For  centuries,  the  temple  of 
Diana,  lying  in  ruins,  and  splendid  Christian  cathedrals  crowning  the 
city,  Ephesus  was  a  great  stronghold  of  eastern  Christianity.  Subse¬ 


quently  it  fell  under  the  power  of  the  Turks,  and  at  present  few  traces 
of  ancient  grandeur  remain  upon  its  site. 

We  may  consider  this  production  of  St.  Paul  to  be  an  epistolary 
treatise  upon  a  holy  Church  as  accordant  with  God’s  eternal  ideal 
through  Christ,  and  humanly  to  be  realized  on  earth.  So  far  from  being, 
as  De  Wette  thinks,  “rich  in  words  and  poor  in  ideas,”  the  great¬ 
est  students  ot  its  pages  have  found  it  powerful  in  its  combination  of 
language  and  sublime  in  its  sweep  of  thought.  Dr.  Bloomfield  applies 
to  it  Dr.  Johnson’s  words  in  regard  to  another  book:  “If  the  reader 
have  a  spark  of  regard  for  the  gospel  it  will  blow  it  into  a  flame.” 


Grotius  and  Coleridge  characterize  it  in  terms  we  are  almost  able  to 
endorse.  The  former  says,  “It  equals  its  sublimity  of  ideas  with  words 
more  sublime  than  any  human  language  ever  possessed.  The  latter 
calls  it,  “  The  divinest  composition  of  man.” 


THEATRE  AT  EPHESUS. 


PLAFT  OF  THE  EPISTLE. 


- 1 - 

PART  FIRST. 

The  Eternal  and  Divine  Side  of  the  Formation, 
through  Christ,  of  a  Holy  Church  on  Earth 
and  in  Heaven .  t  3-iii,  21 

L  The  Eternal  Divine  Origination  in  Purpose .  1,  3-23 

1.  An  eternal  preference  for  all  believers .  i,  3-8 

2.  According  to  a  divine  ideal  of  universal  reconciliation 

and  headship  in  Christ .  i,0  ,  10 

3.  In  which  election  we  (all  believers)  are  inheritors _  i,  11,  12 

4.  Into  which  ye,  Ephesians,  entered  by  faith .  i,  13,  14 

5.  Thanks,  and  prayer  that  they  may  realize  Christ’s 

glorious  headship  .  i,  15-23 

IT.  Historical  Inclusion  of  the  Ephesians  in  this  Purpose - ii,  1-iii,  21 

1.  Recapitulation,  historically,  of  their  faith  and  regen¬ 

eration .  ii,  1-10 

2.  With  the  unification  of  J ew  and  Gentile  in  one  Church  ii,  11-22 

3.  Under  Paul’s  Gentile  apostleship  as  divine  instrument  iii,  1-13 

4.  St.  Paul’s  apostolic  prayer  for  the  Ephesian  Church.,  iii,  14-19 

5.  Closing  Doxology .  iii,  20,  21 

PART  SECOND. 

Human  Side  of  this  Churchdom— Duties  of  the 

Elect  Church  on  Earth . iv,  l-vi,  24 

I  In  Churchly  Relations  and  Obligations .  iv,  1-v,  21 

1.  To  be  a  holy  and  efficient  Church . . .  iv,  1-16 

a.  In  holy  unity  of  spirit .  iv,  1-6 

b.  And  with  Christ-given  ministries .  iv,  7-11 

c.  To  develop  into  a  perfect  individual  Christian  manhood  and 

a  compact  organic  life .  iv,  12-16 

2.  To  be  a  Church  in  double  contrast  to  the  anti-Church 

of  Gentilism . iv,  17-v,  21 

•  i 

First  Contrast — Sins  of  the  spirit .  iv,  17-v,  2 

a.  In  contrast  to  the  Gentilism  which  you  have  left .  iv,  1 7-1 9 

b.  Be  renewed  from  the  old  to  the  new  man .  iv.  20-24 

c.  By  putting  off  the  five  Gentile  vices . iv,  25-v,  2 


254 


PLAN  OF  THE  EPISTLE 


Second  Contrast — Sins  of  the  flesh .  v.  3-21 

a.  Against  Gentile  uncleanness ,  be  mindful  of  God's  judgment .  v,  3-7 

b.  Against  their  secret  and  nightly  shame ,  be  children  of  light 

and  day .  y,  8-17 

c.  Against  their  drunkenness  and  revelry ,  be  filled  with  the  Spirit 

and  with  holy  hymns .  y,  1 8-2 1 

TI.  In  the  Family  and  Domestic  System . v,  22-vi,  9 

a.  Wives  and  Husbands .  v,  22-33 

b.  Children  and  Parents .  vi,  1-4 

c.  Servants  and  Masters .  vi,  5-9 

Closing  Appeal  for  earnest  readiness .  vi.  10-24 


THE 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  EPHESIANS. 

- - 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAUL,  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ 
aby  the  will  of  God,  bto  the 
saints  which  are  at  Ephesus,  cand 
to  the  faithful  in  Christ  Jesus : 
2  d  Grace  be  to  you,  and  peace, 

a  2  Cor.  1. 1. - &Rom.  1.  7;  2  Cor.  1. 1. 

cl  Cor.  4.  17;  Col.  1.  2. 

CHAPTER  I. 

The  Introduction. 

1.  Paul — Note,  Rom.  i,  1.  Apostle 

of — Of,  importing  belonging  to ,  rather 
than  sent  by.  By  the  will — As  Paul 
anticipates  no  opposition  to  his  apos- 
tleship,  he  does  not,  as  in  the  case  of 
his  letter  to  the  Galatians,  (Gal.  i,  1,) 
emphatically  assert  it,  but  gracefully 
assumes  it.  Saints  —  Properly  the 
ordinary  title  of  all  Church  members. 
Faithful  —  Importing  both  first  belief 
and  a  continued  fidelity. 

2.  Grace — The  first  of  all  blessings. 
And  peace — The  blessed  result.  God 
— The  first  fountain  of  grace.  Christ 
— The  great  maker  of  peace. 

The  benediction  is  the  beautiful  pre¬ 
cursor  of  the  delightful  sunshine  reign¬ 
ing  through  the  whole  epistle.  Though 
a  prisoner’s  chain  was  on  his  arm,  the 
rapture  of  blessing  was  in  the  apostle’s 
heart. 

- - ♦♦♦ - 

THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  THE 
PROCESS  OF  FOUNDING  A 
HOLY,  GLORIOUS  CHURCH, 
i,  3-iii,  21. 

I.  Its  Eternal  Divine  Origination 
in  Purpose,  3-23. 

1.  An  eternal  election  of  all  be¬ 
lievers,  3-8. 

St.  Paul  opens  by  an  affirmation  of 
God’s  abounding  goodness  in  that  he 

has  chosen  us  to,  (verse  4,)  predesti- 


from  God  our  Father  and  from  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

3  e  Blessed  be  the  God  and  Father 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  hath 
blessed  us  with  all  spiritual  bless¬ 
ings  in  heavenly *  1 2  places  in  Christ: 

d  Gal.  1. 3 ;  Tit.  1. 4. e  2  Cor.  1. 3 ;  1  Pet.  1. 3. 

1  Or,  things. 

nated  us  to,  (5-8,)  and  made  revelations 
to  us  of,  (8,  9,)  the  grand  final  summa¬ 
tion  of  all  things  in  Christ  (ver.  10). 

3.  Blessed  —  First  emphatic  word 
and  keynote  to  the  rich  and  joyous 
tone  of  the  whole  paragraph.  As  the 
Greek  word  in  both  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  and  Septuagint  is  applied  to  God 
alone,  so  it  signifies  blessed,  as  God 
alone  is  blessed,  divinely  blessed. 
This  eucharistic  word  the  apostle  uses 
to  indicate,  with  holy  gratitude,  that  the 
election  for  which  he  gives  thanks  is 
based  in  the  eternal  nature  of  God.  For 
God  does  eternally,  by  his  very  nature 
and  affinity,  prefer  and  elect  that  which 
is  holy,  or  freely  consents  to  become  so. 
See  our  note  on  “  the  true  doctrine  of 
the  Church”  touching  election,  vol.  iii, 
p.  349.  God .  . .  of .  . .  Christ — Ellicott 
decides  that  most  probably  Father  is 
only  applied  to  Christ,  and  not  God . . . 
God  and  the  Father  of,  etc.  Blessed 
us  —  Alford  well  says,  that  “  God’s 
blessing  is  in  facts,  ours  only  in  words.” 
Heavenly  places — Places  is  not  in 
the  original,  but  is  supplied  by.  the 
translators,  as  is  shown  by  the  italics. 
The  Greek  adjective  knovyavioLQ,  signi¬ 
fying  pertaining  to  the  heavenly  regions , 
may  imply  either  places  or  things:  in 
verse  20,  ii,  6,  iii,  10,  and  vi,  12,  places 
is  required.  The  same  Greek  adjective 
in  Matt,  xviii,  35  (which  in  the  Lord’s 
prayer,  Matt,  vi,  9,  is  rendered  “  who 
art  in  heaven  ”)  includes  the  entire  com¬ 
prehension  of  God’s  omnipresence.  In 


256 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  63. 


4  According  as  f  lie  hath  chosen  us 

J  Rom.  8.  28 ;  2  Thess.  2.  13 ;  2  Tim.  1.  9 ; 

Phil,  ii,  10,  it  implies  the  heavenly  in¬ 
habitants,  the  angels.  In  1  Cor.  xv,  48 
it  twice  designates  those  from  heaven 
— who  are  heavenly  in  nature.  In 
2  Tim.  iv,  18,  it  denotes  the  heavenly 
kingdom,  and  in  ITeb.  iii,  1,  heavenly 
calling.  So  in  Heb.  vi,  4;  viii,  5;  ix,  23, 
the  adjective  presupposes  things  heav¬ 
enly  in  nature,  origin,  or  relation,  yet 
earthly  in  place. 

The  adjective  may,  therefore,  imply 
place,  that  is,  the  heavenly  region;  or 
it  may  mean  things  on  earth  that  are 
redolent  of  that  place.  As  place,  the 
word  as  variously  used  by  St.  Paul  is 
very  generic  in  its  applications,  em¬ 
bracing,  if  we  collect  all  its  uses,  the 
entire  spirit -world,  all  that  is  super¬ 
mundane  or  superhuman.  So  ver.  20, 
it  implies  the  highest  heavens,  the 
right  hand  of  God.  In  iii,  10,  the 
angelic  abodes.  In  vi,  12,  it  takes  in 
the  aerial  battlefield  with  demoniac 
powers :  that  is,  the  air  of  ii.  2,  where 
see  note.  In  this  verse  it  means  clearly 
things  on  earth  which  are  heavenly 
in  quality.  Hence,  differing  from  Al¬ 
ford,  Ellicott,  and  others,  we  think  that 
here  the  phrase  should  be  rendered 
heavenly  things.  For  surely  it  was 
not  in  supermundane  localities  that  the 
Ephesians  enjoyed  their  spiritual  bless¬ 
ings.  They  lived  and  enjoyed  on  earth. 

4.  According  as  —  The  blessing 
of  us  by  the  blessed  One  is  in  full  ac¬ 
cordance  with  his  eternal  choice  of  us. 
But  who  are  this  us  ?  This  is  a  most 
important  question  in  determining  the 
meaning  of  this  epistle.  The  objects 
of  choice  must  present  to  the  Chooser 
the  proper  qualities,  either  seen  or  fore¬ 
seen,  in  order  to  being  intelligently 
chosen.  They  cannot  be  mere  charac¬ 
terless  blanks.  Nor  are  they  personal 
or  impersonal  entities  in  which  exist  no 
qualities,  conditions,  or  suitableness  for 
being  chosen  rather  than  not,  for  that 
makes  the  Chooser  act  without  a  wise 
reason.  But  they  are  those  who  pre¬ 
sent  the  proper  rational  conditions  of 
the  divine  choice,  namely,  submitting 
and  believing  men. 

We  may  say  that  in  the  section  3-12 


in  him  “before  the  foundation  of 

James  2.  5;  1  Ret.  1.  2. - g\  Pet.  1.  2. 

St.  Paul  uses  the  first  person  plural  of 
the  personal  pronoun,  namely,  we,  us, 
and  our,  thirteen  times  in  all,  which, 
while  it  explicitly  includes  himself  and 
the  Ephesians,  it  also,  by  implication , 
takes  in  all  believers.  With  verse  13 
commences  the  second  person,  used 
mainly  throughout  the  epistle.  It  ap¬ 
plies  specially  to  the  Ephesians,  with 
much  that  is  inferentially  true  of  all 
believers.  In  verse  14  the  our  refers 
to  the  Ephesians  and  himself  directly, 
and  all  other  believers  inferentially. 

Hath  chosen  —  The  Greek  is  a 
word  full  of  force — chose  out  far  him¬ 
self.  The  prefix  ek,  out  from,  implies 
an  unchosen  remainder  really  or  con¬ 
ditionally  left,  which  remainder  con¬ 
stitutes  the  anti-Church  of  chapter  v, 
1-21.  This  choice  was  part  of  the 
grand  divine  ideal,  the  universal  resto¬ 
ration  of  verse  10.  In  him — In  Christ ; 
as  the  mystical  embodiment  of  the  re¬ 
demption  in  whom  it  was  the  divine 
idea  and  purpose  of  God’s  mercy  that 
all  should  be  gathered,  verse  10.  Be¬ 
fore  the  foundation  of  the  world — 
The  world  is  here  figured  as  a  build¬ 
ing;  and  the  builder  as  laying  his  plans 
for  the  transactions  in  the  house  before 

he  lavs  its  foundations.  And  as  the 
%■ 

builder  is  no  less  than  the  Eternal,  so 
this  before  sends  our  thoughts  back 
into  the  deep,  dim,  anterior  eternity. 
And,  then,  Paul’s  glad  thought  is,  that 
salvation  and  the  Church  being  gath¬ 
ered  from  out  the  world,  is  not  a  hu¬ 
man  thing  of  to-day,  but  a  divine  thing 
from  eternity.  The  choice  of  a  sinner 
conditioned  upon  his  faith,  now  first 
objectively  performed,  is  traced  far  back 
into  the  divine  mind,  as  in  a  mirror ; 
the  mind  that,  foreseeing  all  things, 
and  precognizing  the  evil  to  result  from 
the  misdirected  freewill  of  finite  man, 
provides  and  adjusts  them  with  the 
good,  so  that  the  highest  good  is  ulti¬ 
mately  attained. 

The  fact  that  God  chooses — chooses 
us  from  all  eternity,  chooses  us  out 
from  the  world,  chooses  us  from  his 
divine  good  pleasure — does  not  in  the 
slightest  degree  countenance  the  inad- 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  I. 


257 


the  world,  that  we  should  11  be  holy 
and  without  blame  before  him  in 
love:  5  ‘Having  predestinated  us 

- - w~ 

h  Luke  1.  75 ;  chap.  2. 10 ;  Col.  1.  22 ;  1  Thess.  4.  7 ; 

Titus  2.  12. 

missible  idea  that  G-od  does  not  know 
and  foreknow  what  he  is  choosing,  as 
well  as  the  reasons  both  without  the 
man  and  within  the  man  on  account 
of  which  he  is  chosen.  Scripture  most 
decisively  shuts  out  from  the  text  such 
an  idea.  The  apostle  puts  foreknowl¬ 
edge  as  antecedent  to  predestination. 
“  Whom  he  did  foreknow,  he  also  did 
predestinate,”  Romans  viii,  29,  where 
see  our  notes.  So  also  1  Peter  i,  2 : 
“  Elect  according  to  the  foreknowledge 
of  God.”  And  this  election  is  made 
definite,  individual,  and  sure  by  our  per¬ 
formance  of  the  human  condition:  2  Pe¬ 
ter  i,  10,  “Give  diligence  to  make  your 
calling  and  election  sure.”  So  that  this 
elective  purpose,  as  ideal  purpose  in 
eternity,  becomes  objective  and  real  di¬ 
vine  act  in  time. 

In  this  present  paragraph,  Paul  says 
little  about  conditions,  and  nothing  to 
exclude  them.  He  says  little  about 
them  because  it  is  not  the  human  but 
the  divine  side  of  this  election  upon 
which  he  is  now,  with  grateful  rapture, 
expatiating.  The  human  side  comes  in 
at  chapter  ii,  4.  Preaching  to  uncon¬ 
verted  men,  he  would  make  the  condi¬ 
tion  the  main  topic,  calling  upon  them 
to  enter,  by  faith  and  repentance,  into 
the  range  of  God’s  eternal  conditional 
purpose,  by  which  he,  from  all  eter¬ 
nity,  chooses  all  who  truly  believe. 

That  we  should  be  holy — As  faith 
is  the  condition  upon  which  we  are 
elected,  so  holiness,  blamelessness,  and 
eternal  life,  are  the  results  for  which 
and  to  which  we  are  elected.  See  note 
on  Rom.  viii,  29.  Holy  and  without 
blame  —  “The  positive  and  negative 
aspects,”  says  Ellicott,  “  of  true  Christ¬ 
ian  life.”  Before  him — Blameless 
even  under  His  dread  scrutiny.  In 
love — Meyer,  Ellicott,  and  others,  join 
this  to  predestinated;  making  a  pre¬ 
destination  in  love.  To  this  Alford  ob¬ 
jects,  conclusively,  that  all  the  three 
leading  verbs,  chosen,  predestinated, 
made  known,  being  co-ordinate  with 

Vol.  IV.— 17 


unto  ktlie  adoption  of  children  by 
Jesus  Christ  to  himself,  1  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  good  pleasure  of  his  will, 

iRom.  8.  29. - &Rom.  8.  15;  Gal.  4.  5;  1  John 

3.  1. - 1  Matt.  11.  26. 

each  other,  have  no  qualifying  phrase 
prefixed,  but  lead  and  give  the  drift  of 
what  follows.  Love  is  the  element  in 
which  the  forgiven  soul  is  held  before 
God  as  without  blame,  not  justice  or 
innocence  in  the  past;  love,  as  from 
God  and  reciprocated  to  God. 

5.  Having  predestinated  —  Thar 
neither  election  nor  predestination  is 
identical  with  foreknowledge,  see  shown 
in  our  note  on  Romans  vih,  29.  Pre¬ 
destination  here,  as  in  that  passage,  is 
a  destination  to  a  particular  thing — 
namely,  to  sonship  in  the  image  of 
Christ.  If  election  is  to  be  consid¬ 
ered  as  preceding  predestination,  it 
does  not  follow  (as  Alford)  that  election 
and  foreknowledge  are  to  be  identified ; 
but  that  it  is  an  intermediate  step  be¬ 
tween  foreknowledge  and  predestina¬ 
tion.  Unless  we  suppose  the  deity 
blindly  to  elect  and  predestinate,  fore¬ 
knowledge  must  lie  in  the  divine 
nature  as  an  attribute  back  of  all  acts. 
Election  is  the  preference  for  the  con¬ 
ditioned  object,  lying  in  the  eternal  di¬ 
vine  nature ;  predestination,  the  spe¬ 
cific  direction  of  the  object  to  its  par¬ 
ticular  blessed  destiny.  It  is  the  di¬ 
vinely  established  connexion  between  the 
conditioned  object  and  his  final  salva¬ 
tion,  never  being  affirmed  of  the  wicked. 
Adoption  of  children — The  Greek 
word  is  simply  sonship ,  and  should 
have  been  so  rendered.  The  phrase  is 
parallel  to  conformed  to  the  image 
of  his  Son,  in  Rom.  viii,  29.  It  there¬ 
fore  more  properly  expresses  regenera¬ 
tion  than  adoption ;  regeneration ,  in  its 
fullest  sense,  including  restoration  to 
Christ’s  glorified  likeness  in  the  resur¬ 
rection.  Good  pleasure — The  Greek 
word  evdonia  may  signify  either  be¬ 
neficence,  or  an  absoluteness  of  purpose 
which  must  not  be  questioned.  Thus, 
taking  it  in  the  latter  sense,  Bengel 
says,  “Beyond  this  good  pleasure  it  is 
lawful  for  us  neither  to  go  prying  into 
the  causes  of  our  salvation  nor  into  any 
other  of  the  works  of  God.”  But  tho 


258 


EPHESIANS. 


A.D  63. 


6  To  the  praise  of  the  glory  of  his 
grace,  m wherein  he  hath  made  us 
accepted  in  n the  beloved:  7  °In 
whom  we  have  redemption  through 
his  blood,  the  forgiveness  of  sins, 

mRom.  3.  24. - nMatt.  3.  17;  John  3.  35. - 

o  Horn.  3.  24 ;  Col.  1.  14;  Heb.9. 12;  1  Pet.  1.  19; 

very  peremptoriness  of  such  language  is 
at  entire  discord  with  the  flowing  and 
joyous  current  of  the  apostle’s  thought 
while  reviewing  the  free  grace  of  God 
in  our  salvation.  His  boast  is  not  in 
God’s  repressive  reserve,  but  in  his  open 
revelation  of  the  mystery  of  his  will 
according  to  his  beneficence ,  verses  9,  10. 
In  regard  to  the  two  disputed  meanings 
of  the  term,  all  the  reasons  seem  to  be 
for  the  former,  but  the  majority  of  com¬ 
mentators  favour  the  latter.  1.  As  to 
its  philology,  it  is  conceded  that  in 
the  Septuagint  it  is  used  in  the  former 
sense  in  every  case;  in  the  New  Test¬ 
ament  clearly  in  every  case  but  two. 
This  settles  the  question,  unless  the 
present  context  excludes  that  meaning. 
But,  2.  The  context  requires  the  mean¬ 
ing.  The  whole  paragraph  is  almost  a 
hymn  of  grateful  rapture.  Every  ad¬ 
verse  point,  such  as  the  reprobacy  of 
the  persistently  impenitent,  or  the  con¬ 
ditions  of  salvation,  is  omitted  or  post¬ 
poned.  An  insertion,  therefore,  of  the 
stern,  repressive  absolutism  of  the  di¬ 
vine  counsels  is  wholly  out  of  time 
and  tune.  3.  As  already  intimated,  the 
same  term  in  verse  9  must  have  the 
same  meaning.  This  will  clearly  ap¬ 
pear,  we  think,-  in  our  note  upon  this 
verse,  showing  that  it  designates  the 
divine  beneficence  of  God’s  ideal  of  a 
universal  restoration  of  all  men ,  through 
Christ,  to  holiness  and  heaven.  4.  The 
parallelism  between  this  and  the  fol¬ 
lowing  clause  requires  this  meaning : 
according  to  the  beneficence  of  liis  will , 
to  the  praise  of  the  gloi'y  of  his  grace. 
Beneficence  and  grace  here,  are  to  be 
held  as  different,  but  cumulative,  desig¬ 
nations  of  the  same  thing. 

6.  Praise  of  the  glory  of  his 
grace  —  The  glory,  is  the  quality  of 
the  grace;  the  praise,  is  the  response 
olall  God’s  glorified  ones  in  the  con¬ 
templation  of  the  glory  of  that  grace. 
Perhaps  praise  of  the  gloriousness  of  his 


according  to  p  the  riches  of  his 
grace;  8  Wherein  lie  hath  abound¬ 
ed  toward  us  in  all  wisdom  and 
prudence ; 

<)  q  Having  made  known  unto  us 

Rev.  5.  9. - 7>  Rom.  9.  23;  chap.  2.  7;  3.  8,  16. 

- q  Chap.  3.  4,  9;  Col.  1.  26. 

grace ,  gives  the  exact  meaning.  The 
beloved — Perhaps  an  allusion  to  Da¬ 
vid,  the  type  of  the  Messiah,  whose 
name  signifies  beloved. 

7.  In  whom  —  Having  mentioned 
Christ  under  the  endearing  title  of  the 
Beloved,  that  blessed  name  becomes 
the  hinge  upon  which  verses  7-10 
turn,  being  a  climax  of  blessedness 
culminating  in  the  final  restitution  of 
verse  10.  The  successive  steps  of  the 
climax  are,  redemption,  forgiveness, 
grace,  revelation,  beneficence,  universal 
restitution.  Redemption  —  Release 
from  a  bondage  to  sin  and  death  for  a 
ransom  price.  Through  his  blood — 
The  price  of  the  ransom.  Forgive¬ 
ness — The  immediate  shape  which  the 
redemption  takes.  Riches  —  Paral¬ 
lel  to  glory  in  verse  6 :  glory  accru¬ 
ing  to  God,  riches  flowing  down  upon 
man. 

8.  Wherein  —  Namely,  in  grace. 
Abounded  —  Has  been  aboundingly 
liberal.  Prudence  —  Rather,  under¬ 
standing ,  namely,  of  tire  mystery  of 
the  next  verse. 

2.  This  eternal  election  is  ac¬ 
cording  to  a  divine  ideal  of  an 
ultimate  reconciliation  of  all  man¬ 
kind,  through  the  headship  of 
Christ,  unto  God,  9,  10. 

9.  Having  made  known  —  This 
making  known  is  a  revelation  in  time 
of  a  mystery  which  was  in  eternity ; 
namely,  the  revelation  by  the  gospel. 
It  is  a  disclosure  to  the  world  of  what 
was  designed  before  the  foundation 
of  the  world.  Mystery — The  mat¬ 
ter  covered  by  the  mystery,  name¬ 
ly,  the  gracious  designs  of  God  which 
truly  lie  in  his  eternal  holy  nature. 
Hence  mystery  of  his  will  means  the 
hitherto  unrevealed  beneficent  restor¬ 
ative  purpose  by  God  willed  in  the  past 
eternity ;  that  is,  the  divine  ideal  of 
God  for  the'  restoration  of  all  men, 
through  the  divine  Son  of  man,  to  one- 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  I. 


259 


the  mystery  of  his  will,  according 
to  his  good  pleasure  r  which  he 
hath  purposed  in  himself :  10  That 

rChap.  3.  11;  2  Tim.  1.  9. - .9  Gal.  4.  4; 

1  Pet.  1.  20. 

Bess  with  God.  According  to  his 
good  pleasure  —  Literally,  according 
to  the  beneficence  of  his  which  he  hath 
purposed .  •  The  beneficence  consisting 
in  the  summation ,  in  Christ,  of  verse  10. 

In  rendering  kv^oaia  beneficence,  we 
differ  from  Meyer,  Alford,  Ellicott,  and 
others,  and  agree  with  Olshausen  and 
Eadie.  The  former  are  obliged  to  ren¬ 
der  in  substance:  Having  revealed. .  . 
according  to  his  good  pleasure  which  he 
hath  purposed.  But  to  purpose  a  good 
pleasure  is  a  solecism.  Having  revealed 
.  .  .  according  to  the  beneficence  of  his , 
which  he  purposed ,  makes  sense.  And 
then  Paul  goes  on  to  tell  what  the 
purposed  beneficence  is. 

The  phrase  according  to,  is  used 
five  times  in  the  section.  God’s  bless¬ 
ing  accords  with  his  choice  of  us :  his 
predestination  with  beneficence  of  his 
will:  forgiveness  with  riches  of  grace: 
revelation  with  beneficence:  predesti¬ 
nation  with  purpose. 

10.  Elf  obiovopcav  ruv  rcTirjpcjpaToc 
r£)v  aarptiv,  a  very  difficult  clause,  being 
in  the  English  translation  in  the  dis¬ 
pensation  of  the  fulness  of  times. 
There  is  no  Greek  for  the  that. 

We  can  best  attain  an  explanation 
by  taking  the  last  word  first,  and  go¬ 
ing  backwards.  K  acptiv,  times,  signi¬ 
fies  the  ages ,  ceons,  or  time-periods ,  in 
each  of  which  a  system  of  events  is 
completed,  and  from  which  transition 
is  then  made  to  the  next.  Hhgpcjparog 
is  the  Idling  full,  or  rounding  out,  the 
events  of  one  given  time-system :  hence 
of  the  time-periods  the  fulfilling  with 
events.  Ellicott  perplexes  matters  by 
rendering  TrAr/pcjparog  “  that  moment 
that  completes,  fills  up,”  the  time-peri¬ 
od  ;  whereas  it  may  be  (see  Rob.  Greek 
Lex.  N.  T.)  a  verbal  noun,  (equivalent 
to  nTigpuacg,)  and  signify  the  process  of 
fulfilling.  OiKovopiav ,  dispensation, 
is  the  management,  administration,  or 
control  of  the  fulfilling  of  the  time-periods , 
extending  over  the  whole  series.  Most 
dubious  of  all  is  the  elq,  into,  a  prepo- 


in  the  dispensation  of  8  the  fulness 
of  times  1  he  might  gather  together 
in  one  u  all  things  in  Christ,  both 

t  Chapter  2.  15;  3.  15. - u  Philippians  2.  9; 

Colossians  1.  20. 

sition  signifying  motion  to,  or  into,  a 
place  or  thing,  and  impossible  to  bo 
rendered  simply  in.  The  rendering  of 
Erasmus,  Calvin,  and  others,  even  to, 
Alford  condemns  justly  as  unintelligi¬ 
ble.  His  own  in  order  to ,  is,  perhaps, 
just  as  unintelligible.  So  seems  his 
entire  rendering :  “  According  to  his 
good  pleasure  which  he  has  purposed 
in  himself,  in  order  to  the  economy  of 
the  fulfilment  of  the  seasons  to  sum 
up  all  things  in  the  Christ.”  Ellicott’s 
rendering  of  the  preposition,  with  a  view 
to,  for ,  is  better,  making  it  signify  men¬ 
tal  motion  toward  a  thing. 

We  apprehend,  however,  that  com¬ 
mentators  have  not  noticed  in  this  con¬ 
nexion  the  force  of  the  preposition  eig 
in  the  phrases  elg  alovag,  unto,  or  into, 
ages;  where  eig  signifies  not  only  into, 
but  throughout,  or  in  the  course  of;  the 
preposition  running  through  the  whole 
line  of  the  ages,  and  so  making  forever. 
And  so  here  the  force  of  the  preposi¬ 
tion  is,  we  think,  fully  expressed  by  in 
the  course  of.  Our  own  rendering,  then, 
would  be  :  the  beneficence  ivhicli  he  pur¬ 
posed  in  himself  (namely)  in  the  course 
of  the  management  of  the  filling  up  of 
the  time-periods,  to  sum  up  together  all 
things  in  the  Messiah.  So,  as  the  final 
summing  up  of  all  is  one  in  the  series 
of  the  time-periods,  the  purpose  runs 
through  the  whole  series.  Gather 
together — The  Greek  a  very  full  com¬ 
pound,  r  e- gather -for -himself .  Same  as 
to  reconcile  in  Col.  i,  20,  where  see 
notes.  The  two  passages,  written  at 
the  same  time  in  epistles  sent  by  the 
same  messengers  to  the  same  region  of 
country,  must  be  held  as  strictly  par¬ 
allel,  the  clearer  defining  the  less  clear. 
This  summing  up,  or  gathering  together, 
is  unto  the  redemption  of  verse  7, 
just  as  the  reconcile  of  Col.  i,  20  is 
unto  the  redemption  of  verse  14  of 
that  chapter.  The  nature  of  the  recon¬ 
ciliation  in  Colossians  is  made  clear 
by  the  result  of  the  peace  made  being 
by  the  cross  j  and  so  also  the  fact  that 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  63. 


which  are  in  2  heaven,  and  which 
are  on  earth  ;  even  in  him : 

2  Gr.  the  heavens. - v  Acts  20. 32 ;  26. 18 ;  Rom. 

you  hath  he  reconciled,  in  Col.  i,  21, 
shows,  by  specimen,  that  it  is  reconcili¬ 
ation  by  conversion  and  pardon.  This 
disproves  the  construction  given  by 
Meyer,  Alford,  and  other  commenta¬ 
tors,  that  the  gather  together  is  com- 
positely  a  reconciliation  of  the  penitent, 
together  with  a  subjection  of  the  im¬ 
penitent  to  a  discordant  unity  under 
Christ,  as  in  1  Cor.  xv,  28,  where  see 
note.  Beyond  all  question,  we  think,  a 
reconciliation  by  redemption  to  peace, 
through  the  blood  of  his  cross,  of 
all  things  in  heaven  and  on  earth, 
is  what  the  apostle  means. 

Is,  then,  the  doctrine  of  the  actual 
final  restoration  of  all  men  to  holiness 
true  ? 

Of  all  our  commentators,  Olshausen 
and  Turner  express,  we  think,  the  truth. 
Such  a  restoration  is  the  full  divine 
idea  of  God’s  beneficence  in  the  cross. 
Such  is  the  complete  fulness  which  it 
pleased  the  Father  there  should  be  in 
Christ.  God  is  in  Christ  reconciling 
the  world  unto  himself.  And  hence  the 
apostle  beseeches ,  in  Christ's  stead ,  be  ye 
reconciled.  Christ  is  officially  the  lamb 
of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the 
world:  the  Saviour  of  all  men;  the 
propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world.  Thus  the  divine  idea  in  Christ 
is  a  universal  salvation  through  a  uni¬ 
versal  reconciliation ;  a  gathering  to¬ 
gether  of  all  things  in  him. 

Why  is  this  ideal  not  realized  ?  A 
large  body  of  Scriptures  lays  the  fault 
upon  men.  On  the  divine  side  the  idea 
is  sincere,  the  provisions  are  ample; 
on  the  human  side  the  powers,  natural 
and  gracious,  are  ample;  but  the  ful¬ 
ness  of  Christ  is  rejected.  The  ideal 
of  God’s  mercy  is  universal ;  but  the 
eternal  ideal  of  his  holy  choice,  elec¬ 
tion,  or  predestination,  is  circumscribed 
by  human  perversity;  since  it  can  em¬ 
brace  only  those  who  fully  accord  with 
it  by  consenting  to  be  holy.  “  This  is  the 
condemnation,  that. .  .men  loved  dark¬ 
ness  rather  than  light,  because  their 
deeds  were  evil.”  And  this  is  the  rea- 


11  v  In  whom  also  we  have 
obtained  an  inheritance,  w  being 

8.17;  Col.  1.12;  Tit.  3.  7;  Jas.  2.  5. - ic  Verse  5. 


son  why,  in  the  foreknowledge  of  God, 
foreseeing  men’s  persistent  evil,  they 
cannot,  in  time,  be  elected  to  himself 
by  a  holy  God;  yet  he,  accepting  the 
future  facts  as  they  appear  to  his  pre¬ 
science,  nevertheless  triumphantly  so 
works  all  things  after  the  counsel 
of  his  own  will,  as,  perhaps,  to  bring 
out  of  this  world  even  a  higher  result 
than  could  have  accrued  from  a  sinless 
world.  This  last  fact  may,  perhaps, 
be  the  divine  justification  in  the  non¬ 
prevention  of  the  responsible  sin  his 
wisdom  foresees.  All  things  ...  in 
heaven.  .  .on  earth — But  not  in  hell. 
God  and  man,  Christ  and  man,  angels 
and  man,  but  not  God  and  devils,  are 
brought  to  peace  through  the  blood 
of  his  cross.  The  only  obstacle  was 
man’s  enmity  and  sin,  and  the  conse¬ 
quent  holy  opposition  of  all  righteous 
beings  to  man.  When  man  accepts  the 
cross,  the  reconciliation  becomes  com¬ 
plete,  and  man  comes  into  the  happy 
number  of  the  elect — of  elect  men  with 
elect  angels.  The  making  heaven 
and  earth  signify  Jews  and  Gentiles, 
adopted  by  some  commentators,  (Dr. 
Clarke  included,)  produces  a  meaning 
far  below  the  grandeur  of  St.  Paul’s 
language.  Nothing  but  the  fullest 
meaning  of  the  terms  is  here  admis¬ 
sible.  In  him — Repeated  in  joyful 
emphasis ;  for  Christ  is  the  predomi¬ 
nant  topic  ever  since  his  naming  as 
the  Beloved  in  verse  6. 

3.  In  which  reconciliation  we 
(Paul  and  brethren)  have  obtained 
lot,  11,  12. 

In  this  universal  divine  ideal  of  res¬ 
toration,  his  brethren  and  self  (infer- 
entially  including  all  believers)  have 
realized  a  happy  lot  by  faith.  Their 
ideal  election  in  eternity  past  has  be¬ 
come  a  real  election  in  the  present. 
They  have  come  within  the  scope  of 
that  predestination  that  infallibly  con¬ 
nects  trust  in  Christ  to  a  real  share  in 
the  divine  reconciliation. 

11.  Obtained  an  inheritance — The 
Greek  verb  for  this  phrase,  ek l  ijpd)6T]fiEv1 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  1. 


261 


predestinated  according  to  x  the 
purpose  of  him  who  worketh  all 

x  Isa.  46.  10, 11. 

te  derived  from  a  root  (aA rjpog)  signify¬ 
ing  lot,  and  radically  means  to  acquire 
by  lot,  and  thence  to  acquire  by  inheri¬ 
tance,  or  any  other  mode  of  allotment  or 
distribution.  And  being  in  the  passive 
form  here,  it  might  be  rendered  have 
been  inherited.  The  sense  would  then 
be,  not  that  the  elect  has  obtained  an 
inheritance ,  but  that  the  elect  is  itself 
the  inheritance  of  Christ  in  the  resti¬ 
tution.  That  would  make  an  impres¬ 
sive  and  truly  biblical  idea ;  Acts  xx,  28, 
Titus  ii,  14,  and  in  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment,  Exod.  xix,  5,  Deut.  vii,  6,  xiv,  2, 
xxvi,  18.  This  construction  is  adopted 
by  Alford,  Ellicott,  and  many  others. 
But  it  is  certainly  wrong ;  being  con¬ 
tradicted,  as  we  may  show,  at  several 
subsequent  points,  and  especially  in 
vv.  13,  14,  where  unquestionably  it  is 
the  elect  who  are  sealed  over  as  ob- 
tainers  of  the  inheritance,  and  not  as 
being  inherited.  Meyer  has  shown  that 
the  active  meaning  of  the  word  is  ad¬ 
missible. 

According  to  some  commentators 
(see  Meyer)  the  lot,  as  meaning  a  die, 
indicates  here  the  pure  groundlessness 
of  an  individual  election,  “  because  in 
the  elect  themselves  there  is  no  cause 
why  they  should  be  elected  rather  than 
others.”  That  is,  our  holy  G-od  de¬ 
cides  the  eternal  salvation  or  damna¬ 
tion  of  immortal  souls  without  reason, 
with  a  fortuity  imaged  by  the  casting 
of  a  die  or  the  tossing  of  a  copper! 
Such  an  interpretation  sinks  both  the 
divine  character  and  the  authority  of 
Scripture  below  the  level  of  moral  re¬ 
spect.  The  glory  of  our  election,  for¬ 
sooth,  is  due  to  the  chance  that  turned 
us  up  heads !  All  this  is  contradicted 
by  the  words  purpose  and  counsel,  in¬ 
dicating  a  divine  fore-deliberated  choice 
in  view  of  the  proper  conditioned  quality 
of  the  object  chosen.  It  is  as  gratui¬ 
tous  an  interpretation  as  it  is  abhorrent; 
for  the  word  is  used  abundantly,  with¬ 
out  any  reference  to  chance,  to  signify 
inheritance,  estates,  lands. 

The  reference  to  the  allotment  of  the 
tribes  in  Canaan,  the  land  of  promise, 


things  after  the  counsel  of  his  own 
will:  12  yTliat  we  should  be  to 

y  Verses  6, 14;  2  Thess.  2. 13. 

is  not  to  be  held  as  subsidiary,  but  as  a 
key  to  all  that  follows.  The  restitution 
of  verse  1 0  is  unto  God’s  Canaan,  which 
we  have  by  him  inherited.  It  is  tc 
this  restitution-land  that  we  believers, 
having  inherited,  are  predestinated, 
sealed  over  by  the  Spirit  of  promise 
— promise,  namely,  of  the  restitution- 
land  ;  which  Spirit  is  our  first  instal¬ 
ment  (earnest)  thereof  (namely,  of  the 
land)  until  the  completed  redemption 
(initiated  at  ver.  7)  of  the  originally  pur¬ 
chased  possession.  The  entire  body 
of  commentators,  ancient  and  modern, 
so  far  as  we  know,  seem  to  have  failed 
to  grasp  this  clew,  and  so  appear  to  miss 
the  meaning.  Predestinated — Being 
fore-destinated  to  the  gracious  rewards 
of  faith.  See  on  verse  5.  The  rewards 
to  which  the}^  are  destined  is  the  allot¬ 
ment  into  the  restoration  as  partakers 
of  the  inheritance  from  Jehovah.  All 
things,  must  not  be  limited  either  to 
Jews  and  Gentiles,  or  to  the  things  of 
the  kingdom  of  Christ;  for  it  is  Paul’s 
purpose  to  trace  the  origin  of  the  holy 
Church  back  to  God,  the  almighty  Ruler 
of  all  things.  It  does  not  thence  fol¬ 
low  that  physical  events  and  free  voli¬ 
tions  are  worked  alike.  In  the  for¬ 
mer,  God’s  immanent  energy  originates 
and  directs  all  action  by  such  uniform¬ 
ity  as  assumes  to  us  the  aspect  of  nec¬ 
essary  law ;  but  in  the  free  agent 
God  supplies  the  energy  for  action, 
while  it  is  the  very  property  of  the 
freedom  of  the  agent  that  within  —  in 
the  area  of  his  freedom — he  directs  his 
own  actions.  Yet  these  free  actions 
it  is  the  prerogative  of  Infinite  Wisdom 
to  take  into  his  plan,  and  work  them 
in  accordance  with  his  own  counsel  to 
his  own  glorious  ends.  Note  on  Matt, 
xi,  25,  and  on  Rom.  ix.  Counsel  be¬ 
longs  to  the  deliberative  intellect,  and 
the  word  here  denotes  the  final  conclu¬ 
sion  attained  by  the  deliberation,  and 
adopted  by  the  will.  God’s  counsel, 
therefore,  in  full  view  of  all  possible  re¬ 
sults,  from  all  possible  courses,  results 
in  a  choice  of  absolute  wisdom. 

12.  We — The  same  we  as  in  the 


262 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  63. 


the  praise  of  his  glory,  2  who  first 
3  trusted  in  Christ. 


z  James  1.  18. - 3  Or,  hoped. 


preceding  verses,  meaning  Paul  and  his 
Ephesians  directly,  including  all  believ¬ 
ers  inferentially.  Most  commentators 
(including  Meyer,  Ellicott,  and  Riddle) 
-make  who  in  apposition  with  we,  and 
to . . .  glory,  the  main  predicate ;  read¬ 
ing  thus:  that  we  who  first  trusted  in 
Christ  should  he  to  the  praise  of  Ids 
glory.  (!)  It  seems  sufficient  to  refute 
this  to  note,  that  to  the  praise  of  his 
glory,  however  pregnant  in  meaning, 
is,  in  every  instance,  a  subordinate 
clause,  and  not  the  main  predicate  of 
the  sentence,  vv.  6,  14 ;  none  the  less 
so  in  the  last  instance  because  brought 
so  emphatically  at  the  close  of  the  sen¬ 
tence.  The  meaning  of  the  verse  is:  we 
are  predestinated ,  the  glory  being  God's , 
to  he  fore-hopers  in  Christ.  First  trust¬ 
ed — Literal  Greek,  the  ones  having  fore- 
hoped  in  Christ.  It  does  not  mean  that 
we  trusted  (or,  more  correctly  ren¬ 
dered,  fore-hoped)  before  somebody 
else,  or  that  we  are  by  God  designed  to 
be  the  earliest  believers ;  but  we,  like 
all  believers,  hoped  for  the  restitutive 
inheritance  in  Christ  before  its  realiza¬ 
tion.  As  vv.  9,  10  describe  the  res¬ 
titution,  verse  11  says  we  have  an  in¬ 
heritance  therein,  being  predesti¬ 
nated  ;  verse  12  now  tells  us  to  what 
we  are  predestinated,  namely,  to  be¬ 
ing  fore-hopers  in  Christ  for  attaining 
the  inheritance  in  the  restitution. 

All  the  commentators  we  have  ex¬ 
amined  here  seem,  we  think,  to  miss 
the  true  meaning.  The  we  they  take 
to  be  Jews,  and  ye  Gentiles;  the  dis¬ 
tinctive  of  the  Jews  being,  that  they 
fore-hoped  in  the  Christ. ,  that  is,  the 
Messiah.  Alford  thinks  it  a  proof  of 
this  meaning  that  Christ  lias  here  the 
article  before  it,  and  so  signifies  the 
Messiah.  It  seems  enough  to  reply 
that  Christ  has  the  article  before  it  in 
ver.  10,  where  it  signifies  the  Messiah, 
not  as  specifically  fore-hoped  by  the 
Jews,  but  the  Messiah  of  our  race,  as 
its  great  restorer.  The  we  of  verse  1 2 
must,  then,  be  the  we  of  verse  11,  and 
that  of  all  the  previous  wes,  or  first 


13  In  whom  ye  also  trusted,  after 
that  ve  heard  *the  word  of  truth, 

a  John  1.  17 ;  2  Cor.  6. 7. 


persons  plural,  of  the  paragraph ;  so 
that  it  would  follow  that  Paul  is,  for¬ 
sooth,  all  the  time  speaking  about 
Jews  until  verse  13!  If  not,  let  we 
of  verse  11  be  the  universal  elect,  and 
of  verse  12  the  Jews;  then  what  is 
the  meaning  ?  It  would  then  mean 
we,  the  universal  Church,  are  pre¬ 
destinated  in  order  that  we,  Jews, 
expecting  the  Messiah,  may  be  to  the 
praise  of  his  glory  ! 

But  what  is  the  meaning  of  the  Greek 
word  (rendered  incorrectly  in  the  En¬ 
glish  version  first  trusted)  'nporj/.TZL- 
norag,  the  ones  having  fore-hoped — fore- 
hopers  f  It  means  those  who  hoped 
before  the  attainment  of  the  object  of 
hope;  hoped  for  a  distant  restitution. 
The  objection  of  Alford,  that  foi'e-hope 
is,  then,  nothing  more  than  hope ,  is 
nugatory.  One  might  as  well  say  that 
to  predestinate,  that  is,  to  fore-destine , 
is  nothing  more  than  to  destine.  But 
in  both  cases  the  prefix  serves  to  rest 
the  mind  on  the  anterior  state  of  the 
hoping  man,  as  looking  to,  and  waiting 
for,  the  future  result. 

4.  Into  which  predestination  ye 
Ephesians  have  entered  by  faith, 
13,  14. 

13.  Ye — From  the  we  of  the  general 
elect  St.  Paul  now  makes  transition  to 
the  ye  of  the  Ephesian  elect,  (which  ye 
is  mostl}r  maintained  through  the  epis¬ 
tle,)  tracing  the  brief  history  of  their 
hearing  the  gospel,  believing,  and  being 
sealed  over  by  the  Spirit,  to  the  final 
restitution  of  verse  10.  As  founder  of 
the  Ephesian  Church,  St.  Paul's  memory 
naturally  recurs  to  the  blessed  process 
in  which,  by  faith,  they  came  into  the 
glorious  scheme  of  the  divine  election. 
He  begins  at  these  three  verses  the 
history  of  the  inclusion  of  the  Ephe¬ 
sians  into  the  predestination  unto  the 
inheritance,  but  suspends  it  through 
vv.  16-23,  and  then  he  resumes  it  at 
ii,  1.  That  is,  he  veers  from  completing 
that  history  here,  because  at  vv.  16-19 
his  mind  is  canied  away  by  the  thought 
of  his  prayer  for  their  realizing  their 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  I. 


268 


the  gospel  of  your  salvation :  in 
whom  also,  after  that  ye  believed, 
ye  were  sealed  with  that  Holy 
Spirit  of  promise,  14  c  Which  is 
the  earnest  of  our  inheritance  d  until 

b  2  Cor.  1.  22;  chap.  4.  30. - c 2  Cor.  1.  22. 

d  Luke  21.  28;  chap.  4.  30. 


the  redemption  of  etlie  purchased 
possession, f  unto  the  praise  ot  his 
glory. 

15  Wherefore  I  also,  Rafter  1 
heard  of  your  faith  in  the  Lord 


e  Acts  20.  28. — -/Verses  6, 12;  1  Peter  2.  9. 
g  Colossians  1.  4. 


Lot  in  Christ’s  headship ;  and  then,  at 
vv.  20-23,  his  mind  is  borne  upward  by 
the  thought  of  the  glory  of  that  head¬ 
ship.  When  these  two  successive  rap¬ 
tures  have  passed,  Paul  resumes,  in 
d,  1,  the  thread  of  history  commenced  at 
vv.  13-15.  Overlooking  these  two  par¬ 
enthetic  digressions,  the  reader  should 
tie  this  verse  fast  to  ii,  1,  as  forming  one 
narrative.  In  whom,  ye — Ephesians, 
parallel  to  in  whom . . .  we,  ver.  11.  We 
understand  the  two  whoms  of  the  pres¬ 
ent  verse  to  be  parallels,  and  the  whole 
verse  to  be  one  sentence :  In  whom  also 
ye ,  having  heard ,  in  whom  also  having 
believed,  ye  were  sealed ,  etc.  Faith  came 
upon  hearing ;  actual  election  came  up¬ 
on  faith;  and  then  sealing  came  upon 
their  election.  The  first  in  whom,  re¬ 
ferring  to  Christ,  implies  that  it  is  in 
him ,  as  Lord  and  embodiment  of  the 
gospel,  that  men  hear  the  gospel. 
Sealed  —  As  heirs  of  your  inheri¬ 
tance.  In  ordinary  cases  it  is  the  title- 
deed  that  is  sealed ;  but  the  regener¬ 
ate  nature,  wrought  by  the  Spirit,  is 
the  true  title-deed  of  the  elect.  Holy 
Spirit  —  The  impressive  Greek  phrase 

is.  the  Spirit  of  promise,  the  Holy. 
Why  called  the  Spirit  of  promise? 
Meyer  replies:  “The  term  promise  is  a 
qualifying  characteristic  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,"  for  it  is  promised  in  the  Old 
Testament.  Joel  ii,  28,  29 ;  Zech 
xii,  10;  Isa.  xliv,  3;  Ezek.  xxxvi,  26, 
and  onward ;  xxxix,  29  ;  compare  Gal. 
iii,  14.”  And  so  the  body  of  commen¬ 
tators.  All  this  is  good,  and  prepares 
us  for  the  true  point ;  but  the  point 
itself,  as  we  are  obliged  to  understand 

it,  -they  fail  to  give.  He  is  the  Spirit 
of  promise,  not  as  promised ,  but  as 
promising .  He  is  the  Spirit  of  prom¬ 
ise  because,  being  to  us  who  are  sealed 
an  earnest,  he  promises  to  us  our  inher¬ 
itance  ;  that  same  inheritance  which 
we  have  obtained  in  verse  11,  (where 
gee  note,)  identical  with  the  gather  to¬ 


gether  of  verse  10,  procured  by  the 
redemption  both  in  verse  14  and 
verse  7,  which  are,  in  fact,  identical. 
It  is  to  this  inheritance  (identical  with 
the  gather  together  of  verse  10)  that 
the  predestination,  not  only  of  verse 
11  but  of  verse  5,  is  made,  and  into 
that  predestination  the  ye  of  verse  13 
entered  by  the  faith  named  in  verse  15. 

14.  The  earnest — See  note,  2  Cor. 
i,  20.  The  blessed  Spirit  is  a  first  in¬ 
stalment,  a  small  portion,  of  our  inher¬ 
itance  already  given  us  to  assure  us 
that  it  will  be  finally  bestowed  in  ful¬ 
ness.  Our  inheritance — Hot  God’s, 
or  Christ’s  inheritance  of  the  elect, 
but  the  elects’  inheritance  of  the  final 
reconciliation  in  Christ.  See  note  on 
verse  11.  This  pledge  looks  to  the 
completed  redemption  (see  verse  7)  of 
the  purchased  possession,  namely, 
the  possession  purchased  through 
his  blood,  (verse  7,)  which  possession 
takes  place  at  and  in  the  reconciliation 
of  verse  10  and  Col.  i,  20. 

Paul  showed  in  the  previous  para¬ 
graph  a  picture  of  the  final  reconcilia¬ 
tion  in  Christ,  the  glorious  head,  and  of 
the  blessedness  of  an  election  through 
faith  to  that  inheritance.  He  now 
prays  that  the  minds  of  those  addressed 
may  be  raised  to  a  full  conception  of 
that  blissful  consummation,  and  then 
gives  a  second  picture  of  Christ  in  his 
glorious  redeeming  headship.  The  three 
transcendent  passages  (vv.  10,  19-23, 
and  Col.  i,  14-19)  should  be  read  to¬ 
gether  as  correspondent  parts  of  the 
same  sublime  portraiture. 

4.  Paul’s  thanksgiving  for  the 
Ephesians,  and  prayer  for  their 
realization  of  Christ’s  glorious 
headship,  15-23. 

15.  Wherefore  —  In  view  of  your 
thus  being  happily  sealed  to  this  in¬ 
heritance,  verses  13,  14.  I  also — In 

response  to  ye,  verse  13.  My  prayers 


are  for  the  sealing  which  is  to  result  in 


264 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  G3. 


Jesus,  and  love  unto  all  the  saints, 
10  h  Cease  not  to  give  thanks  for 
you,  making  mention  of  you  in  my 
prayers;  17  That  'the  God  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Father 
of  glory,  k  may  give  unto  you  the 

h  Rom.  1.  9;  Phil.  1.  3,  4;  C»l.  1.  3:  1  Thess.  1.2. 
_ i  John  20.  17. - &Col.  1.  9. _ 

possession,  verse  14.  Heard  —  He 

probably  had  not  seen  them  in  four  or 
i  /e  years. 

16.  Cease  not — This  implies  three 
things:  1.  That  the  apostle  was  inces¬ 
sant  in  prayer.  2.  That  individual  ob¬ 
jects  dear  to  his  heart  were  special¬ 
ly  introduced  into  his  prayers;  and, 
3.  That  his  Ephesians  were,  after  his 
hearing  of  their  faith  had  aroused  his 
interest  and  hope,  among  those  special 
objects. 

17.  The  particular  object  for  which 
Paul  incessantly  prayed  in  their  be¬ 
half,  namely,  their  elevation  of  view  to 
take  in  this  grandeur  of  the  redeeming 
Christ,  of  which  he  gives  a  picture  in 
vv.  20-23.  God  of. .  .  Christ — In  the 
entire  passage,  20-23,  St.  Paul  describes 
Christ  rather  in  his  manhood  raised  by 
process  to  a  divine  exaltation,  just  as 
in  Phil,  ii,  6-8  he  describes  his  divinity 
as  gradually  humanized  and  humiliated. 
The  reason  for  the  former  view  here  is 
to  furnish  basis  for  the  parallelism  in 
ii,  4-7,  identifying  our  exaltation  with 
Christ’s,  produced  by  our  divine  identi¬ 
fication  with  him.  This  exaltation  of 
both  Christ  and  his  elect  finds  its  glori¬ 
ous  cause  in  him  who  is  God  of  both. 
For,  as  Meyer  says,  “  God  hath  sent 
Christ,  given  him  to  death,  raised  and 
exalted  him.”  Father  of  glory — See 
note  on  Acts  vii,  2.  The  glory,  some¬ 
times  made  visible  to  human  eyes  in 
the  old  dispensation,  represented  the 
divine  splendour  which  our  thoughts 
necessarily  attribute  to  God,  like  the 
light  we  attribute  to  the  sun.  And 
such  visible  glory  also  represents  that 
moral  glory  we  attribute  to  the  divine 
actions  and  character.  From  such 
glory  in  both  kinds,  the  Trinity,  or  the 
Father  primarily,  is  called  from  his 
power,  God  of  glory,  Psa.  xxix,  3  ; 
and  from  his  supremacy,  King  of 
glory,  Psa.  xxiv,  7.  As  origin  and 


spirit  of  wisdom  and  revelation  4  in 
the  knowled  geof  him:  IS  ’The 
eyes  of  your  understanding  being 
enlightened ;  that  ye  may  know 
what  is  m  the  hope  of  his  calling, 
and  what  the  riches  of  the  glory 

4  Or,  for  the  ackncncledgment. - 1  Acts  26. 18. 

_ mChap.  2.  12. _ 

generator  of  all  this  gloriousness  he  is 
now  here  called  Father  of  glory,  as 
he  is  called  “  Father  of  lights,”  James 
i,  17.  So,  Father  of  mercies,  2  Cor. 

i,  3.  Christ  is  Lord  of  glory,  1  Cor. 

ii,  8 ;  and  so  there  are  cherubim 
of  glory,  ITeb.  ix,  5.  It  is  of  the 
moral  glory  made  visible  in  our  re¬ 
demption  to  the  eyes  of  your  under¬ 
standing,  when  enlightened  by  this 
Father  of  glory,  that  St.  Paul  spe¬ 
cially  here  speaks ;  the  glory,  glory, 
glory,  of  verses  6,  12,  and  14.  This 
glory  can  break  upon  their  view 
through  the  mists  of  earthliness  only 
by  the  double  process  of  verbal  reve¬ 
lation  to  them  and  of  quickening  their 
inner  powers  to  behold  and  realize  it. 
For  this  they  need  wisdom,  reve¬ 
lation,  enlightened  eyes.  Spirit  — 
A  divinely  communicated  spirit,  by 
which  revelation  is  made. 

18.  A  series  of  three  whats  now, 
in  order  of  climax,  unfold  the  grandeur 
which  it  is  Paul’s  prayer  that  the  Ephe¬ 
sians  may  know.  The  climax  is  in¬ 
dicated  by  the  terms  hope,  riches, 
power.  They  are  to  realize  how  cheer¬ 
ing  their  present  hope,  how  rich  their 
future  inheritance,  and  how  stupen¬ 
dous  the  power  exerted  by  God  in  ex¬ 
ecuting  the  vast  work  of  preparing  and 
securing  that  inheritance.  Hope  of 
his  calling — That  is,  the  hope  of  that 
to  the  enjoyment  of  which  God  calls 
you.  See  note,  Rom.  i,  1 ;  and  viii,  30; 
i  Cor.  vii,  20-22.  Eadie  mistakenlv 

»  «r 

says  :  “  Man’s  calling  is  often  slighted, 
but  God’s  is  effectual  calling.”  Scripture 
frequently  declares,  in  very  intense  lan¬ 
guage,  that  God’s  call  “  is  often  slight¬ 
ed.”  Prov.  i,  24.  In  increasing  vigour 
St  Paul  adds,  the  riches  of  the  glory 
of  his  inheritance  —  For  the  inher¬ 
itance,  consult  notes  on  verses  14,  7. 
Of  this  inheritance  they  should  realize 
not  only  the  glory,  but  the  unbounded 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  I. 


265 


of  his  "  inheritance  in  the  saints,  [  who  believe,  “  according  to  the 
19  And  what  is  the  exceeding  |  working  5  of  his  mighty  power, 
greatness  of  his  power  to  us-wa''d  20  Which  he  wrought  in  Christ, 


n  Verse  11. - oChap.  3.  7;  Col.  1.  29. 


affluence,  the  riches  of  that  glory. 
They  must  enlarge  their  understand¬ 
ings  to  conceive  how  rich  is  the  glory 
of  the  inheritance.  His — God’s  to 
bestow  on  us.  Note  on  verse  14.  In 
the  saints — As  this  glory  is  to  take 
place  in  the  great  day  of  accomplished 
reconciliation  of  verse  10,  namely,  at  the 
advent,  and  is  a  reconciliation  of  all  in 
holiness,  we  might  render  this,  among 
the  holy  ones.  Nevertheless,  since  it  is 
plain  that  it  is  the  Church  (verse  22) 
particularly  whose  share  in  this  glory 
is  now  in  Paul’s  view,  saints  may  be 
the  true  rendering. 

19.  The  apostle  completes  his  three¬ 
fold  climax  by  unfolding  the  stupendous 
power  exerted  by  God  to  produce  this 
glory.  Us .  .  .who  believe  —  And 
this  believe,  that  is,  faith ,  is  the  con¬ 
dition  performed  by  us.  Note,  verse  8. 
We  have  already  said  that  as  Paul  here 
is  unfolding  the  riches  of  the  glory 
of  the  divine  side  of  our  redemption, 
so  he  says  little  of  our  condition  from 
the  human  side.  But  nevertheless  the 
objects  of  the  whole  election  of  God 
are  viewed  as  possessing  certain  ob¬ 
jective  qualities  by  which  they,  rath¬ 
er  than  others,  are  eligible  to  choice. 
Those  who  deny  this  are  in  a  dilemma, 
falling  sometimes  upon  one  horn  and 
sometimes  on  the  other.  Sometimes  we 
are  told  by  them  that  absolutely  there  is 
no  reason  in  one,  rather  than  another, 
for  God’s  preference;  and  that  makes 
it  an  irrational  volition.  It  is  an  act 
not  onlv  without  a  rational  motive,  but 
a  volition  without  any  motive  at  all; 
which  most  Calvinists  pronounce  to  be 
an  impossibility.  At  other  times  we 
are  told  that  there  is  a  reason,  but  the 
reason  is  not  revealed  to  us.  But  if 
there  be  a  reason  for  preferring  one 
object  to  another,  why  may  not  that 
reason  just  as  reasonably  be  faith  as 
any  other  ?  The  reason  must  be  some 
preferability  in  one  above  another.  To 
Bay  there  is  no  reason,  no  preferability, 
in  the  object  for  an  act  so  stupendous, 


5  Gr.  of  the  might  of  his  vower. 

and  in  which  St.  Paul  recognizes  so 
transcendent  a  glory,  is  to  make  Om¬ 
niscience  an  idiot.  And  if  any  pref¬ 
erability  in  the  object  exists,  beyond  nil 
question  it  is  faith  in  the  man  underly¬ 
ing  the  divine  choice  resting  upon  him. 
And  this  is  Paul’s  declaration.  Us. . . 
who  believe  are  the  objects  of  the 
efficient  action  of  redemption.  These 
are  the  us  whom  he  hath  chosen 
verse  4 :  the  us  whom  he  has  pre¬ 
destinated,  verse  5  ;  the  us  whom  he 
hath  made  accepted,  verse  6  ;  and 
the  us  to  whom  he  hath  made  known 
the  mystery  of  his  will,  verse  9. 
Hereby  is  harmonized  the  glorious  su¬ 
premacy  of  God  with  the  free  choice  of 
the  creature.  God,  in  infinite  and  eter¬ 
nal  power  and  goodness,  provides  the 
entire  system  of  redemption  into  which 
man,  by  his  empowered  but  not  neces¬ 
sitated  faith,  is  graciously  and  glorious¬ 
ly  comprehended  and  embodied.  See 
our  notes  on  Romans  viii,  28-30,  and 
ix,  1-33.  The  working  of  his  mighty 
power — An  elaborate  clause  in  the 
apostle’s  Greek,  ryv  kvcpyeiav  rov  npu- 
rovg  ryg  laxvog  avrov ,  the  working  of 
the  force  of  his  strength.  Taking  the 
last  first,  loxvog  is  personal  strength  or 
vigour  inhering  in  a  person  ;  Kpdrovg  is 
the  force  or  momentum  with  which 
it  can  go  forth ;  hepyeiav  is  the  ob¬ 
jective  working,  or  action  of  the  per¬ 
sonal  strength  in  its  full  force  or  effi¬ 
ciency.  We  are  not  to  concede  to  ad¬ 
verse  criticism  that  this  is  a  mere 
wordy  accumulation  of  terms.  In  the 
grandeur  of  this  movement  the  apostle's 
eye  presents  every  successive  stage. 
From  the  working  he  travels  through 
its  momentum  up  to  the  might  inhe¬ 
rent  in  the  divine  Person.  Calvin, 
quoted  by  Alford,  ingeniously  says: 
“  The  might  is  the  roof  the  momentum 
is  the  tree,  the  working  is  th q  fruit.” 

20.  St.  Paul  now  pictures  the  stu¬ 
pendous  working  of  this  power,  be¬ 
ginning  with  Christ’s  resurrection,  and 
finishing  (verse  23)  with  his  glorious 


266 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  63. 


when  p  be  raised  him  from  t lie 
dead,  and  q  set  him  at  li is  own 
right  hand  in  the  heavenly  places, 
2  3  rFar  above  all  8  principality, 
and  power,  and  might,  and  do¬ 
minion,  and  every  name  that  is 
named,  not  only  in  this  world, 

p  Acts  2.  24. - q  Psa.  110.  1;  Acts  7-  55,  50; 

Coir  3.  1;  Heb.  1.  3;  10.  12. rPhil.  2.  9,  10; 

Col.  2.  10;  Heb.  1.  4.— <*-«Roni.  8.  38;  Col.  1.  16; 

supremacy.  No  human  machineries — 
nay,  no  catastrophes  in  geology,  no 
forces  in  astronomy — furnish  to  the 
eyes  divinely  enlightened  so  sublime 
and  so  gracious  a  display  of  the  omnip¬ 
otence  of  the  Father  of  glory  as  the 
work  he  hath  -wrought  in  Christ. 
And  the  glory  of  this  work  has  the 
profoundest  interest  for  us,  as  we  are 
identified  with  Christ  through  all  the 
stages  here  traced.  So  the  apostle 
will  show  in  ii,  1-7.  This  work  was 
in  Christ,  but  for  us  who  believe. 
From  the  dead — From  deads ,  or  dead 
ones;  being  the  Greek  genitive  plural 
without  the  article.  See  note  on  Luke 
xx,  35.  Right  hand  —  See  notes  on 
Acts  vii,  55,  56.  The  spirit  eyes  of  the 
martyr  Stephen  were  so  enlightened 
and  vivified  as  to  see  the  realities  of 
God  and  Christ  in  the  supernal  world ; 
namely,  Christ  at  the  right  hand  of 
God.  See  our  note,  Rom.  viii,  34.  In 
heavenly  places — In  those  superter¬ 
rene  domains  which  our  eyes  of  flesh 
cannot  see  unless,  like  Stephen’s,  su- 
pefnaturally  quickened.  See  note  on 
verse  3. 

21.  All  principality,  and  power — 

See  our  note  on  Rom.  viii,  38.  The 
entities  named  by  the  apostle  as  those 
over  whom  Christ  is  exalted  are  ab¬ 
stract  dignities,  not  real  personal  be¬ 
ings.  His  person  is  over  all  other  per¬ 
sonal  beings,  because  his  rank  is  above 
all  other  ranks.  Personal  natures  are 
often  mentioned  in  Scripture,  as  cheru¬ 
bim,  seraphim,  angels,  and  archangels. 
And  in  all  scenic  or  apocalyptic  rep¬ 
resentations  these  personal  beings  ap¬ 
pear.  Ho  commentator  has  given  any 
clear  distinction  between  the  entities 
of  this  verse.  The  apostle  mentions 
these  entities  simply  as  indicating  that 
such  varied  supernal  dignities  do  exist, 


but  also  in  that  which  is  to  come: 
22  And  ‘hath  put  all  things  un¬ 
der  his  feet,  and  gave  him  uto 
he  the  head  over  all  things  to  the 
church,  23  T  Which  is  his  body, 
the  fulness  of  him  that  filleth  all 
in  all. 

2. 15. - 1  Psa.  8.  % ;  Matt.  28. 18 ;  1  Cor.  15.  27. - 

u Chap.  4.  15:  Col.  1. 18. - r  1  Cor.  12.27 ;  chap. 

4.  12;  Col.  1.  24  ;  2.  9;  chap.  4.  10;  Col.  3.  11. 

but  that  in  what  thev  consist  he  does 

%r 

not  claim  to  personally  know,  or  find 
it  in  his  inspiration  to  reveal.  Every 
name — Whatever  name  you  utter,  the 
name  of  Christ  is  its  superior.  This 
world  This  time-world.  So  that 
through  all  future  ?eons,  or  time-worlds, 
Jesus  is  the  supreme  name. 

22.  The  last  previous  verse  declares 
the  supei  /  4fy  of  Christ’s  rank ;  this  de¬ 
clares  that  all  inferiors  are  directly  sub¬ 
jected  to  his  rule.  Put... feet — The 
words  are  evidently  run  in  from  Psa. 
viii.  6,  where  they  are  spoken  of  man 
as  the  supreme  of  the  earth.  Christ  is 
the  supreme  ideal  man.  And  here  is 
a  peaceful  supremacy  different  from 
the  subjection  of  all  things  by  conquest 
specified  in  1  Cor.  xv,  27.  Gave  him 
...to  the  Church  —  But  while  this 
supremacy  embraces  all  in  its  benign 
sway,  there  is  one  object  over  which 
and  to  which  he  is  a  special  donation. 
He  is  ruler  over  all ;  but  he  is  given 
head,  even  in  his  universal  suprema¬ 
cy,  to  the  Church.  God  gave  him 
head,  while  over  all  things,  to  the 
Church. 

23.  His  body — So  that  he  and  the 

Church  are  one  conceptual  person.  He 
unifies,  vivifies,  inspires  that  body  with 
which,  as  its  head,  he  is  identical  and 
one.  All  in  all,  is  expressly  limited 
in  the  parallel  passage.  1  Cor.  xv,  28, 
(see  note,)  to  God  the  Father,  or  the 
whole  Trinity.  That  the  passages  are 
parallel  is  clear  from  the  same  quota¬ 
tion  from  the  Psalm  being  used  in  both. 
Him,  therefore,  refers  not,  we  think, 
to  Christ  but  to  God.  Paul’s  words  re¬ 
garding  Christ  in  iv,  10,  ‘-fill  all  things,” 
are  by  no  means  equivalent  as  Alford 
quotes  them,  to  this  repeated  all  in  all 
of  God.  Besides,  through  this  whole 
chapter  and  the  next,  the  eternal  org* 


A.  I).  G3.  CHAPTER  II. 


267 


CHAPTER  II. 

ND  a  you  hath  he  quickened , 
bwlio  were  dead  in  trespass¬ 


er  John  5.  24 ;  Col.  2.  13. - b  Chap.  4.  18. 


ination  of  the  Church  is  ascribed  to 
God.  Filleth,  in  the  Greek,  is  pas¬ 
sive  in  form,  and  most  properly  sig¬ 
nifies  is  filled;  or,  (as  the  same  word 
is  rendered  in  Col.  iv,  12,  John  iii,  29, 
and  elsewhere,)  filled  in  the  sense  of 
complete ,  perfected ,  filled-out.  Hence 
we  understand  that  while  the  Church 
is  Christ  s  body,  it  is  also  the  fulness 
of  God,  who  is  the  full-orbed  all  in  all. 
It  is  a  question  whether  Paul  intends 
fulness  as  imparted  to  Christ,  or  ful¬ 
ness  as  ever  dwelling  in  God.  By  a 
comparison  of  the  word  as  occurring 
in  iii,  19,  and  Col.  i,  19,  it  seems  to 
include  both  God’s  fulness  as  indwell¬ 
ing,  and  as  overflowing,  by  impartation, 
unto  Christ.  It  is  by  that  fulness,  from 
God  imparted,  that  the  Church  becomes 
Christ's  body.  And  so  throughout 
both  these  chapters  Christ  is  presented 
in  his  glorious  subordination  to  God. 

CHAPTER  II. 

II.  Historical  Inclusion  of  the 
Ephesians  in  the  Divine  Elective 
Purpose,  ii,  1— iii,  21. 

1.  Recapitulation  of  their  origi¬ 
nal  death  and  subsequent  resur¬ 
rection,  1-10. 

In  parallelism  with  Christ’s  resur¬ 
rection  and  exaltation  in  i,  20-23,  bt. 
Paul  pictures  the  conceptual  death  of 
the  Ephesians  by  sin,  and  their  res¬ 
urrection  and  exaltation  with  Christ. 
Their  state  of  death,  vv.  1-3  ;  their  res¬ 
urrection  and  exaltation  with  Christ, 
vv.  4-6.  The  reason  of  this,  a  show¬ 
ing  to  the  ages  of  his  grace,  ver.  7.  A 
present  reminder  to  the  Ephesians  that 
they  are  saved  solely  by  this  grace, 
vv.  8-10. 

1.  And  you  —  St.  Paul  now  begins 
from  i,  20,  in  order  to  furnish,  in  ii,  1-10, 
the  parallel  of  the  Ephesian  spiritual 
resurrection  with  Christ's  bodily  resur¬ 
rection.  Meyer  opposes  this  connect¬ 
ing  with  i,  20,  because  or  the  change 
jrom  the  first  person  plural,  us  who 


es  and  sins;  2  c Wherein  in  time 
past  ye  walked  according  to  the 
course  of  this  world,  according  to 


cl  Cor.  6.  11 ;  chap.  4.  22;. Col.  1.  21. 


believe,  ver.  19,  to  the  second  person, 
and  you.  But  the  you  is  to  the  we  as 
a  part  to  a  whole,  and  so  subject  to  tiie 
same  statement.  Hath  he  quickened 
— As  the  italics  indicate,  these  words 
are  supplied  by  the  translators  to 
furnish  a  verb  to  govern  the  objective 
you.  The  words  are  in  sense  bor¬ 
rowed  from  verse  5,  where  the  verb  is 
introduced  with  the  objective  changed 
to  us.  Dead  —  Under  the  entire 
death  which  sin  works  —  death  tem¬ 
poral,  spiritual,  and  eternal.  Dr.  Eadie 
and  others  in  vain  object  that  they 
were  not  in  reality  temporally  dead. 
Nor  were  they,  we  reply,  in  reality 
raised  with  Christ  and  made  to  sit 
together  in  heavenly  places.  T  et 
both  statements  are  conceptually  true, 
and  all  parts  of  the  redemption  are  taken 
as  one  whole.  Note,  2  Cor.  v,  14.  Re¬ 
demption  raises  from  the  death  that  sin 
inflicts  upon  us.  In — Rather,  by.  The 
more  natural  rendering  of  the  Greek 
makes  the  death  the  effect  of  the  tres¬ 
passes  and  sins.  The  terms  tres¬ 
passes  and  sins  run  into  each  other 
in  meaning,  yet  there  is  a  general  dis¬ 
tinction.  The  trespass  is  the  more  sec¬ 
ular,  the  sin  the  more  religious  term. 
The  former  is  more  uniformly  a  distinct 
act,  sometimes  an  inadvertent  one  ;  the 
latter  is  often  a  habit,  a  moral  state. or 
condition.  In  the  former  more  dis¬ 
tinctly  appears  the  idea  of  an  offence 
against  another;  in  the  latter  a  guilt, 
or  penalty,  or  depravation,  contracted 
upon  ourselves. 

2.  Wherein,  according  to  the  Greek, 
properly  refers  to  sins,  implying  an  ha¬ 
bitual  course  of  trespasses.  Walked, 
together  with  had  conversation  and 
fulfilling,  in  ver.  3,  shows  that  Paul  is 
not  describing  the  congenital  depravi¬ 
ty  of  the  Ephesians  as  a  state,  but  their 
course  of  practical  adult  depraved  con¬ 
duct.  This  is  specially  important  to 
note,  in  order  to  a  true  understanding 
of  the  last  half  of  ver.  3.  The  course 
of  this  world — The  eeon  of  this  cosmos. 


268 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  63. 


d  the  prince  of  the  power  of  the 
air,  the  spirit  that  now  worketh 

d  Chap.  6.  12. - eCol.  3.  6. 

Both  aeon  and  cosmos  are  often  trans¬ 
lated  world.  But  the  latter  more  usu- 
all)  signifies  the  world-frame,  the  phys¬ 
ical  creation;  the  former  the  world- 
period,  and  the  spirit  of  that  period. 
This  world  is  terrene  in  opposition  to 
the  heavenly.  The  aeon  is  the  temper 
of  the  age.  The  prince  of  the  pow¬ 
er  of  the  air — Dr.  Eadie  well  says: 
“  The  prince  of  darkness  is  not  only 
prince,  but  god  of  this  world,  (2  Cor. 

iv,  4,)  and  his  power  is  mentioned, 
Acts  xxvi,  18.  Again,  he  is  styled 
prince  of  this  world,  John  xii,  31; 
xiv,  30;  xvi,  11.  His  principality  is 
spoiled,  Col.  ii,  15,  and  Jesus  came  to 
destroy  his  works,  1  John  iii,  8.  Be¬ 
lievers  are  freed  from  his  power,  1  J  olm 

v,  18;  Col.  i,  13.”  Power  is  used, 
as  above  in  i,  21,  to  signify  the  body 
of  powerful  beings — the  hierarchy,  or 
rather  demonarchy ,  collectively  embod¬ 
ied.  Of  the  air,  signifies  the  place 
in  which  the  demonarchy  exist  and 
hold  empire.  So  when  we  speak  of 
throwing  a  stone  into  the  air,  we  refer 
not  to  the  element  but  to  the  space.  So 
Acts  xxii,  23 :  “  They  threw  dust  in¬ 
to  the  airy  And  1  Thess.  iv,  17  :  “To 
meet  the  Lord  in  the  airy  In  both 
places  the  reference  is  not  to  the  aerial 
matter,  but  to  the  visible  vicinity,  the 
region  over  the  earth’s  surface.  This 
is  in  entire  accordance  with  the  uni¬ 
form  view,  both  scriptural  and  popular, 
that  spirits  of  both  good  and  evil  be¬ 
long  to  our  terrene  sphere.  A  spirit 
region  overlies  the  earth’s  surface,  like 
a  stratum  of  atmosphere. 

‘‘Millions  of  spirits  walk  the  earth  unseen. 

Both  when  we  sleep  and  when  we  wake.” 

— Milton. 

* 

So  in  Job  i,  7,  Satan  describes  himself 
as  “  going  to  and  fro  in  the  earth,  ai  d 
walking  up  and  down  in  it.”  Our  Lord 
beheld  Satan  as  falling  from  heaven 
toward  earth.  Luke  x,  18.  So  demons, 
as  from  the  aerial  space,  possess  demo¬ 
niacs.  These  views  were  held  by  the 
Jewish  doctors,  and  by  the  later  Greek 
philosophers  and  theosophists.  Plu¬ 
tarch  says,  The  “air  below  the  pure 


in  e the  children  of  disobedience: 
3  f  Among  whom  also  we  all  had 

f  Titus  3.  3 ;  1  Pet.  4.  3. _ 

ether,  and  below  the  pure  heaven,  is 
full  of  gods  and  demons.”  “  Nay,”  says 
Dr.  Eadie,  “Augustine  held  that  the  de¬ 
mons  were  penally  confined  to  the  air  ” 
as  to  a  prison.  If  (see  note  on  iv,  9) 
hades  or  the  infernum  is  at  the  subter¬ 
ranean  centre,  it  would  seem  by  this 
to  extend  its  domain  into  the  atmos¬ 
pheric  heaven.  Or,  reversely,  the  seat 
of  the  demonarchy  may  be  in  the  aerial, 
extending  to  the  earth’s  centre.  The 
spirit — This  word  is  not,  as  the  English 
reader  would  naturally  suppose,  in  ap¬ 
position  with  prince,  but  with  power. 
This  power,  the  collective  body  of  the 
demonarchv,  is  in  thought  and  words 
concentrated  into  a  spirit,  identified 
with  a  controlling  influence  in  wicked 
men.  From  the  spirit  region  over  earth, 
where  they  dwell,  they  settle  down  liko 
a  malaria  into  the  souls  of  the  depraved. 
Worketh  in — Operating  like  a  poison 
in  their  hearts  ;  deranging  their  intel¬ 
lects  and  inflaming  their  passions.  Chil¬ 
dren  of  disobedience — Literal  Greek, 
sons  of  disobedience ;  but  in  the  next 
verse,  not  in  the  Greek  sons ,  but  chil¬ 
dren,  of  wrath.  In  accordance  with  a 
well-known  Hebrew  idiom  the  term  son , 
or  child,  is  often  figuratively  used  to 
signify  any  quality  for  which  a  person 
is  or  was  distinguished.  The  Greeks 
could  say,  “sons  of  the  Greeks,”  as 
we  can  say,  “sons  of  America.”  But 
the  Hebrews  could  call  the  morning 
star  “  son  of  the  morning.”  They  could 
call  an  unspiritual  interpreter  a  *•  son  of 
the  letter.”  So,  Mark  iii,  17,  “sons  of 
thunder.”  Luke  x,  6,  literal  Greek,  “a 
son  of  peace.”  Similarly,  according  to 
the  Greek,  1  Thess.  v,  5,  “sons  of  the 
day.”  John  xii,  36,  “sons  of  light.” 
Luke  xvi,  8,  “sons  of  this  age.”  Luke 
xx,  36,  “sons  of  the  resurrection.”  In 
such  use  of  the  words  son  and  child, 
no  idea  of  being  born  of  the  quality 
or  circumstance  is  retained,  as  a  sur¬ 
vey  of  the  instances  will  amply  show. 
Disobedience — To  the  moral  law,  as 
shown  in  both  heart  and  life. 

3.  Among  whom  —  Namely,  the 
children  of  disobedience.  Conver- 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  II. 


269 


our  conversation  in  times  past  in  1  the  desires  of  the  flesh  and  of 
e  the  lusts  of  our  flesh,  fulfilling  the  mind  ;  and  h  were  by  nature 


g  Gal.  5.  16.  — 1  Gr.  the  wills. 

sation — Daily  intercourse  and  conduct. 
Flesh  —  Animal  appetites  and  mind 
governed  by  them.  Desires — Wills  or 
volitions.  Flesh  and.  .  .mind  —  The 
lower  and  the  higher  depraved  tenden¬ 
cies.  Were  —  This  verb  corresponds 
with  had  and  walked.  Contempo¬ 
raneously  with  our  evil  courses,  and 
underlying  them,  was  a  nature  by 
which  we  were  children  of  wrath. 
The  divine  wrath  condemned  not  only 
our  guilty  persons,  but  it  reached  more 
deeply — to  our  very  nature.  On  the 
phrase  children  of  wrath,  consult 
what  we  have  said  on  the  phrase  chil¬ 
dren  of  disobedience,  in  verse  2. 
But  the  G-reek  in  verse  2  is,  properly, 
sons;  here,  children.  Robinson’s  New 
Testament  Lexicon  says :  “  By  Hebrew 
genitive  case,  the  child  of  any  thing  is 
one  connected  with,  partaking  of,  or  ex¬ 
posed  to,  any  thing;  often  put  instead 
of  an  adjective.”  Matt,  xi,  19  and  Luke 
vii,  35,  “  Wisdom  is  justified  of  her  chil¬ 
dren.”  Eph.  v,  8,  “  Children  of  light,” 
that  is,  enlightened.  1  Pet.  i,  14,  “  Obe¬ 
dient  children.”  2  Pet.  ii,  14,  “Cursed 
children.”  So  Septuagint,  “Children 
of  perdition.”  A  survey  of  these  cases 
will  show: — 1.  The  absurdity  of  under¬ 
standing  that  the  expression  children 
of  wrath,  has  the  least  shadow  of  im¬ 
plying  that  men  are  born  of  the  wrath 
of  God.  2.  A  survey  of  such  phrases 
as  “child  of  hell,”  “son  of  perdition,” 
shows  that  it  will  not  do  to  affirm,  with 
Eadie,  that  the  phrase  means  more  than 
exposed  to  the  matter  of  which  one  is 
child.  The  “child  of  hell ’’was  yet 
untouched  by  hell,  though  exposed  to 
it.  So  the  child  of  wrath  may  be  not 
touched  by  the  wrath  of  God,  yet  liable 
to  become  so. 

A  thing  is  said  to  be  thus  or  so  by 
nature  when  it  is  so  by  birth  or  origin, 
or  by  growth,  in  distinction  from  be¬ 
ing  made  so.  A  free  agent  is  so  by 
nature  when  he  grows  so  in  regular 
and  normal  conditions.  See  our  work 
on  “  The  Will,”  p.  249.  Now  the  ques¬ 
tion  here  is,  (overlooked  by  commcn- 


li  Psa.  51.  5 ;  Rom.  5.  12. 


tators  like  Eadie  and  Hodge,)  Does  the 
phrase  by  nature  children  of  wrath 

mean  that  the  wrath  lies  upon  the 
child  at  birth,  or  not?  We  affirm  the 
negative,  and  believe  it  can  be  over¬ 
whelmingly  proved.  It  is  essentially 
the  question  of  “infant  damnation.” 
Josephus  says,  that  David  was  “just 
and  pious  by  nature certainly  not  in 
his  infancy,  but  as  he  developed  into 
manhood.  Herodian  says,  that  “bar¬ 
barians  are  property-loving  by  nature 
not,  certainly,  in  infancy,  but  in  their 
adult  development.  iElian  says,  “  The 
Cean  is  silver-loving  by  nature that 
is,  when  he  has  grown  old  enough  to 
contract  that  love.  HClian  says,  “The 
Athenians  were  envious  by  nature;'''  not 
so  at  birth,  certainly,  but  by  the  char¬ 
acter  into  which  they  grew.  So  iElian 
again,  “warlike  by  nature and  Philo, 
“peaceful  by  nature .”  All  the  examples 
(most  of  which  we  take  from  Wetstein) 
imply,  to  be  sure,  a  natural  tendency  at 
birth  to  the  condition  or  character  into 
which  they  grow ;  but  not  the  condition 
itself.  That  is,  the.y  prove  that  the  in¬ 
fant  possesses  the  tendency,  apart  from 
grace,  to  come  into  a  subjection  to  the 
wrath  of  Glod,  and  so  prove  innate 
depravity ;  but  do  not  prove  that  it  is 
born  under  the  wrath  of  God.  The 
words  do  not  decide  that  the  infant  is 
responsible  for  its  inborn  tendency,  and 
so  deserving  of  damnation  at  birth.  The 
doctrine  that  the  child  is  born  under 
damnation  lies  in  the  verv  centre  of  the 

V 

standard  predestinarian  system.  That 
system  assumes  that  any  and  every  in¬ 
fant  might  be  sent  to  hell  forever,  justly, 
and  without  a  Saviour.  On  that  as¬ 
sumption  it  bases  its  views  of  the  mer¬ 
cy  of  God  in  redemption.  Arbitrary 
reprobation  is  claimed  to  be  just  be¬ 
cause  all  might  be  justly  so  doomed  for 
original  sin  alone,  without  the  commis¬ 
sion  of  a  single  sin. 

We  hold,  on  the  contrary,  that  though 
sinward  tendencies  exist  in  germ  in  the 
infant,  yet  there  is  no  responsibility, 
and  no  damnability,  until  these  ten- 


270 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  03. 


dencies  are  deliberately  and  knowingly  I 
acted  in  real  life,  and  by  that  action 
appropriated  and  sanctioned.  Then  the 
man  is  condemned  both  for  the  guilt  of 
the  act  and  the  pravity  of  his  nature, 
now  responsibly  assumed  and  ready  to 
be  acted  out,  as  described  in  vv.  1,  2. 
See  note,  Rom.  v,  18. 

Rut  if  the  infant  is  irresponsible,  how 
can  Christ  be  to  him  a  pardoner  of  sin 
and  a  Saviour?  We  might  reply,  that 
it  does  not  make  Christ  any  pardoner 
of  sin  to  imagine  a  factitious  sin,  or  a 
guilt  which  has  no  foundation  in  the 
nature  of  things.  The  pardon  will  re¬ 
main  just  as  factitious,  just  as  merely 
verbal,  as  the  guilt  to  be  pardoned. 
Rut  Christ  still  stands  a  Saviour  to  the 
infant,  as  we  hold,  in  the  following 
respects:  1.  We  have  elsewhere  shown 
that  had  Christ  not  been  given  the  race 
would,  in  all  probability,  not  have  been 
permitted  to  be  propagated  after  the 
fall.  Notes  on  John  xiv,  19,  and  Rom. 
xi,  32.  So  the  grace  of  Christ  underlies 
the  very  existence  of  every  human  be¬ 
ing  that  is  born.  2.  Between  the  in¬ 
fant  descendant  of  fallen  Adam  and 
God  there  is  a  contrariety  of  moral 
nature,  by  which  the  former  is  irre¬ 
sponsibly,  and  in  undeveloped  condi¬ 
tion,  averse  to  the  latter,  and  so  dis- 
placent  to  Him.  By  Christ,  tlie  Media¬ 
tor,  that  averseness  is  regeneratively 
removed,  and  the  divine  complacency 
restored :  so  that  the  race  is  enabled 
to  persist  under  the  divine  grace. 
3.  Christ,  in  case  of  infant  death,  en¬ 
tirely  removes  the  sinward  nature,  so  as 
to  harmonize  the  being  with  the  holi¬ 
ness  of  heaven.  4.  Christ  is  the  infants’ 
justifier  against  every  accuser,  (note  on 
Rom.  viii,  29,)  whether  devils,  evil  men, 
or  mistaken  theologians;  asserting  their 
claim  through  his  merits,  in  spite  of 
their  fallen  lineage,  to  redemption  and 
heaven.  Being  thus  purified,  justified, 
and  glorified  by  Christ,  none  are  more 
truly  qualified  to  join  in  the  song  of 
Moses  and  the  Lamb. 

If  it  be  said,  Yes,  the  infant  sinned 
in  Adam,  we  reply,  (as  in  our  note 
on  Rom.  v,  12,)  that  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  nowhere  says  that  he  “sinned  in 
Adam.”  It  is  contrary  to  fact  that 
he  did  so  thousands  of  years  before  he 


had  any  existence.  Still,  as  there  are 
in  law  what  are  called  “legal  fictions,” 
so  in  theology  there  may  be  “theologi¬ 
cal  fictions.”  Such  fictions  are  modes  of 
figurative  idea  by  which  surrounding 
or  analogous  truths  may  be  more  viv¬ 
idly  realized ;  as,  for  instance,  where  it 
is  said  of  man  and  wife,  “they  twain 
are  one  flesh.”  But  such  fictions  must 
be  so  applied  as  not  to  contradict  axio¬ 
matic  truth  and  good.  If  from  the  one¬ 
ness  of  man  and  wife  theologians  lit¬ 
erally  infer  that  the  wife  must  die 
when  the  husband  does,  and  so  burn 
her  on  the  funeral  pile,  they  transfonn 
the  fiction  into  a  direful  lie.  And  yet 
this  would  not  be  a  millionth  part  as 
bad  as  the  theologians  picture  God  to 
be,  when  they  make  him  hold  infants 
to  be  justly  condemnable  to  hell  for¬ 
ever  because,  forsooth,  “they  sinned  in 
Adam !  ” 

If,  however,  we  must  say  that  infants 
“  sinned  in  Adam,”  let  us  be  consistent, 
and  add,  but  they  also  became  justified 
in  Christ.  So  Fletcher  of  Madelev 
beautifully  puts  it;  as  the  entire  race, 
infants  and  all.  sinned,  died,  and  went 
to  hell  before  they  were  born,  but 
only  “  seminally  ”  and  conceptually  in 
Adam,  so  they  are  all  redeemed  and 
saved  conceptually  in  Christ ;  and  so 
are  born  into  the  world  justified  heirs 
of  the  atonement  and  heaven.  Then 
fiction  meets  fiction;  and  beauty,  truth, 
and  reason  are  the  outcome. 

But  if  infants  die,  and  death  is  the 
consequent  of  sin,  why  do  sinless  in¬ 
fants  die  ?  Because,  we  reply,  in  the  fall 
the  supernatural  Spirit  of  holiness,  by 
which  man  was  raised  above  the  natu¬ 
ral  law  of  death,  was  withdrawn  from 
Adam  and  his  posterity ;  and  he  and 
they  were  surrendered  over  to  nature 
See  notes  on  Rom.  v,  12-19  and  xi,  32. 
And  by  nature,  as  an  animal  being, 
and  by  the  law  of  material  nature,  he 
disintegrates  and  dies.  So  the  justi¬ 
fied  and  sanctified  adult  dies.  For 
such  are.  under  Christ,  the  laws  of  our 
probationary  being,  established  after 
the  fall,  that  death  arising  from  nature 
is  not  repaired  by  immediate  immortal¬ 
ity  of  body,  but  by  a  bodily  resurrec¬ 
tion  after  the  era  of  mere  nature  with 
us  has  past. 


A.  D.  G3. 


CHAPTER  II. 


271 


the  children  of  wrath,  even  as  oth¬ 
ers.  4  But  God,  1  who  is  rich  in 
mercy,  for  his  great  love  where¬ 
with  he  loved  us,  5  kEven  when 
we  were  dead  in  sins,  hath  1  quick¬ 
ened  us  together  with  Christ,  (‘2  by 

i  Rom.  10. 12. k  Rom.  5.8. 1  Rom.6-4  *  Col.2. 


Even  as  others — Literally,  as  also 
the  rest.  The  rest  of  whom  ?  All  the 
commentators  that  we  have  consulted, 
Alford,  Ellicott,  Eadie,  Meyer,  etc., 
have,  obviously,  missed  the  true  an¬ 
swer.  Some,  as  Meyer,  make  it  the 
Gentiles,  as  in  addition  to  Jews;  but 
nothing  has  been  said  of  Jews  or  Gen¬ 
tiles  thus  far.  Others,  as  Ellicott  and 
Alford,  make  it  signify  the  rest  of  man¬ 
kind  ;  but  the  words  are  too  slight  to 
cover  so  wide  an  extent.  The  true 
meaning  is,  the  rest  of  the  children 
of  disobedience,  in  verse  2.  Paul’s 
train  of  ideas  is :  The  devil  worketh 
in  the  children  of  disobedience ; 
among  whom  we  indulged  the  same 
lusts,  and  were  by  nature  as  depraved 
even  as  the  rest. 

4-8.  This  passage  is  a  pictorial  par¬ 
allel  with  i,  20-23  ;  and  a  pictorial 
contrast  with  ii,  1-3. 

The  parallel  is  drawn  between  the 
corporeal  death,  resurrection,  and  en¬ 
thronement  of  Christ,  and  the  death  in 
sin  and  coresurrection  and  coenthrone¬ 
ment  of  the  Church  with  him.  That 
a  parallelism  is  intended,  overlooked 
though  it  has  been  by  commentators, 
is  plain  both  from  the  progress  of  the 
two  pictures  and  from  the  sameness 
of  the  terms  used:  raised. .  .sit. .  . 
heavenly  places.  And  then  paral¬ 
lel  with  the  permanent  glory  of  verses 
21—23,  is  the  ages  to  come  of  glorious 
showing. 

The  contrast  with  ii,  1  -3  is  striking. 
They  were  dead  in  sin,  in  accord  with 
Satan,  whose  power  was  in  the  lower 
air  j  they  are  raised  and  coenthroned 
in  accord  with  Christ  in  the  heavenly 
places.  And  the  perception  of  both 
this  parallelism  and  this  contrast  ena¬ 
bles  us  to  decide  the  question,  mooted  by 
commentators,  whether  the  death  and 
resurrection  here  are  only  present  and 
spiritual  or  also  bodily.  The  entirety 


grace  ye  are  saved,)  6  And  hath 
raised  us  up  together,  and  made 
us  sit  together  min  heavenly  places 
in  Christ  Jesus  :  7  That  in  the 

ages  to  .come  he  might  show  the 
exceeding  riches  of  his  grace,  in 

12, 13. - 2  Or,  by  whose  grace. - m  Chap.  1. 20. 

of  our  death  b}* * * 4 5 6 7-  sin,  namely,  spiritual, 
bodily,  and  eternal,  and  the  correspon¬ 
dent  entire  salvation,  must  be  included 
in  one  conception.  For  it  is  this  that 

is  to  be  shown  to  the  ages  to  come, 

verse  7. 

4.  God — It  is  to  be  remembered,  ac¬ 
cording  to  our  introductory  Plan ,  page 
253,  that  Paul  is  giving  the  divine  side 
of  man’s  salvation  in  the  whole  of 
these  first  two  chapters.  Here  he  em¬ 
phasizes,  God,  mercy,  and  grace,  with 
persistent  force  and  earnestness. 

5.  Even. .  .dead — His  mercy  was 
alive  when  we  were  dead.  He  loved 
us  even  when  we  were  most  unlovely. 
Hence  how  truly  is  all  by  grace. 

And,  here,  at  the  commencement  of 
the  picture  of  the  redemptive  process, 
at  the  first  mention  of  our  life-dawn 
in  Christ,  Paul  fiings  abruptly  in  this 
hint,  by  grace.  .  .saved,  preparatory 
to  his  expanding  the  complete  statement 
at  the  close  of  the  process,  verse  8. 
Mercy,  goodness,  grace,  and  all 
from  nothing  less  than  God,  is  what 
he  is  so  impatient  to  bring  out  that  he 
can  hardly  wait  to  state  the  process 
in  which  those  glorious  and  melting 
attributes  display  themselves.  This 
grace  is  understood  best  by  empha¬ 
sizing  the  even  . .  .  dead  —  intensely. 
Dead ;  given  over  to  darkness,  deprav¬ 
ity,  the  devil,  and  wrath;  over  that 
scene  it  is  that  the  light  of  grace 
breaks  with  healing  in  its  beams. 

Quickened  —  Inspired  with  life ; 
life  for  soul  first,  life  for  body  next, 
life  in  eternity  last.  With  Christ — 
Who  was  raised,  as  pictured  in  i,  20. 

6.  Raised  ...  sit  ...  in  heavenly 
places — As  Christ  in  i,  20. 

7.  Ages  to  come  —  The  rolling 
cycles  of  eternity.  So  long  as  the  im¬ 
mortality  of  the  redeemed  shall  en-’ 
dure,  the  riches  of  his  grace  will  be 
shown ,  shown  to  what  new  worlds  we 


272 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  63 


‘  his  kindness  towiml  us,  through  ye  saved  f  through  faith;  and  that 
Christ  Jesus.  S  "For  by  grace  are  not  of  yourselves:  q  it  is  tlie  gift 


n  Titus  3.  4. - o  Romans  3.  24 ;  2  Timothy  1.  9. 

2>  Romans  4.  16. 

know  not.  This  will  commence  at  the 
blessed  period  of  the  glorious  sum¬ 
ming  up  in  Christ  of  i,  10,  (where  see 
note,)  and  is  brought  to  its  consumma¬ 
tion  by  the  wonderful  display  of  omnip¬ 
otent  power  described  in  i,  19,  (where 
see  note,)  to  a  vivid  view  of  which  the 
apostle  oilers  his  continued  and  glow¬ 
ing  prayer  that  the  Ephesian  eyes  may 
be  opened. 

8.  For  —  In  view  of  this  divine 
organic  process  now  completely  stated. 
By  grace — Gratis ,  for  nothing  in  re¬ 
turn.  Are  ye  saved  —  Not  merely 
converted,  justified,  and  sanctified ;  but 
gloriously  saved  —  saved  from  death, 
the  devil,  and  hell ;  saved  to  resurrec¬ 
tion,  Christ,  God.  and  glory,  in  the  full 
sight  of  the  endless  aeons  to  come. 
Through  faith — As  the  instrument  in 
God’s  hands  ;  the  handle  by  which  he 
gets  hold  of  us  to  snatch  us  from  Satan 
and  spring  us  into  heaven.  For  the 
Greek  preposition  for  through,  here, 
is  the  preposition  of  instrumentality. 
Hence  faith  has  three  aspects.  When, 
(1)  it  is  said  that  God  justifies  us 
through  faith,  then  faith  is  the  in¬ 
strument  with  which  God  rescues  us 
from  sin  and  hell.  When  (2)  it  is  said 
“  The  just  shall  live  by  faith,”  then  faith 
is  to  us  the  means  by  which  we  live. 
When  (3)  it  is  said,  “Believe  and  thou 
shalt  be  saved,”  then  faith  is  the  con¬ 
dition  upon  which  we  are  justified,  re¬ 
generated,  and  elected  to  holiness  here 
and  heaven  hereafter.  That  faith  is  in¬ 
deed  empowered  in  us  by  the  grace  un¬ 
derlying  our  probation :  but  that  faith 
freely  exercised  by  us,  and  seen  by 
God,  is  the  underlying  condition  of  our 
election  in  time ;  and  foreseen  by  God 
is  the  underlying  condition  in  our 
eternal  election  before  the  foundation 
of  the  world,  as  described  in  i,  4,  11, 
where  see  notes. 

And  be  it  especially  noted  that  in 
St.  Paul’s  view  there  is  no  contradic¬ 
tion  between  the  gratuity  of  our  salva¬ 
tion  and  its  conditionality .  There  is 
no  contradiction  between  our  being 


(j  Matthew  16.  17 ;  John  6.  44 ;  chapter  1.  19; 

Pbilippians  1.  29. 

saved  by  grace  and  its  being  through 
faith;  just  because  faith  towards  God, 
though  a  right  thing  in  God’s  creatures 
towards  him,  and  an  excellent  tiling  in 
itself,  is  not  a  merit  that  pays  God  for 
any  thing,  or  obligates  him  to  any  do¬ 
nation  to  us.  It  is  his  right  to  drop 
us  into  nothingness  any  moment  he 
pleases,  and  no  wrong  is  done  us.  Far 
less  can  our  faith  entitle  us  to  pardon 
for  past  wickedness,  to  a  blotting  out 
of  past  books,  and  a  conferring  a  glo¬ 
rious  immortality  at  God's  right  hand. 
Notwithstanding  the  free,  rightful,  ex¬ 
cellent  exercise  in  faith  by  us,  every 
thing  comes  from  God  to  us  by  grace. 
Surely  the  faith  with  which  a  beggar 
stretches  forth  his  hand  to  receive  the 
donation  of  thousands  from  a  millionaire 
would  not  be  a  merit,  a  work,  a  com¬ 
pensation  to  the  donor,  neutralizing  the 
graciousness  of  the  gratuity.  See  note, 
Rom.  iii,  24,  27. 

And  what  a  reasonable,  beautiful, 
and  delightful  condition  proffered  is 
this  —  simple  coming  into  obedience 
to  and  harmony  with  God  by  a  pure 
act  of  free,  submitting,  and  confiding 
faith.  It  is  at  once  the  due  act  of  a 
yielding  rebel  to  a  rightful  sovereign, 
and  of  a  returning  prodigal  to  a  rightful 
and  ever  gracious  parent.  Gracious,  in¬ 
deed!  for  it  was  while  dead  to  God 
and  alive  to  and  with  the  devil,  that 
God  loved  us  and  laid  the  plan  of  our 
rescue. 

That .  . .  it — Both,  as  well  as  not  of 
works,  in  next  verse,  refer  to  being 
saved,  and  not  to  faith.  Faith  is,  in¬ 
deed,  truly  said  to  be  the  gift  of  God; 
but  it  is  faith  as  a  power ,  not  as  an  act, 
that  is  God’s  gift.  So  sight  is  either  a 
power  or  an  act.  Sight,  as  a  power ,  is 
the  gift  of  God ;  but  sight,  as  an  art, 
is  our  own  exertion  of  power.  Not 
of  yourselves — The  whole  structure 
of  the  apostle’s  view  of  our  rescue 
from  the  depths,  .and  exaltation  to 
the  heights,  and  our  consequent  ut¬ 
ter  gratitude  to  God,  is  wholly  over¬ 
thrown  if  ours  is  a  self-salvation  Our 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  II. 


273 


of  God :  9  r  Not  of  works,  lest 

any  man  should  boast.  10  For 
we  are  Shis  workmanship,  created 
in  Christ  Jesus  unto  good  works, 

r  Romans  3.  20;  9.  11;  11.  6;  1  Corinthians 

1.  29;  2  Timothy  1.  9 ;  Titus  3. 5. a  John  3.  3,  5 : 

1  Corinthians  3.  9 ;  2  Corinthians  5.  5, 17 ;  chap. 

faith,  as  an  act,  natural  and  divinely 
empowered,  is  from  ourselves :  but  not 
our  salvation.  The  structure  of  that 
salvation  requires  all  the  power  de¬ 
picted  in  L  19.  Gift  — Donation;  not 
pay  or  wages  earned. 

9.  Not  of  works  —  Neither  the 
works  of  the  Jewish  ritual,  nor  the 
Works  of  the  moral  law  by  Gentiles. 
If  either  ritual  Jew  or  moral  Gentile 
were  saved,  it  would  not  be  because  of 
the  value  of  their  doings,  but  for  that 
deep  spirit-seated  faith,  according  to 
their  dispensation.  It  is  the  heart  in¬ 
spiring  the  act,  and  not  the  act ,  that 
saves.  And  that  spirit  of  faith  in  Jew 
or  Gentile  would,  if  Christ  were  truly 
presented  and  understood,  heartily  em¬ 
brace  him.  Boast  —  A  self-saviour 
needs  no  Christ-saviour.  All  Christ’s 
history  in  i,  17-23,  and  all  God’s  mercy 
in  1-7,  are  to  him  null.  He  can  boast, 
“  f  need  no  free  pass ;  I  pay  my  own 
way.” 

10.  His  workmanship — Instead  of 
our  being  the  workers,  God  is  the 
worker  and  we  are  the  workmanship 
— the  fact  accomplished.  Created  by 
a  new  and  better  creation.  Unto  good 
works — For  we  are  not  only  elected 
from  past  faith,  but  we  are  elected  un¬ 
to  good  works.  Note,  Rom.  ix,  13. 
Before  ordained — Literally,  hath  pre¬ 
prepared.  God  has  not  only  construct¬ 
ed  us,  but  he  has  also  constructed  a 
whole  set  of  works  and  ways  in  which 
we  should  walk.  He  lias  planned  a 
whole  suit  of  Christian  graces,  active 
and  passive;  heavenly  tempers  and  be¬ 
neficent  doings  which  he  has  modelled 
for  us  in  Christ,  and  set  before  us,  to 
exemplify  in  our  own  character  and 
future  history.  There  are  ignorance, 
guilt,  and  misery  enough  in  the  world 
to  call  all  our  new  life  into  Christ-like 
action.  We  may,  like  him,  go  forth 
and  cause  the  blind  to  see,  the  lame  to 
walk,  and  even  to  raise  the  dead — 

VOL.  IV. — 18 


*  which  God  hath  before  3 ordained 
that  we  should  walk  in  them. 

11  Wherefore  u  remember,  that 
ye  being  in  time  past  Gentiles  in 

4.  24;  Titus  2.  14. - £Chap.  1.  4. - 3  Or,  pre¬ 
pared. - u  1  Corinthians  12.  2 ;  Colossians  1. 

21;  2.  13;  1  Peter  4.  3. 

dead  ^s  the  Ephesians,  in  ver.  1.  God 
has  beforehand  written  a  good  biogra¬ 
phy  for  every  man  to  live.  And  his 
life  may  thereby  be  like  that  of  Jesus 
himself — a  blessed  gospel. 

2.  The  unification  of  Jew  and 
Gentile  into  this  one  elect  Church, 
11-22. 

Thus  far  St.  Paul  has  vividly  imaged 
the  elect  Church  as  a  unit.  One  God, 
one  Christ,  one  faith,  one  glory.  His 
picture  is  completed ;  and  he  has  now 
time  to  remember  (verse  1 1)  that  his 
real,  present,  fiesh-and-blood  Ephesian 
Church  is  ethnically — that  is,  by  race — 
a  dual  Church.  Both  sections,  indeed, 
belong  to  the  great  Caucasian  family. 
But  one  has  come  dovrn  through  Shem, 
and  Heber,  and  Abraham  to  the  present 
hour.  They  have  been  religiously  proud 
of  so  divine  a  descent.  For  it  has  come 
along  down  a  line  of  heroes,  kings, 
saints,  and  prophets.  The  other,  start¬ 
ing  from  the  same  Noah,  has  come 
down  through  Japhet  and  Elishah, 
(Gen.  x,  4,)  and  has  thence  been  called 
Hellenic,  or  Greek.  And  these  are  proud 
of  their  genius,  civilization,  arts,  and 
philosophy.  The  apostle  now  comes  in 
with  his  Christ  to  wipe  out  and  abolish 
this  distinction,  and  to  fuse  them  into 
one  blessed  Christian  Church.  There 
is  but  one  Christ,  one  Spirit,  one  holy 
building,  which  is  one  temple  inhab¬ 
ited  by  the  Spirit. 

This  paragraph,  like  the  preceding 
one,  presents  two  contrasted  pictures, 
a  dark  and  a  bright— the  Ephesians  of 
the  past  and  the  Ephesians  of  the  pres¬ 
ent.  Verses  11,  12  correspond  to  1-3; 
and  vv.  13-22  correspond  to  4-10.  As 
vre  have  elsewhere  remarked,  (note  on 
Rom.  viii,  39,)  it  is  the  apostle’s  style 
to  begin  in  gloom  and  end  in  glory. 

1 1 .  Wherefore — In  view  of  the  gra¬ 
cious  history  of  vv.  4-10.  Remem¬ 
ber — Review  your  past  heathen  con¬ 
dition,  in  order  to  appreciate  your 


274 


EPHESIANS. 


A.D.  63. 


the  flesh,  who  are  called  Uncir¬ 
cumcision  by  that  which  is  called 
v  the  Circumcision  in  the  flesh 
made  by  hands  ;  12  w  That  at 

that  time  ye  were  without  Christ, 
*  bein<r  aliens  from  the  common- 

O  _ _ _ 

v  Horn.  2.  28 ;  Col.  2.  11. - w  Chap.  4.  18 ;  Col. 

1.  21. - x  Kzek.  13.  9;  John  10.  16. 


wealth  of  Israel,  and  strangers 
from  y  the  covenants  of  promise, 
z  having  no  hope,  a  and  without 
God  in  the  world:  13  1  But  now, 
in  Christ  Jesus,  ye  who  sometime 
were  cfar  off  are  made  nigh  by  the 


present  Christian  blessedness.  Gen¬ 
tiles  in  the  flesh — As  being  not  cir 
cumcised  Hebrews.  Uncircumcision 
— The  reproachful  epithet  of  the  Jews 
upon  all  who  possessed  not  the  mark  of 
the  Abrahamic  descent  and  covenant 
Made  by  hands — In  distinction  from 
the  circumcision  of  the  heart,  made  by 
the  Spirit. 

12.  Without  Christ — This  descrip 
tion  of  their  heathen  condition  differs 
from  that  in  vv.  1-3,  in  that  the  latter 
details  dark,  active  wickedness,  excit¬ 
ing  abhorrence ;  whilst  this  presents 
details  of  destitution  and  unhappiness, 
touching  the  heart  with  pity.  With¬ 
out  Christ,  they  were  without  every 
other  blessedness;  without  holy  citi¬ 
zenship,  without  the  covenants,  with¬ 
out  hope,  and  without  God — only  in 
the  world.  Aliens.  .  .Israel — Liter 
ally,  Foreigners  from  the  polity  of  Is¬ 
rael.  They  had  no  rights  in  the  spirit 
ual  realm ;  no  citizenship  in  the  city 
of  God,  in  the  Jerusalem  below,  or  the 
Jerusalem  above.  Strangers .  .  .  prom¬ 
ise — In  those  blessed  covenants  in  the 
archives  of  the  holy  city  they,  as  un 
naturalized  foreigners,  had  no  share 
and  no  knowledge.  The  Abrahamic 
and  Mosaic  covenants,  and  including 
both,  Christ’s  covenant  of  promise, 
conditioned  on  faith,  had  no  promise 
for  them.  No  hope  —  There  was  in 
those  covenants  a  blessed  hope  of 
pardon  of  sin,  of  immortality,  and  eter¬ 
nal  life ;  but  no  hope  therefrom  for 
them.  Dim  hopes  from  nature  there 
were,  but  nothing  that  Christianity 
could  call  a  hope.  Without  God — 
There  was  a  God  in  Israel,  revealed  in 
the  covenants,  incarnate  in  Christ;  but 
no  God  for  them.  They  had  a  great 
fancy  goddess,  Artemis,  (Diana;)  but 
she  was  nothing  but  a  many-breasted 
pantheistic  conception.  Notes,  Acts 
xix,  22-28.  They  were  without  God 


y  Rom.  9.  4,  8. - z  \  Thesa.  4.  13. - a.  Gal.  4.  8. 

h  Gal.  3.  28. - c  Acts  2.  39. _ 

in  all  the  world.  They  were  soli¬ 
taires,  orphans,  godless,  and  wander¬ 
ers  in  the  world,  that  was  full  of  a 
father  God.  But  the  precise  mean¬ 
ing  of  the  clause  in  the  world,  (which 
has  been  something  of  a  puzzle  to  com¬ 
mentators,)  may  be  best  seen  by  re¬ 
versing  the  order  of  the  clauses :  In 
the  world,  without  God,  without 
hope.  Its  emphasis  may  thus  appear; 
without  hope,  without  God,  yet  —  in 
the  world!  In  an  existence  rendered 
by  sin  worse  than  non-existence ! 

Such  is  the  picture,  drawn  with  deep 
pathos  by  a  tender  yet  true  hand,  of 
unregenerate  heathendom  !  M  ell  may 
Meyer  query  whether  such  a  picture 
makes  any  allowance  for  the  salvable 
heathen.  It  supposes  no  Socrates,  Pla¬ 
to,  or  Aristides.  But  doubtless,  in  fact, 
there  were  among  the  pagan  converts 
from  Artemis  too  few  such  relieving  ex¬ 
ceptions  to  suggest  any  brightening  of 
the  picture.  See  notes,  Acts  xviii,  19. 
Perhaps  he  would  have  drawn  a  milder 
portraiture  of  the  barbarians  of  Melita. 
Actsxxviii.  1-6.  Notes,  Rom.  ii,  14,  15. 

13.  But  now— 0  }’es,  now!  What 
a  glorious  contrast  between  those  times 
past  and  this  now !  With  what  pity  from 
this  now  may  these  Christian  Ephesians 
look  back  upon  the  heathen  Ephesians 
they  were  in  times  past!  And  with 
what  pity  should  all  Christians  look 
upon  the  hapless  heathens  who  are  still 
in  those  sad  and  hopeless  times  past ! 
Being  in  Christ,  these  Kphesiars  have 
everv  point  of  contrast  to  their  former 
miseries.  They  are  not  afar,  but  nigh, 
unified  with  the  holy  Israel,  vv.  14-1 S. 
They  are,  with  Israel,  builded  into  one 
edifice,  vv.  19,  20 ;  nay,  into  a  temple, 
where  the  Holy  Spirit  resides,  vv.  2 1,22. 
In  Christ  Jesus— As  identified  with 
him,  (note,  Rom.  vi,  3,)  and  incorpo¬ 
rated  with  his  mystical  person ;  revel's© 
of  without  Christ  above.  £  ar  off . . . 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  II. 


275 


blood  of  Chiist.  14  For  dhe  is 
our  peace,  e  who  hath  made  both 
one,  and  hath  broken  down  the 
middle  wall  of  partition  leticeen 
us ;  15  f  Having  abolished  s  in 

his  flesh  the  enmity,  even  the  law 
of  commandments  contained  in 
ordinances  ;  for  to  make  in  him¬ 
self  of  twain  one  h  new  man,  so 
making  peace  ;  16  And  that  he 

might  '  reconcile  both  unto  God 
in  one  body  by  the  cross,  k  having 

cl  Micah  5.  5 ;  John  16.  33 ;  Acts  10.  36 ;  Rom. 

5.  1 ;  Col.  1.  20. - e  John  10.  16;  Gal.  3.  28. - 

/Col.  2.  14,  20. - g  Col.  1.  22. - h  2  Cor.  5.  17; 

Gal.  6.  15. - i  Col.  1.  20,  21. - A;  Rom.  6.  6;  Col. 

2.  14. - 4  Or,  in  Jiimxelf. 

nigh — In  soul  and  nature.  These  were 
habitual  terms  with  the  Jews  to  desig¬ 
nate  those  who  were  residents  near 
the  temple  and  the  holy  of  holies,  and 
those  who  resided  at  a  distance  from 
the  temple  and  the  grand  altar,  and  es¬ 
pecially  pagans  of  foreign  blood.  And 
these  terms  were  in  accordance  with 
Isaiah’s  magnificent  words:  “Listen, 
0  isles . . .  from  far,”  xlix,  1 ;  and  “  Peace, 
peace,  to  him  that  is  afar  off,  and  to  him 
that  is  near,  saith  the  Lord,”  lvii,  19. 
By  the  blood  of  Christ,  which  had 
fulfilled,  and  so  dismissed,  the  sacrificial 
rites  of  the  Old  Covenant. 

14.  Our  peace — A  triangular  peace 
between  Jew  and  Gentile,  and  between 
both  and  God.  One  of  the  Hebrew 
names  for  the  Messiah  was  Shalom, 
Peace.  Made  both  one  —  Not  by 
abolishing  race  distinctions  in  the  phy¬ 
siological  man,  but  by  abolishing  old 
<^itagonisms,  and  creating  a  new  unity 
invChristian  brotherhood.  The  middle 
wall — The  words,  if  not  an  allusion  to 
•the  wall  described  in  our  notes  on  John 
ii,  14,  and  Acts  xxi,  28,  are  well  illus¬ 
trated  by  it. 

15.  In  his  sacrificial  flesh  on  the 
cross.  The  triangular  enmity  above 
named.  The  Mosaic  ritual  law,  con¬ 
sisting  of  a  system  of  command¬ 
ments,  and  comprised  in  a  body  of 
ordinances  or  statutory  regulations. 
In  himself  —  As  if  embodying  the 
twain  into  one  new  man — his  own 
mystical  person.  Peace — Leading  to 
the  threefold  peace  by  which  Jew  and 


slain  the  enmity  4  thereby :  17  And 
came  1  and  preached  peace  to  you 
which  were  afar  off,  and  to  mthem 
that  were  nigh.  18  For  "through 
him  we  both  have  access  °by  one 
Spirit  unto  the  Father.  19  Now 
therefore  ye  are  no  more  stran¬ 
gers  and  foreigners,  but  p  fellow 
citizens  with  the  saints,  and  of 
9  the  household  of  God;  20  And 
are  r  built  s  upon  the  foundation 
of  the  1  apostles  and  prophets, 

ZZech.  9.  10;  Rom.  5.  1. - m  Psa.  148.  14. - 

n  John  10.  9;  Rom.  5.  2;  chap.  3.  12;  Heb.  10. 19. 

- o  1  Cor.  12. 13 ;  chap.  4.  4. - p  Heb.  12.  22. - 

q  Gal.  6. 10. - r  1  Cor.  3.  9 ;  1  Pet,  2.  5. - «  Matt. 

16.  18;  Rev.  21.  14. - £Chap.  4.  11. 

Gentile,  being  one  in  Christ,  are  one 
with  God,  as  next  verse. 

1 6.  Reconcile — The  anticipation  and 
commencement  of  the  final  reconcilia¬ 
tion,  (Col.  i,  20,)  which  is  identical  with 
the  gather  together  of  chap,  i,  10. 
In  one  body — Threefold  of  Jew  and 
Gentile  in  Christ.  Enmity — As  above. 
Thereby — By  the  cross. 

17.  And  came  —  From  heaven  to 
earth  at  his  first  advent,  announced  by 
angels  with  “  on  earth  peace."  His  per¬ 
sonal  preachipg,  though  limited  to  Jews, 
announced  peace  to  all  and  for  all.  And 
preached — He  first  made  Palestine  his 
school  for  teaching  this  peace ;  he  per¬ 
formed  the  great  work  of  slaying  the 
enmity  by  the  cross ;  and  then  through 
his  apostles,  inspired  by  the  Spirit,  he 
proclaimed  peace  to  “all  nations.” 

18.  For  —  In  order  to  show  how 
this  peace  is  accomplished.  It  is  by 
having,  through  him,  as  mediator,  an 
access  or  introduction  to  the  common 
Father  of  both,  thereby  rendering 
them  brothers. 

19.  Fellow  citizens  —  The  bright 
reverse  of  the  alienation  and  exile  pic¬ 
tured  in  vv.  11,  12.  Household — God 
is  father  of  the  family ;  the  saints  are 
its  members;  and  both  Jew  and  Gen¬ 
tile  are  a  unit  in  this  filial  saintship. 

20.  And  are  built — Here  the  figure 
changes.  From  the  family,  here  be¬ 
gins  the  building,  put  up  with  a  very 
rapid  and  finished  architecture.  Its 
foundations  are  apostles  and  proph¬ 
ets.  Not  indeed  their  persons,  but  as 


276 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  63. 


Jesus  Christ  himself  being  u  the 
chief  corner  stone;  21 *  v * * *In  whom 
all  the  building  fitly  framed  to¬ 
gether  groweth  unto  w  a  noly  tem¬ 
ple  in  the  Lord:  22  x  In  whom 
ye  also  are  budded  together  for 
a  habitation  of  God  through  the 
Spirit. 

u  Psa.  118.  22;  Isa.  28.  16;  Matt.  21.  42.- 

v  Chap.  4.  15,  16. - w  1  Cor.  3.  17;  b.  19 ;  2  Cor. 

6.  16. - a*l  Pet.  2.  5. - (i  Acts  21.  33 ;  28.  1/  ,  20; 

chap.  4.  1 ;  Phil.  1.  7,  13;  Col.  4.  3,  18 ;  2  Inn. 

1.  8;  Philem.  1,  9. 


CHAPTER  III. 

FOR  this  cause  I  Paul,* the  pris¬ 
oner  of  Jesus  Christ  '’for  you 
Gentiles,  2  If  ye  have  heard  of 
the  dispensation  of  the  grace  of 
God  d  which  is  given  me  to  you¬ 
ward:  e  How  that  f  by  revela¬ 

tion  s  he  made  known  unto  me 


the  embodiments  of  the  gospel  they 
preached.  The  prophets  are  not  of 
the  Old  Testament,  but  of  the  New,  as 
in  chaps,  iii,  5,  and  iv,  11.  Corner 
stone — The  large  stone  laid  by  ancient 
builders  at  each  corner  to  bind  and  hold 
the  walls  firmly  together.  See  note, 
Matt,  xxi,  42.  And  this  image  beauti¬ 
fully  expresses  the  unity  of  Jews  and 
Gentiles  by  Christ. 

21.  All  the  building  — The  four 
walls,  fastened  by  the  corner  stone,  as 
different  races  are  firmly  bound  into 
the  Church  by  one  common  Christ. 
Fitly  framed  together  —  Adjusted 
and  united  by  one  common  gospel  of 
peace.  Groweth— It  is  an  ever  grow¬ 
ing  building,  expanding  in  time  and 
space  over  the  earth.  Holy  temple 
—Not  a  temple  of  idolatry  and  sorcery, 
like  the  great  fane  of  the  Ephesian  Ar¬ 
temis,  but  a  spiritual  temple  more  wor¬ 
thy  than  even  the  edifice  on  Moriah. 

22.  Ye — Ye  Ephesians.  Also — As 
well  as  other  saints  and  household 
of  God.  Through  the  Spirit  — As 
Jehovah  dwelt  in  the  holy  of  holies  of 
the  temple,  having  been  visibly  present 
at  the  dedication  by  Solomon. 

CHAPTER  III. 

3.  This  blessed  renovation  was 
under  Paul’s  Gentile  apostleship, 
instrumentally,  1-13. 

]  For — Paul  began  his  letter  with 
the  broad,  universal  elect,  chap,  i ;  he 
next  narrows  to  his  Ephesian  converts, 
chap,  ii ;  and  now,  chap,  iii,  lie  comes  to 
a  point  in  his  own  Ego.  At  this  point  he 
starts  with  fervent  prayer  in  their  be¬ 
half  ;  but  the  mention  of  his  apostleship 
carries  him  out  into  a  full  expatiation  of 


b  Gal.  5.  11;  Col.  1.  24;  2  Tim.  2.  10.— 
c  Horn.  1.  5;  1  Cor.  4.  1;  Col.  1.  25.  d  Acts 
9.  15;  Rom.  12.  3;  Gal.  1.  16.  £  Acts  “r*  Li.  ’ 

26  17,  18. - f  Gal.  1.  12. - Q  Rom.  lb.  2o; 

Col.  1.  26,  27.  _ _ 

thirteen  verses  upon  that  glorious  office; 
and  when  that  excursion  is  finished,  the 
actual  record  of  his  prayer  begins  at  the 
fourteenth  verse.  For  this  cause 
In  view  of  your  blessed  transition  from 
heathenism  to  Christ,  as  pictured  in  the 
last  paragraph.  I  Paul — And  doubt¬ 
less  no  human  name  so  thrilled  their 
hearts  at  the  utterance  as  this  I  Paul. 
It  is  uttered  in  the  majestic  style  of 
their  apostle,  who,  however  humble  in 
himself,  is  authoritative  in  his  divine 
office.  Prisoner.  .  .Christ— Not  Ce¬ 
sar’s,  but  literally  Christ’s  prisoner. 
In  ever}*  phase  of  life  he  is  Christ  s. 

The  reader,  casting  his  eye  down  to 
verse  14,  will  there  find  for  this  cause 
resumed,  and  the  apostolic  prayer  of¬ 
fered.  But  here,  starting  at  this  point 
from  the  word  Gentiles,  Paul  first 
states  the  call  of  the  Gentiles,  vv.  2-6  ; 
next,  his  own  divine  commission  as 
their  apostle,  7-9 ;  and  last,  what  the 
mission  imports,  1 0-1 2. 

2.  If  ye  have  heard — The  best  com¬ 
mentators,  as  Meyer,  Alford,  Ellieott, 
Eadie,  etc.,  agree  that  the  Greek  for 
this  if  implies  no  doubt  of  their  having 
heard,  but  rather  assumption  that  they 
had,  namely,  from  Paul  himself  during 
his  two  years’  ministry  at  Ephesus. 

3.  By  revelation — At  his  powerful 
conversion,  as  narrated  in  Acts  ix;  but 
the  revelation  is  detailed  in  his  own 
statement,  in  Acts  xxvi,  16-20.  The 
mystery  — The  fact  heretofore  held, 
undisclosed,  in  only  the  foreknowledge 
of  God.  Wrote  afore — Above  wrote, 
in  ver.  11.  In  few  words — In  brief. 
The  same  phrase,  iv  o?uyu,  as  used  by 
Agrippa  and  by  Paul,  (Acts  xxvi,  28,) 
and  means  smallness  of  amount. 


i 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  III. 


277 


tlie  mystery;  has  I  wrote  1  afore 
in  few  words;  4  Whereby,  when 
ye  read,  ye  may  understand  my 
knowledge  1  in  the  mystery  of 
Christ,  5  k  Which  in  other  ages 
was  not  made  known  unto  the  sons 
of  men,  1  as  it  is  now  revealed  unto 
his  holy  apostles  and  prophets  by 
the  Spirit ;  6  That  the  Gentiles 

7<,Ch.ip.  1.  9,  10. - 1  Or,  a  little  before. - 

i\  Cor.  4.1;  chap.  6. 19. - k  Acts  10.  28;  Rom.  16. 

25. - l  Chap.  2.  20. — -m  Gal.  3.  28 ;  chap.  2.  14. 

4.  When  ye  attentively  read  it  as 
a  sample  of  my  gospel,  ye  may  be 
able  to  appreciate  my  insight.  The 

mystery  of,  or  concerning  the  Christ 
or  Messiah. 

5.  Other  ages,  or  dispensations  pre¬ 
ceding  this,  as  the  patriarchal,  the  Mo¬ 
saic,  the  prophetic.  Not  made  known 
— Of  the  same  mystery,  Paul  affirms 
(Rom.  xvi.  25,  26)  that  it  “was  kept  se¬ 
cret  since  the  world  began,”  but  “now 
is  made  manifest,”  and  “made  known 
to  all  nations.”  In  his  apostleship  was 
enclosed  the  mystery  of  God.  The 
sons  of  men — Who,  with  all  their 
natural  powers,  could  never  discover 
it.  As  it  is  now — Beautiful  predic¬ 
tions  are  recorded  in  the  prophets  of 
future  good  to  the  Gentiles.  But  the 
disclosure  was  not  then  made  as  it  is 
now,  when  it  forms  the  great  theme 
and  event  of  this  newly  opened  age. 
Prophets  —  Clearly  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  prophets,  as  in  ii,  20.  And  these 
are  holy  as  truly  as  the  prophets  of 
old,  who  were  set  apart  for  revelation 
to  men. 

6.  What  this  mystery  is  he  now 
expresses.  The  Gentiles  —  All  na¬ 
tions  besides  the  sons  of  Abraham :  for 
both  in  language  and  in  action  St.  Paul 
showed  his  wonderful  prophetic  com¬ 
prehension  of  the  vastness  of  his  apos¬ 
tleship,  as  including  (Rom.  xvi,  26)  all 
nations.  This  called  him  east  and 
west,  and  moved  him  to  make  Rome 
his  capital.  And  this  indicates,  too,  that 
he  understood  not  that  the  probation¬ 
ary  age  was  to  be  closed  by  a  speedy 
advent  of  Christ,  but  believed  himself 
to  stand  at  the  threshold  of  a  new  dis¬ 
pensation  of  the  universal  gospel  to 
mankind  for  ages.  Fellow  heirs.  . . 


m  should  be  fellow  heirs,  and  nof 
the  same  body,  and  0  partakers  of 
bis  promise  in  Christ  by  the  gos¬ 
pel:  7  p  Whereof  I  was  made  a 
minister,  according  to  the  gift  of 
the  grace  of  God  given  unto  me 
by  r  the  effectual  working  of  his 
power.  8  Unto  me,  swho  am  less 
than  the  least  of  all  saints,  is  this 

n  Chap.  2.  15. o  Gal.  3. 14. — —j)  Rom.  15. 16 ; 

Col.  1.  25. - q  Rom.  1. 5. - r  Rom.  15. 18 ;  chap. 

1.  19;  Col.  1.  29. - s  1  Cor.  15.9;  1  Tim.  1. 13, 15. 

partakers — Our  English  feebly  repre¬ 
sents  the  apostle’s  Greek.  We  render 
it,  The  Gentiles  be  co-heirs,  co-embodied , 
and  co-sharers.  The  Jews  had  so  in¬ 
terpreted  the  prophets  as  to  assume 
that  Jerusalem  should  be  imperial  in¬ 
stead  of  Rome,  and  the  subjugated  Gen¬ 
tiles  should  be  their  subjects  and  ser¬ 
vants.  But  to  Paul  is  revealed  a  new 
and  better  gospel.  There  is  to  be  no 
political  conquest.  Simply  the  antag¬ 
onism  of  ages  is  to  be  removed,  and  all 
the  world  stand  equal  under  the  Christ. 
Promise  —  The  promise  of  a  univer¬ 
sal  Saviour,  first  given  in  Paradise,  re¬ 
peated  to  Abraham,  and  re-echoed  by 
the  prophets  of  old. 

7.  This  stupendous  mystery  brings 
us  again  to  the  apostle’s  Ego.  Minis¬ 
ter — Not  an  originator  or  composer, 
but  a  mere  servitor,  an  agent  in  dis¬ 
tributing.  The  gift — Consisting  of  the 
grace,  or  endowment.  According  to 
. . .  power  —  As  in  the  similar  phrase 
in  i,  19,  the  reference  is  to  the  divine 
power  exerted  in  accomplishing  the 
redemptive  scheme.  Paul’s  apostolic 
endowment  was  bestowed  in  accordance 
with  that  powerful  display  of  God’s 
omnipotence. 

8.  The  apostle  feels  the  overwhelm¬ 
ing  pressure  of  this  sublime  mystery 
resting  upon  his  being.  Like  one  sur¬ 
veying  the  vastness  of  universal  space, 
as  unfolded  in  astronomy,  he  feels  what 
a  mere  speck  he  is.  The  present  verse 
is  indeed  a  contrast  between  his  own 
littleness  and  the  greatness  of  Christ’s 
bounty  to  men,  which  he  is  called  to 
dispense.  Less  than  the  least — An 
ingenious  expression  of  the  translators 
to  give  the  force  of  the  apostle’s  Greek. 
The  Greek  word  is  a  superlative  least, 


278 


EPHESIANS 


A.  D.  63. 


grace  given,  that  ‘Ifcnould  preach 
among  the  Gentiles  u  the  unsearch¬ 
able  riches  of  Christ;  9  And  to 
make  all  men  see  what  is  the  fel¬ 
lowship  of  v  the  mystery,  w  which 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world 
hath  been  hid  in  God,  x  who  cre¬ 
ated  all  things  by  Jesus  Christ: 
10  y  To  the  intent  that  now  zunto 


t  Gal.  1. 16;  1  Tim.  2.  7  ;  2  Tim.  1. 11. - u  Chap. 

1.7;  Col.  1.  27. - v  Chap.  1.  9. - w  Rom.  16.  26 ; 

1  Cor.  2.  7  ;  Col.  1.26. - x  Psa.  33.  6 ;  John  i.  3  ; 

Col.  1.  16;  Ileb.  1.  2. - y  1  Pet.  1.  12. 

with  a  comparative  termination  added, 
as  if  leaster ;  a  degree  below  least ;  and 
so  less,  by  one  degree,  than  the  least. 
Of  all  saints — For  which  of  all  the 
saints  had  so  “persecuted  the  Church 
of  God?”  1  Cor.  xv,  9.  Even  as  late  as 
1  Tim.  i,  13,  he  cannot  forgive  himself, 
how  much  soever  God  had  forgiven  him, 
that  he  had  been  “  a  blasphemer,  and 
a  persecutor,  and  injurious.”  Preach 
among  the  Gentiles  —  Especially ; 
as  Peter  among  the  Jews,  Gal.  i,  16. 
Unsearchable  —  The  Greek  word  de¬ 
rived  from  track;  so,  untrackable ,  un- 
traceable. 

9.  Make... see — <1 'oricat,  to  illu¬ 
minate  as  to  what,  etc.  Fellowship 
— A  better  reading  would  be  economy , 
or  established  plan.  From  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  the  world — That  is,  from 
the  point  of  time  and  event  at  which 
the  ages  or  dispensations  started.  Elli- 
cott  precisely  expresses  it :  “  The  coun¬ 
sel  itself  was  formed  before  the  ages.” 
1  Cor.  ii,  7.  The  concealment  of  it  dated 
from  the  ages  ;  that  is,  from  their  start¬ 
ing-point.  Created  all  things  —  St. 
Paul  here  (as  in  ii,  8,  and  often  else¬ 
where)  sedulously  fastens  the  redemp¬ 
tive  system  to  God  himself ;  not  to  any 
Gentile  polytheistic  god,  but  to  the 
supreme  God,  who  founded  and  brought 
into  existence  all  things,  and  not  the 
least  among  them,  this  divine  scheme 
of  bringing  our  entire  race  within  the 
unity  of  his  Son. 

10.  All  these  things — namely,  the 
Gentile  call  and  its  apostleskip — kike 
place  to  the  intent,  or  in  order  that, 
the  future  heavenly  worlds  might  real¬ 
ize  the  God  they  have.  Principali¬ 
ties  and  powers — Note,  Rom.  viii,  3S. 


the  principalities  and  powers  in 
heavenly  places  a  might  be  known 
by  the  church  the  manifold  wis¬ 
dom  of  God,  11  h According  to 
the  eternal  purpose  which  he  pur¬ 
posed  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord: 
lii  In  whom  we  have  boldness  and 
c  access  d  with  confidence  by  the 
faith  of  him.  13  e  Wherefore  I 


z  Rom.  8.  38;  chap.  1.  21  ;  Col.  1.  16;  1  Peter 

3.  22. - a  1  Cor.  2.  7  ;  1  Tim.  3.  in. - b  Chap. 

1.  9. - c  Chap.  2.  18. - d  Heb.  4.  16. - e  Acts 

14.  22  ;  Phil.  1.  14  ;  1  Thess.  3.  3. 

In  heavenly — In  the  supernals.  See 
note  on  i,  1.  By  the  church — The 

glorious  and  finally  glorified.  Mani¬ 
fold — Many-formed,  variegated;  show¬ 
ing  itself  around  infinite  complexities 
in  bringing  out  the  clear,  the  right,  and 
the  glorious. 

11.  Eternal  purpose  —  Of  recon¬ 
ciling  the  whole  race  in  Christ,  i,  10; 
which  purpose  takes  completion  in  the 
elect  through  faith.  But  the  wisdom 
of  God  is  manifold.  As  the  ideal  of 
God  is  not  realized,  so  that  that  pure 
mercy  is  not  fulfilled,  thereupon  he 
avails  himself  of  that  non-realization  to 
unfold  his  attribute  of  justice  in  judg¬ 
ment  upon  sin,  and  thus  reveals  more 
completely  his  full-orbed  nature. 

12.  Boldness  and  access — Or  in¬ 
troduction.  Both  are  the  reverse  of 
that  fear  which  the  consciousness  of 
unpardoned  sin  produces  both  in  our 
race  and  in  our  individual  guilty  con¬ 
science.  This  boldness,  literally,  free¬ 
dom  of  address ,  is  the  state,  gift,  and 
enjoyment  of  the  reconciled  soul  in 
address  to  God.  Access  —  Introduc¬ 
tion.  Confidence  —  A  forward  trust 
put  forth  upon  God.  By,  or  through, 
the  faith  of  him — Namely,  Christ  as 
its  object. 

We  conceive  that  this  entire  verse 
is  pictured  from  Oriental  autocracy. 
We  are  afraid  to  approach  the  royal 
presence:  but  the  monarch’s  son  is  our 
patron.  Fear  is  thereby  removed. 
By  faith  in  that  son,  as  we  are  about  to 
approach ;  we  will  have  a  freedom  for 
speech,  an  introduction,  in  confidence 
of  receiving  our  request. 

13.  Wherefore — In  blessed  review 
of  the  comprehensive  results  of  this 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  III. 


279 


desire  that  ye  faint  not  at  my  trib¬ 
ulations  ffor  you,  s  which  is  your 
glory. 

14  For  this  cause  I  bow  my 

- - - - — 

f  Verse  1. - g  2  Cor.  1.  6. 

Gentile  call  and  apostleship.  I  desire 
. — I  beseech  you  for  myself.  Paint 
not — Be  not  downcast  or  disheartened. 
There  might  be  those  who  feared  that 
the  imprisonment  of  the  apostle  was  a 
refutation  of  his  doctrine.  They  might 
be  disgusted  at  a  cause  that  so  poorly 
sustained  its  champion.  Hence  Paul 
alludes  bravingly  to  his  bonds;  he  is 
“  an  ambassador  in  Christ,”  “  the  prison¬ 
er  ”  of  Christ.  And  hence,  to  inspirit 
them  to  a  similar  brave  view,  to  thrill 
them  with  the  same  spirit,  he  uses 
these  electric  words.  For  you  — 
A.s  Gentiles,  and  as  sinners,  then,  he 
preached  and  suffered  in  their  stead. 
Your  glory — That  I  and  you  should 
suffer  chains  and  death  for  Christ  and 
his  elect. 

Paul,  having  expanded  the  view  of 
his  apostolic  office,  (note,  verse  1,)  is 
now  ready  for  the  apostolic  prayer. 

4.  Paul’s  apostolic  prayer  for  the 
Ephesian  Church,  14-19. 

14.  For  this  cause — Resumption 
of  his  purpose  of  prayer  at  verse  1, 
where  see  our  note.  The  cause  still 
remains  the  same,  pervading  alike  the 
paragraphs  ii,  11-22,  and  this  last  para¬ 
graph  iii,  1-13,  namely,  the  happy  gath¬ 
ering  of  the  Gentile  Ephesians  into 
Christ  under  Paul’s  apostleship.  Bow 
my  knees — As  before  them  solemnly 
in  thought  assembled.  Paul  conceptual¬ 
ly  kneels  to  dedicate  them  as  a  Church 
to  God.  In  this  prayer  he  is  too  ear¬ 
nest  to  stand  or  sit,  and  so,  in  body  as 
in  spirit,  he  bows  before  God.  The  atti¬ 
tude  of  body  is  of  inferior  importance, 
except  as  externally  impressive  both 
upon  others  and  upon  ourselves.  God, 
however,  is  as  truly  beneath  and  be¬ 
hind  us  as  he  is  above  and  before  us ; 
and  whatever  attitude  of  body  we  as¬ 
sume  matters  not,  provided  our  rever¬ 
ence  is  perfect.  Paul  says  not  that  he 
prays,  but  gives  the  prayer  as  audible 
to  their  listening  ears.  Of.  .  .Christ, 
is  omitted  by  the  best  critics  as  not 
genuine. 


knees  unto  the  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  15  Of  whom  h  the 
whole  family  in  heaven  and  earth 
is  named,  16  That  he  would 

h  Chap.  1. 10 ;  Phil.  2.  9,  10. _ 

15.  Whole  family — It  was  a  beau¬ 
tiful  interpretation  which  made  this 
word  family  include  the  saint3  on 
earth  and  their  fellow-saints  in  heaven 
as  all  one  blessed  kin  with  Christ,  their 
elder  brother.  But  both  the  absence 
of  the  article  before  the  Greek  for 
family,  and  the  spuriousness  of  the 
clause,  of  .  .  .  Christ  forbid  it. 

The  word  here  rendered  family, 
(izaTpiUi  patria,)  is  derived  from  the 
Greek  and  Latin  narr/p ,  pater ,  which, 
with  our  word  father ,  are  but  different 
forms  of  the  same  words.  A  patria  is 
a  great  kin,  clan,  or  race,  descended 
genetically  from  one  primitive  pro¬ 
genitor.  So  the  three  great  palriai, 
or  races  of  the  earth,  traced  their 
lineage  to  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japliet  as 
their  progenitors.  Of  every  patria 
the  father-founder  is  called  ( patria , 
progeny,  and  apx 7?,  arch ,  chief,  or  be¬ 
ginner)  patriarch.  St.  Paul’s  thought, 
then,  is,  that  God  is  the  universal  Pa¬ 
triarch.  Translating  patria  by  the  En¬ 
glish  word  patriarchy,  (the  word  pa¬ 
triarchy  importing  the  progeny  of  the 
patriarch,)  we  may  render  this  clause, 
Of  whom  all  (or  every)  patriarchy  in 
heaven  and  earth  is  named.  The  words 
then  include  angels  above  and  men 
below.  Angels  are  not,  indeed,  born; 
yet,  as  originated  from  God  they  are 
called  “the  sons  of  God.”  Th  q  patrice 
in  heaven  are  the  angelic  ranks  and 
orders.  Is  named — The  descendants, 
or  patria ,  of  a  patriarchal  progenitot 
are  often  called  by  his  name ;  and  pat¬ 
ronymic  words,  so  called,  are  formed 
to  express  the  patria.  The  patria  of 
Japhet  are  Japhetidm ;  of  Abraham, 
Abraham idse.  Now,  though  no  proper 
name  precisely  parallel  to  these  may  be 
quoted  to  designate  the  universal  patria 
of  God,  yet  such  a  name  is  the  true 
name  of  their  nature  in  their  divinely- 
originated  relation.  “  Sons  of  God,” 
“  Diogeneisf  that  is,  God-born ,  or  crea - 
tures,  are  what  God’s  patria  may  be 
truly  named.  Most  truly  so  named 


280 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  6a 


grant  you,  ’according  to  the  riches 
of  his  glory,  k  to  he  strengthened 
with  might  by  his  Spirit  in  1  the 
inner  man;  H7  "'That  Christ  may 
dwell  in  your  hearts  by  faith  ; 

i  Rom.  9.  23  ;  Phil.  4. 19  ;  Col.  1.  27. - k  Chap. 

6.  10;  Co!.  1.  11. - l  Rom.  7.  22;  2  Cor.  4.  16. 

in  so  far  as  a  true  name  expresses  the 
nature  of  the  thing. 

We  find  no  commentator  inquiring 
what  relevancy  this  fatherhood  of  God 
over  all  races  has  to  St.  Paul’s  present 
train  of  thought.  We  suppose  that  it 
springs  from  his  presenting  himself  in 
the  previous  paragraphs  as  apostle  of 
the  Gentiles.  He  beseeches  God,  the 
father  of  all  races,  to  pour  the  richest 
blessings  of  the  Abrahamic  promise 
upon  these  Japlietidae,  this  Church  in 
Japhetic  and  Aryan  Ephesus.  The  drift 
of  Paul’s  prayer  may  be  comprehended 
by  noting  that  vv.  16,  17  express  quali¬ 
fications  (as  might,  and  an  indwelling 
Christ)  for  achieving  (vv.  1 8, 1 9)  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  boundlessness  of  Christ’s 
love,  and  a  possession  of  God’s  ful¬ 
ness  ;  concluding  with  a  doxology  ex¬ 
pressing  the  unlimited  power  of  God  to 
do  all,  arid  more  than  all,  we  can  ask. 

16.  Riches  of  his  glory — An  af¬ 
fluence  too  abounding  for  any  one  race 
alone.  Strengthened  with  might — 
For  the  immense  attainments  of  verses 
18,  19.  In — Rather,  into;  implying  the 
in  pouring  of  the  might  of  the  divine 
Father.  This  favours  Meyer’s  thought, 
that  Paul’s  prayer  for  their  might  is 
antithetic  to  their  faintness,  in  ver.  13. 
Their  faintness  did,  indeed,  (as  Eadie 
objects,)  take  occasion  from  the  mere 
“personal  wrongs”  of  St.  Paul;  never¬ 
theless  it  was  a  spiritual  weakness  un¬ 
manning  their  whole  Christian  might. 
He  might  well  pray,  therefore,  for  the 
whole  wonderful  energizing  expressed 
in  the  following  verses;  for  spiritual 
power  is  in  sum  total  what  he  asks. 
Inner  man — The  spirit,  in  antithesis  to 
the  body,  the  outer  man.  And  also,  per¬ 
haps,  the  spirit,  as  the  ethical  Ego,  in 
which  all  spiritual  operations  are  cen¬ 
tered,  in  distinction  from  the  anima ,  or 
soul,  in  which  the  animal  and  secular 
intellectualities  reside.  So  Rom.  vii,  22; 
“I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  in- 


that  ye,  "being  rooted  and  ground¬ 
ed  in  love,  18  0  May  be  able 
to  comprehend  with  all  saints 
pwhat  is  the  breadth,  and  length, 
and  depth,  and  height;  19  And 

m  John  14.  23  ;  chap.  2.  22. - n  Col.  1.  23 ;  2.  7. 

- o  Chap.  1.  18. - v  Rom.  10.  3;  11.  12. 

ward  man.”  Yet  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the 
inner  man  sheds  his  purifying  power 
through  body  and  soul  as  well  as  spirit. 
Note  on  Matt,  v,  8,  and  1  Thess.  v,  23. 

The  phrase  inner  man  is  found  in  a 
similar  sense  in  Plato ;  but  there  is  no 
reason  for  supposing  it  borrowed  by 
Paul  directly  from  Plato.  It  was  prob¬ 
ably  current  among  thinkers  in  Paul’s 
day,  as  such  terms  become  in  periods 
when  men  deeply  reflect. 

17.  Christ.  .  .in  your  hearts — The 
powerful  thought  is,  that  Christ’s  own 
spirit  or  temper  may,  by  faith,  or  self¬ 
surrender  on  our  part,  supplant  our 
own  natural  temper  in  our  hearts,  so 
that  we  may  approximately  live  and 
speak  as  Christ  would  in  our  place. 
That — In  order  that.  Thus  far  he  has 
prayed  for  the  conditions  that  shall 
produce  what  follow.  Rooted  and 
grounded  —  As  Wordsworth  finely 
says:  “Rooted  like  a  plant,  and  there¬ 
fore  always  alive  and  growing ;  and 
grounded  as  a  building,  and  therefore 
firmly  established  —  in  love.”  The 
bishop’s  words  are  abridged  and  im¬ 
proved  from  Adam  Clarke. 

18.  With  all  saints — Inasmuch  as 
you  Gentile  Ephesians  are  built  with 
all  other  saints  into  the  structure  of  a 
glorious  Church.  Breadth,  length, 
depth,  height  —  These  are  the  four 
geometrical  dimensions  of  a  building, 
or  other  solid  or  spacial  object.  But  of 
what  object  is  it  that  Paul  is  praying  that 
his  Ephesians  may  comprehend  tlieso 
dimensions  ?  The  old  Greek  commen¬ 
tators,  as  well  as  Erasmus  and  Grotius, 
refer  it  to  our  redemption  —  identical 
with  the  mystery  of  verse  9.  For  al¬ 
though  the  word  mystery  is  far  back 
in  the  discourse,  yet  the  thought,  re¬ 
demption,  runs  through  its  whole  cur¬ 
rent.  And  to  this  redemptive  mys¬ 
tery  these  geometrical  distinctions 
have  been  attributed  with  a  truth  and 
beauty  not  deserving  the  repulse  they 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  III. 


281 


to  know  tlie  love  of  Christ,  which 
passeth  knowledge,  that  ye  might 

q  John  1. 16;  chap. 

receive  from  Meyer  and  others.  The 
length  of  this  redemption  extends  from 
the  eternity  of  God’s  foresight  to  the 
reconciliation  of  i,  10.  Its  breadth  is 
in  design  as  broad  as  humanity ;  its 
depth  as  profound  as  the  perdition 
from  which  it  rescues  us ;  and  its 
height  as  sublime  as  the  heaven  to 
which  it  raises  us.  Still  it  must  be  in¬ 
quired  whether  there  be  any  object 
more  supposably  present  at  the  mo¬ 
ment  to  St.  Paul’s  mind  in  naming 
these  dimensions  than  this  redemptive 
mystery  ?  Meyer,  with  decisive  con¬ 
fidence,  identifies  the  love  of  Christ 
in  next  verse  as  the  object.  If  so,  then 
Paul  prays  that  they  may . .  .  compre¬ 
hend  the  dimensions  of,  and  know,  by 
real  experience,  the  love  of  Christ. 
But,  as  Eadie  justly  objects,  the  Greek 
conjunction  used  by  St.  Paul  does  not 
thus  unite  two  clauses  co-ordinately. 
Besides,  the  break  between  verses  18 
and  19  is  too  decided. 

Our  division  of  paragraphs  clearly 
shows,  we  think,  to  what  object  these 
dimensions  belong.  At  verse  ^14,  as 
we  have  noted,  the  for  this  cause  be¬ 
ing  identical  with  the  for  this  cause  of 
ver.  1,  and  the  entire  of  vv.  1-13  being 
parenthetical,  Paul’s  mind  reverts  back 
to  ii,  20-23,  where  the  glorious  church- 
ly  temple  stands  out  in  full  view.  Into 
this  temple  the  intervening  paragraph 
describes  the  inbuilding  of  his  Ephe¬ 
sians  ;  and  the  present  passage  prays 
that  they  may  fully  comprehend  the 
blessings  and  glories  of  its  structure. 
That  the  apostle  has  this  architectural 
image  still  in  view  is  clear  from  the 
fact  that  grounded — that  is,  based,  or 
founded — has  the  same  Greek  word  as 
foundation  in  verse  20. 

19.  Know  —  As  by  conscious  expe¬ 
rience.  Love  of  Christ  —  His  love 
to  us  as  manifested  in  the  redemption. 
Passeth  knowledge  —  The  concise¬ 
ness  of  St.  Paul’s  Greek  justifies  the  ren¬ 
dering,  that  ye  may  know  the  knowledge- 
surpassing  love  of  Christ.  A  contradic¬ 
tion  in  form  in  order  vividly  to  impress 
die  truth  that  the  quality  and  surpass- 


be  filled  with  all  tlie  fulness  of 
God. 

1.  23;  Col.  2.  9, 10. _ _ _ 

ing  amount  may  be  apprehended,  though 
it  cannot  be  adequately  comprehended. 
We  know  the  ocean,  yet  the  ocean  im¬ 
mensely  exceeds  our  knowledge.  Filled 
— Is  the  image  of  a  temple  still  con¬ 
tinued?  The  thought,  then,  naturally 
recurs  to  the  filling  of  the  temple  of 
Solomon  with  the  shekinah  at  the  ded¬ 
ication,  (2  Cliron.  v,  14,)  when  “  The  glo¬ 
ry  of  Jehovah  filled  the  house  of  God.” 
St.  Paul  here,  as  Clarke  beautifully  de¬ 
velops  the  thought,  dedicates  the  tem¬ 
ple  described  in  ii,  20-23,  into  which 
the  Ephesians  are  structurally  incorpo¬ 
rated.  But  as  this  temple  is  a  spiritual 
structure — a  communion  of  living  souls 
— so  the  shekinah  must  therein  dwell  in 
living  hearts.  With — The  old  method 
of  interpretation,  by  which  the  Greek 
preposition  elg  was  said  to  be  put  for 
sv ,  and  then  ev  be  rendered  with,  is 
properly  obsolete.  The  preposition 
truly  expresses  into  or  unto.  The  image 
suggested  by  the  phrase  filling  into  an 
element,  would  seem  to  be  that  of  filling 
a  sponge  or  a  vessel  by  plunging  it  into 
the  element,  as  dipping  a  cup  into  the 
ocean  and  thereby  filling  it.  The  fill¬ 
ing  would  imply  the  complete  replen¬ 
ishment  of  the  cup,  and  the  into  would 
imply  the  motion  by  which  the  filling 
is  accomplished.  Taking  the  prepo¬ 
sition  to  denote  unto,  what  would  the 
phrase  unto  all  the  fulness  of  God 
mean?  Unto  would  then  be  a  prepo¬ 
sition  of  measure ;  that  ye  may  be  filled 
up  to  the  full  measure  of  the  fulness  of 
God.  But  then  the  fulness  of  God 
surely  cannot  include  his  omniscience, 
or  his  omnipresence,  so  that  we  be¬ 
come  endowed  inwardly  with  the  at¬ 
tributes  of  God?  It  is  that  highest 
plenitude  of  his  Spirit  wherewith  he 
ever  fills  his  true  and  holy  Church, 
made  up  of  true  believers.  It  is  to  be 
filled  with  all  that  sanctifying  pleni¬ 
tude  of  the  indwelling  Spirit  for  which 
our  finite  nature  has  the  capacity.  There 
is  no  limit  in  God,  but  in  us  only. 

5.  Closing  doxology,  20,  21. 

If  any  caviller  would  fling  in  the 
charge  that  this  prayer  of  Paul’s  is  ex- 


282 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  G3 


20  Now  runto  him  that  .s  able 
to  do  exceeding  abundantly 8  above 
all  that  we  ask  or  think,  ‘accord¬ 
ing  to  the  power  that  worketh  in 
us,  21  uUnto  him  be  glory  in  the 

r  Ilona.  16.  25;  Jude  24. - si  Cor.  2.  9. 

_ t  Verse  7 ;  Col.  1.  29. 

travagant,  both  in  language  and  in  pe¬ 
tition,  Paul  will  drown  his  voice  with 
a  burst  of  lofty  ascription  of  glory  to 
him  who  is  able  to  confer  immeasur¬ 
ably  more  than  we  can  ask  or  even 
think. 

20.  Now — This  rendering  of  the 
Greek  transitive  particle  de  is  very 
beautiful.  As  if  St.  Paul,  at  the  dedi¬ 
cation  of  the  glorious  Church,  had  said, 
The  dedication  prayer  is  finished,  now 
let  the  choral  begin.  Unto  him  — 
Compare  the  doxology  with  which  St. 
Paul  closes  the  argumentative  part  of 
Homans  xi,  3G,  and  still  rather,  that  with 
which  he  closes  Romans  xvi,  25-27. 
These  doxologies  are  finishing  shouts 
of  triumph.  For,  as  we  have  elsewhere 
noted,  (Rom.  viii,  39,)  St.  Paul  always 
climactically  ends,  after  struggle,  in 
victory  and  glory.  Him  —  Not  fabu¬ 
lous  Artemis,  nor  Jove,  but  Him  — 
the  God  of  all  worlds  and  of  all  ages. 
Exceeding  abundantly  —  St.  Paul’s 
Greek  piles  up  hyperboles  to  express 
the  plenitude  of  the  prayer-hearing 
Jehovah.  Ask  or  think — Our  think 
is  likely  to  be  broader  than  our  ask; 
but  God’s  able  is  broader  than  either. 
The  Jews  asked  and  thought  a  human 
hero-Messiah ;  God  gave  a  divine  Re¬ 
deemer  for  the  race.  According  to  the 
divine  power  that  worketh  by  his 
Spirit  in  us.  It  is  for  the  rich  pleni¬ 
tude  of  God  within  the  soul  that  Paul 
has  prayed. 

21.  Unto  him — Repeated  with  ma¬ 
jestic  emphasis.  Be  glory — Namely, 
an  ascription  of  supreme  adding  hon¬ 
our.  Throughout  all  ages .  . .  end — 
Literal  Greek,  into  all  generations  of  the 
age  of  ages.  And  here  we  might  be  sur¬ 
prised  at  generations  being  ascribed  to 
the  eternal  ages.  But  the  word  gene¬ 
ration  designates,  not  a  real  progeny, 
but  a  time  period.  With  the  elder  He¬ 
brews  a  generation  seems  to  have  been 
a  century,  with  the  Greeks,  one  third 


church  by  Christ  Jesus  throughout 
all  ages,  world  without  end.  Amen. 

CHAPTER  IV. 
THEREFORE,  *  the  prisoner 

u  Rom.  11.  36 ;  16.  27  :  Heb.  13.  21. - a  Chap. 

3.  1 ;  Philem.  1,  9. 

of  a  century.  (See  Robinson’s  Greek 
N.  T.  Lexicon  on  the  word.)  Grotius 
rightly  says,  For  the  purpose  of  magni¬ 
fying,  the  apostle  here  mingles  two  He¬ 
brew  idioms,  namely,  “  to  generations 
of  generations,”  (as  in  Psa.  x,  6,)  and 
“  to  ages  of  ages,”  (as  in  Isa.  xlv,  1 7,  and 
elsewhere.)  But  it  may  be  asked  how 
does  this  phrase  truly  and  completely 
express  eternity?  —  for  it  appears  to 
express  not  time  infinite,  but  merely 
time  indefinite.  We  may  reply,  that, 
at  any  rate,  St.  Paul  here  uses  it  for 
time  infinite  or  endless,  since  he  uses 
it  to  measure  the  duration  of  Jehovah’s 
glory,  which  must  be  infinite  in  dura¬ 
tion.  Amen — Grotius  suggests:  “The 
Churches  were  accustomed  to  acclaim 
amen  at  such  doxologies,  which,  that 
they  may  do,  Paul  gives  them  a  lead.” 
A  beautiful  thought,  confirming  the  idea 
that  St.  Paul  conceptually  dedicates  his 
Ephesian  and  universal  Church  with 
this  prayer  and  choral  finishing. 

And  now,  this  glorious  Church,  as 
viewed  from  its  divine  side,  is  delin¬ 
eated,  erected,  finished,  and  dedicated 
with  prayer  and  rapturous  anthem. — 
Let  us  next  contemplate  the  human  side 
of  its  churchly  and  Christian  duties. 

- ♦♦♦ - 

PART  SECOND. 

HUMAN  SIDE  OF  CHURCH- 

DOM -  DUTIES  OF  GOD’S 

ELECT  CHURCH  ON  EARTH, 
iv,  1-vi,  24. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

I.  In  Churchly  Relations  and  Ob¬ 
ligations,  iv,  1— v,  21. 

1.  To  be  a  holy  and  efficient 
Church,  1-16. 

a.  In  holy  unity  of  spirit ,  1-6. 

1.  I — St.  Paul’s  powerful  Ego  again. 
Note  iii,  1.  Therefore — In  view  of  this 
sublime  divine  side  of  your  redeemed 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


283 


1  of  the  Lord,  beseech  you  that 
ye  bwalk  worthy  ot  the  vocation 
wherewith  ye  are  called,  2  cWith 
all  lowliness  and  meekness,  with 
longsuffering,  forbearing  one  an- 


1  Or,  in  the  Lord. - ~b  Phil.  1.  27j  Col .1. 10 ; 

I  Thess.  2.  12. - c  Acts 20. 19  ;  Gal.  o.  23;  Col. 3. 


ehui  Ldom.  Walk  worthy  .  .voca¬ 
tion.  .  .called— Had  he  been  address¬ 
ing  sinners  he  would  have  exhorted 
them  to  enter  by  faith  into  the  num¬ 
ber  of  God’s  elect,  and  by  obedience  to 
the  divine  call  to  be  numbered  among 
the  called.  But  this  they  have  done. 
They  are  elect  and  the  called.  He  can, 
therefore,  only  exhort  them  to  walk 
worthy  of  the  vocation  (and  voca¬ 
tion  signifies  calling)  wherewith  they 
were  called.  They  are  called  as  once 
Gentiles  into  the  spiritual  Israel,  and 
called  as  once  sinners  into  the  elect 
Church.  Perseverance  and  not  apos¬ 
tasy,  perfectness  and  not  defectiveness, 
is  their  now  high  and  holy  obligation. 
Walk  here  implies  Christian  activi¬ 
ty;  just  as  in  ii,  2  it  designates  ener¬ 
getic,  depraved  activity.  Hr.  Clarke 
suggests  a  contrast  between  the  apos¬ 
tles’  confinement  to  passive  duty  in 
prison  and  their  freedom  to  walk  in 
active  Christian  life.  The  antithesis 
is  beautiful,  but  was  imagined  by  the 
commentator,  not  by  the  apostle.  Dr. 
Eadie’s  calling  the  suggestion  “a  stroke 
of  very  miserable  wit”  is  a  “  stroke  of 
very  uncandid  criticism.  The  simple- 
hearted  and  great-hearted  Adam  Clarke 
had  not  the  slightest  intention  of  “wit,” 
but  of  beautiful  practical  reflection. 

2.  With — It  must  be  specially  noted 
that  St.  Paul  here  specifies  the  virtues 
conducive  to  the  unity  which  he  is 
preparing  to  enforce.  Lowliness 
The  reverse  of  the  love  of  “pre-emi¬ 
nence,”  imputed  by  St.  John  to  Diot- 
rephes,  (3  John,  ver.  9,)  the  greatest  of 
all  sources  of  dissension  in  Churches. 
■  Chrysostom  truly  says  that  it  is  a  self- 
undervaluation,  even  under  conscious¬ 
ness  of  higher  worth.  The  greater  the 
man,  the  truer  the  magnanimity  that 
consents  to  become  nothing  in  order  to 
common  unity.  Trench,  Alford,  anc. 
Eadie  very  inconsiderately  deny  this 
statement  of  Chrysostom  ;  the  last  go- 


other  in  love  ;  3  Endeavouring  to 
keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  din  the 
bond  of  peace.  4  e  There  is  one 
body,  and  fone  Spirit,  even  as  ye 
are  called  in  one  &hope  of  your 


12. - d  Col.  3.  14. 

chap.  2.  16. - -j  1 


-e  Rom.  12.5;  1  Cor.  12. 12; 
Cor.  12.  11. - Q  Chap.  1.  18. 


ing  even  so  far  as  to  say  that  such  a 
lowliness  would  be  mere  simulation. 
Not  at  all.  The  apostle  does  not  pre¬ 
scribe  a  false  intellectual  self-estimate, 
or  a  pretended  one.  He  prescribes  a 
temper  and  a  will,  which,  while,  truly 
conscious  of  an  entire  superiority  in  fact 


existing,  is  willing,  for  holy  ends,  to  ac¬ 
cept  a  lowly  estimate  or  “a  back  seat.” 
Meekness,  with  longsuffering  —  As 
lowliness  implies  a  cheerful  submis¬ 
sion  to  a  lower  rank,  so  meekness 
implies  a  serene  self-possession  under 
immediate  insult  or  injury,  and  long- 
suffering  a  calm  endurance  under  the 
pressure  of  permanent  wrong,  these 
are  passive  virtues,  which  paganism 
underrated,  and  Christianity,  if  it  did 
not  first  transmute  into  virtues,  did  yet 
bring  out  into  a  new  and  beautiful  lus¬ 
tre.  Though  passive  virtues,  they  im¬ 
ply  in  their  true  nature  greater  strength 
of  character,  and  greater  real  magna¬ 
nimity,  often,  than  the  more  showy  and 
turbulent  heroisms.  Having  these  vir¬ 
tues  in  full  possession,  then  forbear¬ 
ing  one  another  will  be  easy.  The 
forbearing  will  be  the  simple  mani¬ 
festation  of  the  three  antecedent  graces 
of  the  heart.  And  when  this  forbear¬ 
ing  is  truly  exercised,  the  true  result  is 
what  the  apostle  is  here  preparing  for, 
divine  unity. 

3.  Endeavouring — Zealously  aim¬ 
ing.  Unity  of  the  Spirit— That  unity 
of  love  which  the  Spirit  inspires  and 
creates.  Bond,  consisting  of  peace. 
Peace  is  the  very  girdle  and  tie  which 
binds  the  bundle. 

4.  There  is — The  italics  show  that 
these  words  are  supplied  by  the  trans¬ 
lators.  Like  the  “for”  suppied  by 
Eadie,  they  weaken  the  sense.  Thus 
far  Paul  has  been  preparing  the  Ephe¬ 
sians  for  the  unity,  he  now  points 
to  the  high  centres  of  unity  their 
Christianity  presents,  and  abruptly  ex¬ 
claims,  One  body,  one  faith,  etc. 


284 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  G3. 


calling;  5  h  One  Lord, ‘one  faith,  Father  of  all,  who  is  above  all, 
kone  baptism,  6  'One  God  and  and  '"through  all,  and  in  you  all. 


h  1  Cor.  8. 6 ;  12.5. i  Jude 3;  ver.  13. kG- al. 

Seven  times  is  the  word  one  repeated 
to  show  them  how  perfect  is  their  ideal 
oneness.  One  Spirit  —  Forming  the 
higher  soul  of  the  one  body,  it  is 
the  infinite  Spirit  so  animating  all  their 
Unite  spirits  as  to  centralize  them  into 
one  body,  and  give  that  body  life  and 
power.  One  hope — The  single  bless¬ 
ed  hope  in  Christ,  by  which  they  Joy¬ 
fully  anticipate  a  glorious  eternity. 

5.  One  Lord — To  whom,  as  centre, 
head,  and  author  of  our  entire  salva¬ 
tion  one  faith  unites  us,  that  faith  ex¬ 
pressed  and  confirmed  by  one  bap¬ 
tism.  Thus  one  faith  supposes  a 
creed.  That  is,  it  assumes  that  Chris¬ 
tianity  is  not  only  a  life  but  a  doctrine. 
It  has  its  central  fundamental  truths 
which  must  be  embraced  in  this  one 
faith.  By  these  truths  believed,  and 
firmly  held,  men  are  led  to,  and  united 
to,  Christ  as  their  Saviour.  Besides 
these  fundamental  truths,  by  which 
Christianity  is  formed  and  a  man  be¬ 
comes  “a  believer,”  there  are,  doubt¬ 
less,  many  truths  and  many  beliefs  held 
by  many  Christians  not  necessary  to 
the  very  existence  of  the  one  faith. 
But  we  must  not  give  ready  heed  to 
teachers  who  declaim  against  “doc¬ 
trines”  and  “the  creeds,”  as  if  truth 
and  sound  doctrine  were  not  vital  to 
the  reality  of  our  Christianity.  One 
baptism  —  One  affusion  by  the  Spirit, 
symbolized  by  water,  declaring  to  the 
world  our  living  one  faith  in  the  one 
Lord. 

6.  One  God — Again  St.  Paul  takes 
care  to  fasten  our  salvation  to  Him 
who  is  above  all  heavens.  He  is  deal¬ 
ing  with  late  worshippers  of  Diana  or 
Jupiter.  This  salvation  hangs  not  from 
these  idols.  Nor  is  it  a  mere  earthly 
system  with  no  heaven-connected  cord. 
It  is  bound  to  the  throne  of  the  Infi¬ 
nite.  And  Father  of  all — One  of  the 
traces  of  the  fatherhood  of  God,  which 
Gentilism  had  lost,  is  the  idea  that  the 
name  Jupiter  is  in  origin  Zeus-pater, 
God-father,  or,  rather,  Sky-fatlier,  or 
Heaven-father.  St.  Paul  restores  the 
true  fatherhood  to  his  converted  Gen- 1 


3. 27. - 1  Mai.  2. 10 ;  1  Cor.  8. 6. m  Rom.  11. 36. 

tiles,  pointing  them  to  the  supreme 
Zeus-pater,  wrhom  no  image  could  rep¬ 
resent,  and  no  templo  hold.  Above. . . 
through . . .  in — The  threefold  members 
are  unquestionably  based  in  the  Trini¬ 
tarian  thought.  Beginning  with  the 
baptismal  form,  (Matt,  xxviii,  19,)  thence 
taking  that  of  the  benediction  (2  Cor. 
xiii,  14)  and  the  trisagion,(Kev.  iv,  8,)  we 
have  models  according  to  which  Paul’s 
trinal  clauses  should  certainly  be  inter¬ 
preted.  See  our  note  on  the  Sacred 
Three,  vol.  ii,  p.  77.  The  accordance 
of  the  prepositions  here  with  the  Trini¬ 
tarian  Persons  is  obvious.  The  Father, 
as  original  creator,  is  above  all ;  the 
Son,  as  agent,  or  manifest  God,  is 
through  all;  the  Spirit,  as  Sanctifier, 
is  indwelling.  Yet  while  these  irinal 
attributes  ma}r  thus  symbolize  the  tri¬ 
personality,  they  may  still  accordantly 
be  considered  in  pure  reference  to  the 
one  God  as  Omnipotent,  Omnipresent, 
and  Immanent.  As  the  Omnipotent 
he  is  the  essential  force ;  as  Omni¬ 
present,  he  fills  all  space;  as  Imma¬ 
nent,  he  is  the  inmost  basis  of  all 
substance  and  all  existence.  But  we 
must  never  convert  this  Omnipresence, 
or  Immanence  in  things,  into  an  iden¬ 
tity  with  things.  For  this  identity 
with  things  is  pantheism.  It  makes 
all  things  God.  Pope’s  lines — 

“All  are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole, 
’Whose  body  nature  is,  and  God  the  souL,’*  etc., 

do  truly  express  this  divine  Immanence, 
with  great  poetic  beauty.  They  should 
never  be  charged  with  pantheism ;  they 
declare  that  God  is  in  all  things,  but  not 
that  he  is  all  things.  But  Emerson’s 
language — 

“  He  is  the  axis  of  the  star; 

He  is  the  sparkle  of  the  spar; 

He  is  the  heart  **f  every  creature; 

He  is  the  meaning  of  each  feature ; ” 

identifies  God  with  things,  the  Creator 
with  the  creature.  It  identifies  God 
with  our  own  persons,  and  thence  be¬ 
comes  self-deification.  It  identifies  God 
with  stocks  and  stones,  and  thence  be¬ 
comes  fetichism.  In  you  all  —  The 
you  is  rejected  by  the  best  readings. 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


285 


7  But  n  unto  every  one  of  us  is 
given  grace  according  to  the  meas¬ 
ure  of  the  gift  of  Christ.  8  Where¬ 
fore  he  saith,  “When  he  ascended 

n  Rom.  12.  6;  1  Cor.  12.  11. - oPsa.  68.  18. 

p  Judges  5.  12 ;  Col.  2.  15. 

b.  As  being  gifted  with  Christ-bestowed 
ministries ,  7-12. 

7.  Unto  every  one — Having  in  the 
previous  paragraph  in  spirit  secured 
the  unity  of  his  model  Church,  St. 
Paul  now  attends  to  their  individuali¬ 
ties.  According  to  the  measure — 
For  this  unity  does  not  presuppose  a 
perfect  equality.  It  requires  that  each 
one  should  recognise  his  own  meas¬ 
ure,  and  should  exercise  his  gifts,  and 
be  expected  to  so  exercise,  according 
to  that  measure.  Gift — A  beautiful 
term  to  indicate  that  our  every  ability, 
natural,  acquired,  or  gracious,  is  a  di¬ 
vine  gratuity,  demanding  thanks  and 
imposing  responsibilities. 

8.  Wherefore  —  In  illustration  of 
these  gifts,  St.  Paul  now  quotes  a  pas¬ 
sage  (Psa.  lxviii,  18,  where  see  note) 
in  which  Jehovah  is  represented  as 
having  ascended  on  high,  and  applies 
it  to  the  ascended  Christ,  just  men¬ 
tioned  as  the  divine  giver.  The  psalm 
is  a  song  of  Jehovalf  s  victory,  on  what 
occasion  written  is  not  certain,  but 
unquestionably  applicable  to  Christ, 
who  is  the  Jehovah  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment.  But  the  particular  verse  quoted 
seems  to  describe  the  triumphant  Je¬ 
hovah  ascending  Mount  Zion,  or  some 
other  capital,  leading  his  captives  and 
spoils  won  in  battle.  The  He  may  re¬ 
fer  to  Christ,  who  spoke  through  the 
inspired  psalmist,  and  thus  shadowed 
his  future  triumphant  ascension.  Yet 
the  same  method  of  introducing  Scrip¬ 
ture  quotation  is  used  at  v,  14;  1  Cor. 
vi,  16;  Gral.  iii,  16;  and  even  in  the 
Apocrypha,  (1  Mac.  vii,  16,)  and  by 
Philo ;  from  all  which  it  is  clear  that 
a  divine  He  was  reverently  held  as 
speaking,  with  more  or  less  distinct¬ 
ness  and  personality,  through  the  old 
Scriptures.  That  J ehovah- J esus  is  that 
divine  He,  is  strikingly  stated  in  Rev. 
xix,  10:  “The  testimony  of  Jesus  is 
the  spirit  of  prophecy.”  When  he — 
St.  Paul,  for  convenience  of  application 


up  on  high,  p  he  led  2  captivity 
captive,  and  gave  gifts  unto  men. 

9  q  Now  that  he  ascended,  what 
is  it  but  that  he  also  descended 

2  Or,  a  multitude  of  captives. - q  John 

3.  13 ;  6.  33,  62. _ 

without  changing  the  sense,  changes 
thou  to  he.  Led  captivity  captive 

— Literal  G-reek,  He  captured  a  captiv¬ 
ity ;  or,  He  captured  a  capture.  That 
is,  He  took  a  body  of  captives.  Dr.  Cra¬ 
ven,  the  American  editor  of  Lange’s 
“Revelation,”  maintains  that  the  phrase 
implies  simply  a  rescue  of  friends  from 
captivity  in  the  hands  of  enemies.  But 
the  Greek  verb,  which  is  rendered  by 
the  phrase  led  captive,  or  captured, 
must  mean  to  reduce  to  captivity,  not 
deliver  from  it.  Gave.  .  .men — The 
words  of  the  psalm  are,  “  He  received 
gifts  for  men;”  that  is,  to  bestow  upon 
men.  Paul  simply  supplies  the  sense 
which  the  psalmist  implies.  The  psalm¬ 
ist  says  that  the  ascending  Jehovah 
took  gifts  for  men;  that  is,  to  bestow 
on  men  ;  the  apostle,  now  that  the  giv¬ 
ing  is  being  done,  says,  he  gave  gifts 
unto  men.  Yet  a  more  literal  render¬ 
ing  would  be,  “he  took  gifts  in  men;” 
that  is,  he  took  captives  to  be  distribu¬ 
ted  as  spoils  or  gifts  to  his  followers. 

9.  Now — The  apostle  now  proceeds 
to  give  an  exegesis  of  the  psalmist’s 
words  to  show  their  applicability.  The 
fact  that  the  psalmist’s  Jehovah  as¬ 
cended,  implies  that  he  had  previously 
descended.  Now  commentators  de¬ 
cide  variously  the  questions  that  nat¬ 
urally  arise.  Does  St.  Paul  here  sim¬ 
ply  quote  a  passage  from  the  Psalms 
as  wre  would  quote  a  passage  of  poetry 
apt  to  our  subject?  Or,  does  he  view 
Jehovah’s  ascent,  with  its  implied  de¬ 
scent,  as  a  fitting  emblem  of  Christ’s  de¬ 
scent  and  ascension  ?  Or  is  the  former 
a  divinely  appointed  type  of  the  latter  ? 
Or  were  the  images  and  words  impart¬ 
ed  by  the  true  Jehovah-Jesus  to  his 
propliet-psalmist,  truly,  as  by  a  glimpse, 
delineating  his  own  descent  and  ascen¬ 
sion?  Either  of  these  views  justifies 
the  apostle’s  language.  We  prefer  the 
first.  As  psalmist  and  apostle  were 
both  endowed  with  the  same  inspira¬ 
tion,  St.  Paul  assuredly  gives  a  true 


2  SB 


EPIIESIAXS. 


first  into  the  lower  parts  of  the 

meaning,  if  not  the  sole  true  mean¬ 
ing,  of  the  psalmist’s  words;  nay,  he 
had  a  true  endowment  to  read  a  new 
true  meaning  into  the  old  words. 
Lower  parts  of  the  earth — By  one 
class  of  commentators  this  phrase  is 
made  to  signify  simply  the  earth ;  that 
is,  these  lower  grounds,  consisting  of 
earth,  in  contrast  with  the  heavens 
above.  The  phrase  is  used  nine  times 
in  the  Old  Testament:  Ezek.  xxvi,  20; 
xxxi,  14,  16,  18;  xxxii,  18,  24;  xxvi,  20; 
Isa.  xliv,  12  ;  and  Psa.  lxiii,  9.  Dr.  Cra¬ 
ven  shows  very  clearly  that  in  none  of 
these  cases  can  it  designate  merely  the 
earth,  lie  seems  to  establish  the  ground 
held  by  another  class  of  commentators, 
that  it  signifies  hades;  by  which  we  un¬ 
derstand  the  unseen  world  of  human 
disembodied  spirits.  Most  of  the  above 
nine  texts  are,  it  will  be  seen,  in  Eze¬ 
kiel,  where  the  phrase  is  in  our  version 
freely  translated  hell  In  the  passage 
in  Psalms  the  phrase  figuratively  des¬ 
ignates  the  womb,  as  being  the  dark, 
semi-conscious  hades  of  the  unborn  soul. 
For  it  was  to  a  dim  and  obscure  hades 
that  good  as  well  as  bad  expected  to 
descend  under  the  twilight  of  the  old 
dispensation.  See  notes  on  Luke  xvi, 
22,  23,  and  xxiii,  43.  That  our  Saviour, 
during  his  three  days  of  burial,  did  vis¬ 
it  in  soul  the  region  of  spirits,  is  clear 
from  his  own  statement  to  the  dying 
thief,  (Luke  xxiii,  43,)  and  from  Peter’s 
words,  (Acts  ii,  27,)  and,  perhaps,  from 
1  Pet.  iii,  19. 

The  lowers  or  netliers  of  the  earth 
(for  the  Greek  word  for  parts  is  prob¬ 
ably  not  genuine)  means  apparently  the 
subterranean  regions.  Clearly  in  Greek 
and  Roman  paganism,  A  vermis,  or  the 
abodes  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead,  was 
held  to  be  beneath  the  earth’s  surface. 
Both  Homer  and  Virgil  lead  their  he¬ 
roes  through  the  dark  gates  into  the 
under  world,  where  are  Elysium  and 
Tartarus,  and  where  the  good  and  the 
evil  receive  their  due  awards.  Ho  such 
full  narrative  or  description  is  found  in 
the  Old  Testament.  And  phrases  like 
this  might,  perhaps,  be  explained  on  the 
principle  of  our  note  on  Rom.  x,  7.  To 
the  ancients  the  heavens  were  a  vast 


A.  D.  63. 

earth  ?  10  He  that  descended  is 


concave  above,  and  the  earth  was  a 
vast  plain  below,  and  the  two  made 
the  great  whole.  God  and  angels  were 
above  in  the  heavens;  man  below;  and 
hades  still  lower — a  descent  into  the 
silent  shades,  and  so  lower  than  the 
plane  of  which  the  earth’s  surface  is 
part,  if  not  directly  beneath  the  earth’s 
surface.  And  these  rudimental  con¬ 
ceptions,  though  immensely  supple¬ 
mented  by  science,  are  uncontradicted 
by  science,  and  are  still  essentially 
true.  The  first  half  of  the  Eighth 
Psalm  was  as  true  to  Hewton  as  to 
David,  with  a  stupendous  amount  of 
underlying  meaning  superadded.  Ad¬ 
dison,  in  the  age  of  Kepler  and  Hewton, 
paraphrased  that  psalm  in  the  lines, 

“  The  spacious  firmament  on  high. 

With  all  the  blue  ethereal  sky, 

And  spangled  heavens,  a  shining  frame. 
Their  great  Original  proclaim.” 

The  poet  knew  that  he  was  painting 
but  an  apparent  surface  of  things,  yet 
he  knew  that  that  visible  or  concep¬ 
tual  surface  covers  and  stands  for  all 
the  truths,  regions,  and  objects  under¬ 
lying  that  surface,  as  discovered  tfnd 
revealed  to  us  by  astronomy.  But  see 
our  note,  next  verse. 

Dr.  Craven,  adopting  an  ancient  but 
not  primitive  theory,  supposes  that 
Christ  in  his  descent  to  hades  bore 
the  spirits  of  the  saints  up  to  the  eter¬ 
nal  heaven  —  the  abode  of  the  glori¬ 
fied  after  the  resurrection.  From  that 
view  we  dissent.  We  do  suppose  — 
1.  That  after  Christ  came,  and  even  as 
his  advent  was  drawing  nigh,  it  began 
to  be  perceived  that  in  the  sphere  of 
the  disembodied  there  were  not  mere¬ 
ly  indiscriminate  darkness  and  silence, 
but  a  paradise  of  real,  yet  incomplete 
bliss.  Hence  hades  is  in  the  Hew 
Testament,  though  really  inclusive  of 
the  whole,  yet  usually  applied  only  to 
the  woful  side  of  the  spirit  domain  ; 
just  as  the  name  America,  though  in¬ 
clusive  of  the  whole  continent,  is  often 
applied  to  the  United  States  alone. 
Usually,  we  say;  yet  probably  in  Acts 
ii,  27  hades  includes  both.  2.  That 
paradise  is  the  name  of  the  blessed  side 
of  the  spirit- world  until  the  second  ad- 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


287 


the  same  also  '  that  ascended  up 

r  Acts  1.  9, 11 ;  1  Tim.  B.  16 ; 

vent.  Then,  as  death  and  hades  will  be 
merged  in  the  lake  of  fire,  (Rev.  xx,  14,) 
so  paradise  will  be  merged  in  the  final 
abodes  of  the  blest.  Rev.  ii,  7  ;  xxii,  2. 
3.  That  after  the  visit  of  Christ  to  hades, 
the  third  heaven  and  paradise  were  dif¬ 
ferent,  and  not  identical,  is  plain  from 
2  Cor.  xii,  4,  where  see  notes. 

10.  For  the  purpose  of  identifying  the 
Jehovah  of  the  psalmist  with  Christ, 
Paul  in  ver.  9  notes  that  the  psalmist’s 
ascender  must  have  previously  been  a 
descender;  now,  for  the  purpose  of 
showing  Christ’s  exaltation,  he  argues 
that  the  descender  is  the  ascender. 
He — In  the  Greek  emphatic,  the  iden¬ 
tical  he.  Above  all  the  heavens 
— With  the  article  in  the  Greek,  the 
threefold  heavens  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment.  Note  on  2  Cor.  xii,  2-4.  As 
the  psalmist’s  Jehovah  ascends  Zion, 
so  the  apostle’s  Christ  ascends  from 
the  depth  of  hades  to  even  above 
the  heavens.  For  God  is  truly  above 
all  heavens.  Fill  ail  things — The 
Highest  is  omnipotent,  and  he  takes 
the  highest  position  that  he  may  pour 
himself  down,  over  and  into  all  things, 
natural  and  supernatural.  But  while 
he  fills  all  other  things  with  presence 
and  power,  he  fills  his  Church  with  spe¬ 
cial  plenitudes  and  endowments. 

To  the  questions  of  modern  astrono¬ 
my,  Where  are  heaven ,  paradise ,  hades  ? 
we  may,  (in  addition  to  our  notes  on 
2  Cor.  xii,  2-4,)  give  this  further  an¬ 
swer:  Dr.  Dawson,  in  his  Bible  and 
Nature ,  suggests  that  heaven,  the  third 
heaven,  may  be  supposably  located  be¬ 
yond  the  astral  heaven.  Assuming 
our  starry  universe  to  be  finite,  then 
there  is  a  circumambient  pure  space, 
encompassing  our  whole  starry  system 
with  its  ethereal  belt.  There  God  may 
for  us  specially  dwell,  in  the  third  or 
highest  heaven,  and  in  supremacy  en¬ 
throned  above  all  the  heavens,  bind¬ 
ing  the  system  with  his  power  and 
sending  his  volitions  as  perpetual  laws 
through  and  to  the  centre.  Paradise  we 
might  then  identify  with  the  second, 
lower,  or  “astral  heavens;”  but  the 
texts  suggest  a  more  limited  region. 


far  above  all  heavens,  8  that  he 

Heb.  4.  14 ;  7.  26. - s  Acts  2,  33. _ 

Hence  Byron’s  conception,  though  sub¬ 
lime,  is  too  cold  and  indefinite  for  the 
biblical  view  of  the  blessed  abode  of 
sainted  spirits : — 

“  WliP.n  coldness  wraps  this  suffering;  clay. 

Ah !  whither  strays  the  immortal  mind  ? 

It  cannot  die,  it  cannot  stay, 

But  leaves  its  darken’d  dust  behind. 

Then,  un embodied,  doth  it  trace 

By  steps  each  planet'' s  ivand'  ring  way? 
Or  till  at  once  the  realms  of  space, 

A  thing  of  eyes,  that  all  survey  ?  ” 

But  from  the  use  of  the  word  air  in 
ii,  2,  and  vi,  12,  (where  see  notes,)  we 
should  infer  that  the  lowest,  or  “aerial 
heaven,”  is  the  border  region  where  the 
forces  of  paradise  and  lower  hades  blend 
and  struggle.  And  thence  descending, 
we  are  led  to  find  the  darker  and  dark¬ 
est  hades  in  the  lower  parts  of  the 
earth,  that  is,  towards  and  in  the  sub¬ 
terranean  regions.  We  should  be  in¬ 
clined,  therefore,  to  find  the  normal 
paradise  in  the  upper  margin  of  the 
aerial  stratum,  undivided  }ret  distinct 
from  the  lower  hades,  and  unexcluded 
from  the  “astral  heavens.”  Paradise 
we  should  view  as  a  broad,  overlying 
margin  of  pure  ethereal  glory,  underlaid 
with  shade,  deepening  to  denser  and  still 
denser  darkness,  even,  perhaps,  to  the 
subterranean  centre.  That  centre  is  the 
lowest  hades.  As  to  the  ouranos ,  heaven, 
and  the  gehenna ,  hell,  beyond  the  resur¬ 
rection,  see  note  on  1  Thess.  iv,  17. 

That  the  ancient  and  biblical  idea, 
which  located  hades  in  the  interior  of 
the  earth,  finds  nothing  in  the  earth’s 
solidity  nor  in  any  fact  of  science  to  con¬ 
tradict  it,  is  well  shown  in  the  follow¬ 
ing  passage  from  the  Unseen  Universe , 

p.  160 : — 

“  The  deservedly  famous  Dr.  Thomas 
Young  has  the  following  passage  in 
his  Lectures  on  Natural  Philosophy : 
“Nor  is  there  any  thing  in  the  unpreju¬ 
diced  study  of  physical  philosophy  that 
can  induce  us  to  doubt  the  existence  of 
immaterial  substances;  on  the  contrary, 
we  see  analogies  that  lead  us  almost 
directly  to  such  an  opinion.  The  elec¬ 
trical  fluid  is  supposed  to  be  essential¬ 
ly  different  from  common  matter;  the 
general  medium  of  light  and  heat,  ac- 


288 


EPHESIANS. 


A  D.  63. 


might  3  fill  all  things.  II  ‘And 
lie  gave  some,  apostles;  and  some, 
prophets;  and  some,  “evangelists; 

3  Or ,  fulfil. - 1 1  Cor.12.  28. - u  Acts  21.  8 ; 

2  Tim.  4.  5. 

cording  to  some,  or  the  principle  of 
caloric,  according  to  others,  is  equal¬ 
ly  distinct  from  it.  We  see  forms  of 
matter,  differing  in  subtilty  and  mobil¬ 
ity,  bearing  the  names  of  solids,  liq¬ 
uids,  and  gases ;  above  these  are  the 
semi-material  existences,  which  pro¬ 
duce  the  phenomena  of  electricity  and 
magnetism,  and  either  caloric  or  a  uni¬ 
versal  ether.  Higher  still,  perhaps, 
are  the  causes  of  gravitation,  and  the 
immediate  agents  in  attractions  of  all 
kinds,  which  exhibit  some  phenomena 
apparently  still  more  remote  from  all 
that  is  compatible  with  material  bodies. 
And  of  these  different  orders  of  beings 
the  more  refined  and  immaterial  ap¬ 
pear  to  pervade  the  grosser.  It  seems, 
therefore,  natural  to  believe  that  the 
analogy  may  be  continued  still  further 
until  it  rises  into  existences  absolutely 
immaterial  and  spiritual.  We  know 
not  but  that  thousands  of  spiritual 
worlds  may  exist  unseen  forever  by 
human  eyes ;  nor  have  we  any  reason  to 
suppose  that  even  the  presence  of  matter , 
in  a  given  spot ,  necessarily  excludes  these 
existences  from  it  Those  who  maintain 
that  nature  always  teems  with  life, 
wherever  living  beings  can  be  placed, 
may  therefore  speculate  with  freedom 
on  the  possibility  of  independent  worlds ; 
some  existing  in  different  parts  of  space, 
others  pervading  each  other  unseen  and 
unknown ,  in  the  same  space ,  and  others 
again  to  which  space  may  not  be  a  nec¬ 
essary  mode  of  existence.” 

11.  He  gave — The  fact  that  St.  Paul 
here  makes  the  gifts  consist,  not  of 
the  offices  bestowed,  but  of  the  officers , 
seems  to  indicate  that  he  nevertheless 
retained  in  thought  the  other  inter¬ 
pretation,  “  he  received  gifts  in  men.” 
Hereby  St.  Paul  impresses  upon  his 
Ephesians  that  one  of  the  best  gifts 
Christ  bestows  upon  the  Church  is  en¬ 
dowed  leaders  and  inspirers.  Some 
to  be  apostles — As  to  the  apostolic 
office,  consult  notes  on  Matt,  x,  2 ; 
xxviii,  20 ;  Luke  i,  2 ;  Acts  vi,  2-4. 


and  some,  v  pastors  and  w  teachers ; 
12  x  For  the  perfecting  of  the 
saints,  for  the  work  of  th6  minis- 

v  Acts  20.  28. - w  Romans  12.  7. - x  1  Corin¬ 

thians  12.  7. 

Prophets — Utterers  of  inspired  truth ; 
whether  of  prediction,  as  Agabus  (Acts 
xxi,  10)  and  Paul,  (2  Thess.  ii,  1-12,)  or 
of  inspiration  of  doctrine  or  exhorta¬ 
tion,  as  in  1  Cor.  xiv,  4.  Every  preacher 
of  the  present  day  who  is  “moved  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  ”  to  his  office,  or  in  its 
performance,  is  a  true  New  Testament 
prophet.  And  to  him  the  success  of 
his  work  in  the  conversion  of  souls 
and  the  upbuilding  of  the  Church,  as 
described  in  vv.  12-16,  is  a  blessed 
proof  that  he  is  a  genuine  prophet. 
Pastors  and  teachers — Are  these 
two  classes,  or  two  functions  of  one 
class?  The  fact  that  the  distinctive 
some  covers  both,  has  induced  many 
commentators  to  hold  them  as  one 
class.  But  it  must  be  noted  that  St. 
Paul  names  the  offices  in  the  order  of 
anti-climax,  the  greatest  first,  the  least 
last.  The  distinctive  some  was  due  to 
the  dignity  of  each  of  the  first  three ; 
one  some  will  do  for  the  last  two. 
And  as  they  are  very  subordinate 
officers,  history  has  lost  their  real  na¬ 
ture.  But  under  a  similar*  revival  in 
modern  times,  Methodism  called  into 
existence  its  class  leaders,  who  are 
truly  the  under  pastors  of  the  flock, 
watching  over  the  spiritual  interests 
of  a  certain  assigned  number.  The 
early  catechists,  who  drilled  the  con¬ 
vert  into  the  history  of  Jesus  and  oth¬ 
er  elementary  truths  of  Christianity, 
were,  very  probably,  these  teachers. 
The  Sunday-school  teachers  of  the 
present  day  are,  we  think,  justly  en¬ 
titled  to  be  held  their  true  successors. 

c.  All  for  building  a  compact  and  en¬ 
ergetic  Christian  Church,  12-16. 

12.  For — In  order  to:  a  different 
Greek  word  from  the  two  fors  follow¬ 
ing.  This  perfecting  or  fitting  the 
saints  is  for  two  things:  first,  for  a 
(not  the)  work  of  service,  (not  an  of¬ 
ficial  ministry,)  so  as  to  be  a  true 
working  Church  in  all  temporal,  be¬ 
nevolent,  and  spiritual  matters ;  and 
second,  for  the  building  up  the  Church, 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


289 


try,  y  for  the  edifying  of  z  the  body 
of  Christ:  13  Till  we  all  come 

4  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  aand 

of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of 
God,  unto  ba  perfect  man,  unto  the 
measure  of  the  5  stature  of  the  ful¬ 
ness  of  Christ :  14  That  we  hence¬ 

forth  be  no  more  c  children  d  tossed 
to  and  fro,  and  carried  about  with 
every  e  wind  of  doctrine,  by  the 

V 1  Cor.  14.  26. - z  Col.  1. 24. - 4  Or,  into  the 

unity. a  Col.  2. 2. - b  1  Cor.  14.  20;  Col.  1.  28. 

5  Or,  age. - clsa.  28.  9 ;  1  Cor.  14.  20. - d  Heb. 

13.  9. - e  Matt.  11.  7. 

so  that  it  be  at  once  a  strong  edifice, 
and  that  edifice  the  body  of  Christ. 
The  figures  of  architecture  and  of  anat¬ 
omy  are  blended. 

13.  St.  Paul  gives,  in  this  verse,  a 
picture  of  growth  into  churchly  man¬ 
hood,  contrasted,  in  the  next  verse,  by 
a  picture  of  doctrinal  childhood.  All 
come  —  That  is,  all  attain  unto  three 
things:  oneness  of  faith  and  knowl¬ 
edge,  the  perfect  man,  and  the  meas¬ 
ure  of  Christ’s  fulness. 

14.  Tossed  to  and  fro — A  metaphor 
from  waves  tossed  about  by  the  winds; 
billowed  to  and  fro.  Every  wind 
of  doctrine — When  we  have,  by  a 
perfect  knowing  of  Christ,  attained 
the  firmness  of  spiritual  manhood  in¬ 
stead  of  the  fickleness  of  childhood, 
we  possess  an  assurance  in  our  po¬ 
sition  not  to  be  disturbed  by  the  gusts 
of  popular  scepticism  or  novel  dogmas. 
Sleight,  means  dice ;  of  men,  who  are 
playing  a  game ;  spiritual  gamblers. 
Whereby  they  lie  in  wait  to  de¬ 
ceive  is  a  very  diffuse  rendering. 
We  translate  the  whole  clause,  cun¬ 
ning  craftiness ,  exerted  in  the  system- 
ization  of  deception.  All  these  full 
formed  isms  are  deceptions  fabricated 
by  the  craftiness  of  deep  doctrinal 
gamblers,  whom,  if  we  are  men  (see 
verse  13)  and  not  children,  we  will 
promptly  reject.  For  in  deep  religious 
experience,  in  a  thorough  experimental 
knowledge  of  Christ,  do  we  attain  that 
full  assurance  of  faith  which  is  proof 
against  all  scepticism. 

15.  Speaking  the  truth — Not  only 
speaking,  but  in  every  respect  being 
and  acting  in  truth ;  or,  to  coin  a  pre- 

Vol.  IV.— 19 


sleight  of  men,  and  cunning  crafti¬ 
ness,  f  whereby  they  lie  in  wait  to 
deceive;  15  But  s 6  speaking  the 
truth  in  love,  hmay  grow  up  into 
him  in  all  things,  *  which  is  the 
head,  even  Christ :  16  k  From 

whom  the  whole  body  fitly  joined 
together  and  compacted  by  that 
which  every  joint  supplieth,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  effectual  working 

./Rom.  16.  18;  2  Cor.  2.  17. - g  Zech.  8.  16; 

2  Cor.  4.  2 ;  verse  25 ;  1  John  3. 18. - 6  Or,  being 

sincere. - h  Chap.  1.  22;  2.  21. - i  Col.  1.  18. 

- k  Col.  2.  19. 

cisely  parallel  participle,  truthing  in 
love.  As  all  these  isms  are  systems 
of  untruth,  let  us  be  embodied  truth 
bathed  in  love :  for  in  this  trueness  in 
love  is  not  only  firmness  but  growth , 
both  individual  and  churchly.  Into 
him... the  head — As  the  great  recon¬ 
ciler  of  all  things  in  and  under  himself 
as  head  in  i,  10,  11. 

16.  From  this  head,  Christ,  the 
whole  body  (as  in  i,  22,  23)  is  organ¬ 
ized  and  made  to  grow.  This  is  now 
expressed  very  anatomically  and  com¬ 
plexly.  The  word  body  is  repeated 
in  the  first  and  last  part  of  the  verse. 
The  body  makes  the  body  grow  into 
a  complete  self-building  in  love.  It 
does  this  by  three  things:  1.  A  very 
compact  organism,  which  is  effected 
by,  2.  Matter  of  supply,  and,  3.  Both  in 
proportion  to  the  vital  energy  of  every 
proportional  part.  To  analyze  these 
three  more  fully:  1.  Frcm  the  vitality 
in  the  head  we  have  an  organism  fit¬ 
ly  joined  together  and  compacted. 
This  is  a  very  tersely  expressed  image 
of  a  true  Church  unity,  to  which  it  is 
of  vital  importance  that  every  Church 
should  aspire.  2.  This  is  effected  by 
(to  change  the  translation)  every 
joint  of  supply.  This  of  supply 
qualifies  the  joint,  and  means  that 
every  joint  is  a  supplier  of  strength,  as 
if  it  read  every  strength- supplying  joint. 
3.  And  this  according  to  the  efficient 
vital  energy  in  the  measure  or  propor¬ 
tion  of  every  part.  Paul  traces  these 
successive  points,  because  each  pre¬ 
sents  a  topic  and  a  lesson.  1.  From 
our  Head  is  all  our  life  and  vigour. 
2.  From  Him  we  should  be  a  bodily 


290 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  63. 


in  the  measure  of  every  part,  mak- 
eth  increase  of  the  body  unto  the 
edifying  of  itself  in  love. 

17  This  I  say  therefore,  and  tes¬ 
tify  in  the  Lord,  that  1 2 * * * *  ye  hence¬ 
forth  walk  not  as  other  Gentiles 

ZChap.  2.  1-3 ;  verse  22;  Col.  3.  7 ;  1  Pet.  4.  3. 
m  Rom.  1.  21. - n  Acts  26.  18. 

unit.  3.  That  unit  supposes  a  power¬ 
ful  jointing  of  part  to  part,  and  part  to 
whole.  4.  To  all  this  efficient  compact¬ 
ness  every  member,  however  minute  or 
obscure,  should  contribute.  The  model 
Church  is  vital  in  every  part.  Not  one 
can  say,  I  am  of  no  use,  am  nothing. 
5.  And  all  this  is  an  upbuilding  in 
love.  The  love  of  Christ  is  the  foun¬ 
tain;  the  love  to  each  other  is  the  uni¬ 
ty;  the  love  to  the  surrounding  world 
is  the  stream,  pouring  itself  forth  in 
benevolence,  purities,  truths,  and  mis¬ 
sions  of  gospel  power.  Were  St.  Paid’s 
ideal  realized,  what  all-conquering  gos¬ 
pel  Churches  we  should  have !  Having 
thus  far  pictured  his  Church  in  itself, 
Paul  will  now  illustrate  its  purity  by 
contrasts  with  the  opposite  Church  of 
the  world,  of  Satan,  and  the  anti-church 
of  Gentilism.  The  contrast  is  twofold; 
touching  sins  of  the  spirit  and  sins  of 
the  flesh. 

2.  To  be  a  Church  in  double  con¬ 
trast  to  the  anti-Church  of  Gentil¬ 
ism,  iv,  17-v,  21. 

First  Contrast — Sins  of  the  spirit, 
17-v,  2. 

a.  In  contrast  with  the  Gentilism  which 
you  have  left ,  17-19. 

17.  I  say. .  .  afld  testify — I  declare 
and  protest.  Therefore — In  view  of 
your  being  the  model  Church  described 
in  the  last  paragraph.  Other  is  omit¬ 
ted  by  the  best  readings.  Thereby 
the  apostle,  by  a  new  antithesis,  holds 
his  converts  as  not  now  Gentiles  but 

Christians.  Walk — Note,  chap,  iv,  1. 
This  outward  walk  springs  from  in¬ 

ternal  pravation,  located  by  St.  Paul  in 
mind,  understanding,  inner  life,  and 
heart.  Mind  —  Noi>f,  equivalent  to 
the  spirit — the  high  intuitive  faculty, 
the  intellect  in  its  ethical  sphere,  in 
which  the  theory  of  religion  and  the 
sense  of  conscientious  morality  dwell. 


walk,  m  in  the  vanity  of  their 
mind,  18  n  Having  the  under¬ 
standing  darkened,  °  being  alien¬ 
ated  from  the  life  of  God  through 
the  ignorance  that  is  in  them,  be¬ 
cause  of  the  p  7  blindness  of  their 

o  Chap.  2.  12 ;  Gal.  4.  8 ;  1  Thess.  4.  5. - j?  Rom. 

1.  21. - 7  Or,  luirdne.ua. 

Here  should  be  the  divine  residence  of 
eternal  truth,  God,  Christ,  and  holi¬ 
ness.  But  with  these  Gentiles  here 
is  only  vanity,  which  was  a  common 
Hebrew  term  for  idolatry;  and  here 
with  St.  Paul  it  is  a  name  for  all  the 
utter  worthlessness  of  the  apostate  an¬ 
titheism  of  Gentilism.  And  in  this 
vanity  of  their  highest  region  of  in¬ 
tuition  thev  walked.  Prom  that  re- 
gion  was  shed  a  haze  and  a  darkness 
over  the  ground  they  walked. 

18.  Under  standing — The  region  of 
the  play  of  reasoning,  the  channel  of 
the  ordinary  thought-current.  As  the 
intuitive  power  above,  of  these  men, 
was  filled  with  vanity,  so  the  cur¬ 
rent  of  thought  flowed  in  darkness. 
Alienated  —  Foreignized,  de-citizen- 
ized,  as  if  belonging  to  another  race 
from  the  sons  of  God.  Prom  the 
life  of  God  —  That  divine  regen¬ 
erative  life  produced  by  the  vital¬ 
izing  touches,  and  the  indwelling  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  by  which  we  are  sons 
of  God.  St.  Paul’s  participle,  alien¬ 
ated,  glances  back  to  a  period  when 
they  were  home-born  natives  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  And  this  is  true 
both  of  our  humanity  and  of  every 
man  born  into  this  atonement  -  per - 
vaded  world. 

Bengel  and  others  discern  a  parallel¬ 
ism  between  the  present  four  clauses  b}* 
which  the  lirst  corresponds  to  the  third, 
and  the  second  to  the  fourth.  Thus: — 

Having:  the  understanding  darkened. 

Through  the  ignorance  that  is  in  them  : 

Being  alienated  from  the  life  of  God, 

Through  the  callousness  of  their  heart 

But,  we  may  add,  this  whole  double 
process  of  darkness  through  igno¬ 
rance,  and  alienation  through  hardness, 
is  the  result  of  the  vanity  7  in  the  in¬ 
tuitive  mind,  by  which  God  has  been 
discarded  and  apostasy  been  commit¬ 
ted.  Blindness — Rather,  hardness 


A.  D.  03. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


291 


heart :  19  « Who  being  past  feeling 
rhave  given  themselves  over  unto 
lasciviousness,  to  work  all  unclean¬ 
ness  with  greediness.  20  But  ye 
have  not  so  learned  Christ ;  21  5  If 

q  1  Tim.  4.  2. - r  Rom.  1.  24,  26 ;  1  Pet.  4.  3. 

s  Chap.  1.  13. 

The  Greek  term  is  derived  from  a  word 
signifying  stone,  and  is  then  applied, 
in  surgery,  to  a  hardening  of  the  flesh 
into  bone — ossification.  Hence,  view¬ 
ing  the  heart  as  the  symbolical  seat 
of  the  moral  emotions,  the  word  desig¬ 
nates  a  stolid  insensibility  to  moral 
impressions.  It  forms  an  encasement 
through  which  the  life  of  God  cannot 
enter. 

19.  Being  past  feeling — The  Greek 
verb  so  rendered  signifies  those  who 
have  had  their  crying  spell  but  now 
are  quiescent.  Hence  it  comes  to  sig¬ 
nify  such  as  have  become  freed  from  ail 
once-existing  moral  sensibility.  Las¬ 
civiousness —  Unrestraint ,  or  license  of 
every  kind.  It  is  by  no  means  limit¬ 
ed  to  sexual  license,  but  applies  to  any 
vice.  Uncleanness — Filth,  nastiness, 
baseness,  either  material  or  moral.  See 
note,  v,  3.  In  1  Thess.  ii,  3  it  refers  to 
avarice.  Greediness  —  Rather,  cove¬ 
tousness;  grasping  after  more  and  more 
gain.  From  our  definitions  of  these 
last  three  words,  it  will  be  seen  that 
we  find  no  reference  in  the  verse  to 
sexual  impurity,  but  to  secular  and 
business  profligacy.  We  render  the 
whole  verse :  Who  being  past  all  sen¬ 
sitiveness ,  (either  as  to  obligation  or  to 
reputation)  have  surrendered  themselves 
to  unrestraint  for  accomplishment  of 
every  baseness  in  gain- getting.  Our 
reasons  for  finding  no  reference  to 
sexual  license  here  are:  1.  That  subject 
is  fully  treated  in  v,  3-21.  2.  All  the 

vices  to  be  put  off,  (25—33,)  in  contrast 
with  the  present  dark  pictures,  belong 
to  secular  business  life  and  not  to  sex¬ 
uality.  3.  The  terms  used,  though  some 
of  them  have  a  sexual  side,  yet  do  not 
here  require  that  meaning,  while  the 
last  word,  rendered  greediness,  fairly 
excludes  it.  It  is  derived  from  nheog, 
more,  and  lyw,  to  have ,  and  is  the  nor¬ 
mal  Greek  word  to  signify  gain-greed, 
graspingness,  avarice. 


so  be  that  ye  have  heard  him,  and 
have  been  taught  by  him,  as  the 
truth  is  in  Jesus  :  22  That  ye 

1  put  off  concerning  u  the  former 
conversation  vthe  old  man,  which 

t  C<»1.  2.  11 ;  Ileb.  12.  1 ;  1  Pet.  2. 1. - u  Chap. 

2.  2 ;  Col.  3.  7 ;  1  Pet.  4.  3. - v  Rom.  6.  6. 

In  the  apostle’s  day,  as  in  ours,  the 
supremacy  of  the  money-power,  the 
consequent  unscrupulousness  and  prof¬ 
ligacy  with  which  gain  was  sought, 
and  the  readiness  to  sell  one’s  self  for 
riches,  were  overwhelming.  The  con¬ 
quered  East  poured  boundless  wealth 
into  the  Roman  empire,  and  (to  use, 
with  Paul,  a  sexual  term)  debauched 
the  West  into  utter  prostitution  to  the 
baseness  of  greed.  No  wonder  that 
St.  Paul  should  have  execrated  it  as  a 
base  filthiness. 

b.  Be  ye  renewed  from  the  old  to  the 
new  man ,  20-24. 

20.  But — Now  the  vivid  contrast  of 
ye,  from  them ;  ye  being  emphatic ; 
ye  who  have  abandoned  unscrupulous 
Gentilism.  So  —  In  accordance  with 
these  Gentile  depravities.  Learned 
Christ — As  ye  were  once  taught  this 
selfish  worldliness.  Christ  is  the  em¬ 
bodiment  of  a  new  purity,  unselfishness, 
and  unworldliness. 

21.  Heard  him — Preaching  to  you 
through  his  apostles.  For  the  gospel 
is  his  living  voice.  As  the  truth  is 
embodied  in  Jesus — What  that  truth 
is  we  are  told  in  the  next  paragraph. 
It  is  the  truth  of  the  renewal  from  the 
old  depravities  to  the  new  purities. 

22.  That — Depending  on  have  been 
taught,  in  verse  21.  The  verb  is,  in¬ 
deed,  in  the  infinitive,  and  the  connex¬ 
ion  would  have  been  better  preserved 
had  the  infinitive  been  retained.  Hav¬ 
ing  pictured  the  depravities  of  old  Gen¬ 
tilism,  17-19,  Paul  contrastively  adds: 
But  not  such  the  lessons  you  have  re¬ 
ceived  from  Christ,  if  ye  have  indeed 
learned,  as  truth  is  embodied  in  him,  to 
put  off  the  old  man  of  Gentile  depra¬ 
vation,  and  put  on  the  new  man  after 
God’s  image.  Concerning... conver¬ 
sation — In  regard  to  your  former  mode 
of  moral  behaviour.  Old  man  —  In- 
lierited  from  Adam,  and  manifested  pre 
eminently  in  Gentilism.  Not  merely, 


292 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  63, 


is  corrupt  according  to  the  de¬ 
ceitful  lusts  ;  23  And  w  be  re¬ 

newed  in  the  spirit  of  your  mind  ; 

w  Romans  12.  2;  Colossians  3.  10. - x  Ro¬ 

mans  6.  4 ;  2  Corinthians  5. 17  ;  Galatians  6. 15 ; 

as  Ellicott,  the  “personification  of  our 
whole  sinful  condition  before  regenera¬ 
tion  ;  ”  but  the  personification  of  all  our 
sin  ward  tendencies  derived  from  the  fall 
and  progressively  put  off  by  our  regen¬ 
eration,  sanctification,  and  final  resur¬ 
rection.  The  term  regeneration,  used 
ordinarily  and  properly  to  designate  an 
instantaneous  act  by  which  we  are  made 
“children  of  God,”  does  in  its  larger 
sense  comprehend  the  entire  process 
by  which  we  are  brought  from  our 
deepest  ruin  in  sin  to  our  complete  final 
renewal  in  glory.  This  last  process 
passes  through  a  series  of  stages  and 
progressions.  In  that  sense  our  re¬ 
generation  is  a  gradual  work.  Notes 
on  23,  24.  Is  corrupt — Is  being  ever 
corrupted,  sinking  from  inborn  sinward- 
ness  to  an  ever  deeper  and  deeper  pro¬ 
gression  in  corruption  —  a  corruption 
implying  ultimate  utter  perdition.  And 
this  becoming  more  and  more  corrupt 
is  according  to,  that  is,  in  compliance 
and  accord  with,  the  impulses  of  deceit , 
rug  kiudvpiag  ri/g  andr-qg ,  very  incor¬ 
rectly  translated  deceitful  lusts.  The 
word  we  render  impulses  designates, 
in  Greek,  any  appetance  or  eagerness, 
either  for  good  or  evil,  and  usually  has 
no  special  reference  to  sexual  lust.  The 
word  translated  deceitful  is  a  genitive 
noun :  of  deceit.  The  entire  phrase,  then, 
designates  the  eager  promptings  of  a 
natural  deceitfulness  within.  It  corre¬ 
sponds  with  gain-greed ,  in  ver.  19,  and 
the  lying  they  must  put  away  in 
verse  25  ;  and  is  antithetic  with  truth 
in  vv.  21  and  25. 

23.  And  be  renewed — Connected 
as  an  infinitive  verb  with  the  infinitive 
put  off,  in  last  verse,  and  governed  by 
taught  in  verse  21  ;  taught  to  put 
off  and  to  be  renewed,  and,  ver.  24,  to 
put  on.  And  not  only  are  these  verbs 
in  the  infinitive,  but  it  is  important  to 
note  they  are  in  the  present  tense,  and 
thereby  express  a  continuous  process: 
that  is,  taught  to  be  putting  off,  and  to 
be  being  renewed ,  and  to  be  putting  on 


24  And  that  ye  x  put  on  the  new 
man,  which  after  God  i  is  created 
in  righteousness  and  8  true  hpli- 

chapter  6.  11  :  Colossians  3.  10. - y  Chapter 

2.  10. - 8  Or,  holinens  of  truth. 

the  new  man.  This  process  looks  to 
its  absolute  completion  in  the  day  of 
redemption,  ver.  30.  Spirit  of  your 
mind.  Not  temper  of  your  mind.  The 
word  mind,  here,  is  the  same  word  as 
in  verse  17,  where  see  note.  Of  the 
Gentile  mind  the  occupant  is  vani¬ 
ty;  of  yours,  should  be  Christ’s  Spirit. 
The  sense,  then,  is :  Be  ye  renewed  by 
the  Spirit,  that  is,  the  indwelling  oc¬ 
cupant  of  your  higher  mind,  the  divine 
Spirit,  which  has  expelled  the  former 
tenant,  vanity. 

24.  After  God  —  So  Col.  iii,  10. 
“  Renewed  in  knowledge  after  the  im¬ 
age  of  Him  that  created  him.”  Cre¬ 
ated —  As  Ellicott  well  notes,  in  the 
past  tense,  as  if  the  image  in  which 
we  are  to  be  being  renewed  was  itself 
created  at  first,  though  our  renewal 
be  a  progressive  work,  to  be  completed 
at  “the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of 
God,”  Rom.  viii,  19,  when  we  are  to 
be  completely  “  conformed  to  the  im¬ 
age  of  his  Son”  at  the  final  “regener¬ 
ation,”  Matt,  xx,  28,  when  we  are 
“children,”  or  rather,  sons ,  “of  the 
resurrection.”  Luke  xx,  36.  And  here 
we  learn  wherein,  in  some  respects,  is 
the  image  of  God  in  which  Adam  was 
first  created,  and  in  which  our  renewal 
ultimates.  Righteousness  .  .  .  holi¬ 
ness — Rectitude  in  our  dealings  with 
men,  holiness  in  our  relations  with 
God;  yet  the  latter  giving  a  higher 
tone  to  the  former  than  it  could  of 
itself  possess.  Virtue  is  hardly  virtue 
until  verified  by  piety.  See  note  on 
Matt,  v,  7.  Ellicott  well  notes  “a 
faint  contrast”  between  righteous¬ 
ness  here  and  greediness,  verse  19, 
(gain-greed,  as  we  hav'S  translated  it) 
as  well  as  between  holiness  and  un¬ 
cleanness,  or  baseness,  as  we  have 
rendered  it.  If  the  entire  “contrast” 
which  we  exhibit,  as  intended  by  Paul 
in  these  two  paragraphs,  is  realized, 
the  contrast  Dr.  Ellicott  notices  ceases 
to  be  faint.  Our  renderings,  which  ex¬ 
clude  the  reference  to  sexuality  alone 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


293 


ness.  25  Wherefore  putting  away 
lying, z  speak  every  man  truth  with 
his  neighbour:  for  awe  are  mem¬ 
bers  one  of  another.  26  b  Be  ye 


e  Zech.  8.  16  ;  Col.  3.  9. - a  Rom.  12.  5. - b  Psa. 

are  thereby  confirmed.  True — This 
adjective  is  in  the  Greek  a  genitive 
noun  of  truth ,  and  commentators  now 
agree  should  so  be  rendered:  right¬ 
eousness  and  holiness  of  truth.  Truth, 
then,  is  here  contrasted  with  the  deceit 
of  verse  22,  where  see  our  note.  And 
this  contrast  again  confirms  our  ren¬ 
dering  in  that  verse. 

c.  By  putting  off  the  {five)  Gentile 
vices ,  25-v,  2. 

The  five  Gentile  vices  here  are : 
1.  Lying,  ver.  25;  2.  Anger,  vv.  26,  27  ; 
3.  Stealing,  28  ;  4.  Ribaldry,  29,  30 ; 
5.  Brawling,  31 ;  and  v,  1,  2.  To  his 
warning  against  each  vice  St.  Paul  adds 
either  its  aggravation,  as  in  1  and  4; 
or  a  contrasted  picture  of  the  reverse 
virtue,  as  in  3  and  5.  The  contrast  in 
verse  5  is  impressively  extended. 

25.  Wherefore  —  In  view  of  your 
sustaining  this  new  contrast  to  your 
old  Gentilism,  put  away  in  detail  the 
individual  Gentile  vices.  He  is  not  sat¬ 
isfied  with  a  conceptual  contrast  that 
may  end  in  theory.  He  would  root  out 
every  outward  evil  practice  under  the 
power  of  this  inward  renewal.  Put¬ 
ting—  Rather,  having  put  away ;  hav¬ 
ing  at  start  renounced  and  stopped  it. 
Lying — Literally,  the  lie;  the  universal 
lie ,  outside  and  inside,  vocal,  acted,  or 
purposed.  This  lie  is  identical  with 
the  deceit  of  verse  22  and  the  fraud  of 
verse  19.  Speak  —  The  vocal  species 
of  truth.  Members . . .  another — Said 
in  accordance  with  the  general  idea  of 
the  epistle — a  model  Church. 

26.  Be . . .  angry . . .  sin  not — And  if 
there  be  no  sinless  anger,  this  forbids  all 
anger.  They  are  welcome  to  any  anger 
which  violates  not  this  proviso.  And 
no  doubt  there  is  a  sinless  anger.  For 
anger  is  an  adverse  emotion  in  view  of 
any  wrong  done  to  ourself  or  against 
any  law  of  right,  and  often  suggesting 
the  due  punishment  of  the  wrongdoer. 
The  emotion  is,  in  itself,  right ;  is  con¬ 
sistent  with  uninterrupted  love;  may 


angry,  and  sin  not  :  let  not  the 
sun  go  down  upon  your  wrath : 
27  c  Neither  give  place  to  the 
devil.  28  Let  him  that  stole  steal 


4.  4  ;  37.  8. - c  2  Cor.  2. 10 ;  Jas.  4.  7 ;  1  Pet.  5.  9. 

be  proportioned  to  the  object ;  and  it 
may  not  break  the  clear  self-possession 
or  Christian  serenity  of  the  man.  If 
this  be  not  the  case  there  is  reason  to 
suspect  sin.  If  there  be  a  fierce  flash 
of  the  eye,  a  loud  and  forcible  utter¬ 
ance,  and  an  unfitting  violence  of  words, 
very  likely  the  sin  not  problem  has  not 
been  well  worked  out.  Sun . . .  wrath 
— Let  the  tranquillizing  shades  of  even¬ 
ing  compose  the  excitement  of  the  emo¬ 
tion,  even  though  it  be  your  duty  to 
see  that  the  wrong  be  righted.  When 
the  excitement  and  the  sun  have  gone 
down,  you  will  have  time  to  revise  and 
settle  if  there  be  not  some  mistake ;  and 
}mur  decisions  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
you  desire  to  commit  yourself  into  the 
hands  of  God  in  slumber,  will  be  pas¬ 
sionless  and  pure  in  the  sight  of  God. 

27.  Place ...  devil — For  whom  a 
man  in  a  passion  is  a  very  exposed  and 
endangered  object. 

28.  Stole  —  In  the  present  steals. 
Steal  no  more  —  St.  Paul  puts  the 
maxim  in  the  general  form,  so  that  if 
there  be  any  one  in  the  Church  who 
does  steal  he  may  apply  it.  Some 
have  been  surprised  that  such  a  person 
could  be  supposed  as  being  in  an  apos¬ 
tolic  Church.  But,  as  Meyer  suggests, 
if  there  could  be  a  fornicator  in  the 
Corinthian  Church,  there  might  be  a 
stealer  in  the  Ephesian  Church ;  and, 
perhaps,  apologists  for  both  question 
how  far  the  laws  of  marriage  and  the 
laws  of  property  were  binding  under 
the  new  Christianity.  Dr.  Eadie  quotes 
the  testimony  of  Eusebius,  showing  that 
throughout  the  eastern  world  a  man 
called  a  thief  did  not  at  all  resent  it. 
In  countries  where  living  is  easy,  and' 
the  standard  of  living  low,  the  laws  of 
property  are  easily  violated.  A  Spar¬ 
tan  punished  his  boy  who  stole,  not  for 
his  theft,  but  for  his  stupidity  in  being 
caught,  esteeming  skill  in  avoiding 
detection  a  greater  virtue  than  honesty 
in  avoiding  theft.  St  Paul  teaches 


294 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  G3. 


no  more:  but  rather  dlet  him  la¬ 
bour,  working  with  his  hands  the 
thing  which  is  good,  that  lie  may 
have  0  to  give  eto  him  that  need- 
eth.  29  f  Let  no  corrupt  com¬ 
munication  proceed  out  of  your 

d  Acts  20.  35;  1  Thes.  4.  11 ;  2Thes.  3, 8. - 9  Or, 

to  distribute. - e Luke  3.  11. — -./'Matt.  12.  36; 

chap.  5.  4 ;  Col.  3.  8. q  Col.  4.  6 ;  1  Thess.  5. 11. 

his  converts  that  a  Christian,  instead  of 
stealing  from  others,  should  work,  and 
so  be  able  to  give  unto  others.  He 
must  not  be  a  pilferer,  but  a  benefactor. 
Working  with  his  hands  —  This, 
rather  than  stealing  with  his  fingers  : 
for  Paul  points  out  not  only  the  wrong, 
but  more  abundantly  shows  the  reverse 
right.  The .  .  .  good  —  Instead  of  the 
evil  namely,  the  theft.  Laziness  is  the 
father  of  poverty  and  the  grandfather 
of  theft.  Men  at  the  present  day  avoid 
the  labour  of  the  hands,  and  seek  for 
political  office  that  they  may  steal  plen- 
tifull}'  and  genteelly.  When  the  stand¬ 
ard  of  living  is  high,  the  temptations  to 
theft  in  such  forms  are  often  very  pow¬ 
erful,  and  the  crime  of  embezzlement 
should  be  severely  punished.  Give — 
For  giving,  of  the  result  of  our  honest 
toil,  is  a  great  and  honourable  Christ¬ 
ian  virtue.  Whether  in  kindness  to 
the  poor,  in  public  endowments  of  ed¬ 
ucational  institutes,  the  upbuilding  of 
churches,  or  the  spreading  of  the  Gos¬ 
pel,  there  is  a  blessed  glory  in  giving. 
If  at  the  present  day  there  be  prodigal¬ 
ity  in  living  and  profligacy  in  stealing, 
there  is  also  a  great  and  glorious  lib¬ 
erality  in  giving.  If  this  be  an  age  of 
very  bad  men  it  is  also  an  age  of  very 
good  ones. 

29.  Corrupt — Literally,  putrid ,  rot¬ 
ten ,  as  a  dead  animal  or  vegetable  body : 
figuratively,  any  indecent  or  debasing 
communication.  The  “idle  word,’’ 
(Matt,  xii,  36,  where  see  note,)  the  “  vain 
words’’  of  v,  6,  are  worthless  talk ;  this 
is  disgusting  language,  as  ribaldry  and 
filthiness,  which  some  persons  think 
it  no  sin  to  use.  While  all  prudery 
should  be  avoided,  every  Christian 
should  disuse  all  degrading  indecency 
of  language.  But — Again  showing  the 
reverse  right.  Edifying  —  Building 
up  in  knowledge,  virtue,  or  piety. 


mouth,  but  e  that  which  is  good 
10  to  the  use  of  edifying,  hthat  it 
may  minister  grace  unto  the  hear¬ 
ers.  30  And  'grieve  not  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  God,  k  whereby  ye  are 
sealed  unto  the  day  of  1  redemp- 

- 10  Or,  to  edify  'profitably, - k  Col.  3.  16. 

- ilsa.  7.  13;  Ezek.  16.  43;  1  Thess.  5.  19. - 

Jc  Chap.  1.  13. - ZLuke  21.  28;  Rom.  8.  23. 

30.  And — Caution  as  to  the  conse¬ 
quences  of  the  jmtrid  communication. 
There  is  a  pure,  a  Holy  Spirit  who 

hears.  Grieve  not — It  is  not  only  a 

• 

pure  Spirit,  but  a  tender,  a  sensitive 
Spirit :  for  all  pure  natures  are  sen¬ 
sitive.  The  modest  spirit  cannot  bear 
indecency ;  the  pure  spirit  cannot  bear 
foulness :  and  the  divine  Spirit  is 
here  said  to  be  grieved  because  surh 
lips  utter  such  words ,  before  it  is  angi* *y. 
Its  grief,  amazement,  and  horror  pre¬ 
cede  its  wrath  and  departure.  Ye  are 
sealed — Repetition  of  same  image  as 
i,  13,  (where  see  note,)  of  a  spirit-seal 
to  the  day  of  redemption,  i,  14, 
typified  by  attainment  of  Canaan,  and 
exhibited  in  the  central  verse,  i,  10. 
The  danger  of  apostasy  is  exemplified 
by  this  allusion  to  Israel,  who  “  rebelled, 
and  vexed  his  Holy  Spirit:  therefore  he 
was  turned  to  be  their  enemy.”  Isaiah 
lxiii,  10.  For  the  Spirit  bestowed  upon 
us  is  itself  the  seal ,  i,  13,  and  so  the 
departure  of  the  Spirit  is  the  with¬ 
drawal  of  the  seal.  By  that  with¬ 
drawal  they  were  sealed  over  to  a  re¬ 
verse  destiny.  The  pedantic  remark 
of  Riddle  (in  SchalFs  Lange)  that  the 
words  imply  a  “logical  possibility  of 
falling  ”  while  “  the  more  theological 
and  soteriological  statements  preclude 
such  a  possibility,”  seems  an  attempt 
to  overrule  the  apostle’s  purpose  with 
his  own  dogma.  There  is  not  a  state¬ 
ment  in  the  Bible  that  would  “  pre¬ 
clude  such  a  possibility.”  Nor  is  there 
any  reason,  from  experience,  to  doubt 
that  such  apostasies  often  occur  in 
human  history.  Dr.  Eadie  says  it  is 
an  appeal  to  their  love,  and  not  to 
their  fear,  and  asks:  “Which  of  the 
twain  is  the  stronger  appeal?  And 
this  is  the  question  we  put  as  our  re¬ 
ply  to  Alford  and  Turner.”  We  an¬ 
swer  :  The  appeal  is  made  to  both  their 


A,  D.  03. 


CHAPTER  V. 


295 


fcion.  31  mLet  all  bitterness,  and 
wrath,  and  anger,  and  clamour, 
and  “evil  speaking,  be  put  away 
from  you,  °  with  all  malice :  32  And 
rbe  ye  kind  one  to  another,  tender¬ 
hearted,  q  forgiving  one  another, 
even  as  God  for  Christ’s  sake  hath 
forgiven  you. 


CHAPTER  Y. 

BE  a  ye  therefore  followers  of 
God,  as  dear  children ;  2  And 
bwalk  in  love, c  as  Christ  also  hath 
loved  us,  and  hath  given  him¬ 
self  for  us  an  offering  and  a  sacri¬ 
fice  to  God  dfor  a  sweet-smelling 
savour. 


m  Col.  3.  8,  19. - n  Titus  3.  2;  James  4  11; 

1  PeG  2. 1. - o  Titus  3.  3. - V  2  Cor.  2.  10;  Col. 

B  12.,  13. - q  Matt.  6. 14 ;  Mark  11.  25. - a  Matt. 

5  45 ;  Luke  6.  36 ;  chap.  4.  32. 


b  John  13.  34;  15.  12;  1  Thessalonians  4.  9; 

1  John  3. 11. - c  Galatians  2.  20;  Hebrews  7.  27; 

9.  14,  26;  10.  10,  12;  1  John  3.  16. - <2  Genesis 

8.  21 ;  2  Corinthians  2.  15. 


love  and  their  fear  ;  and  which  is  the 
stronger,  an  appeal  to  one  or  both  ? 
And  so  all  the  encouragements  and 
warnings  of  Scripture  are  equally  sin¬ 
cere,  and  by  attracting  to  a  real  reward 
and  determining  by  a  real  danger  (not 
a  factitious  “logical  possibility  ”)  would, 
by  a  double  force,  gain  us  to  a  happi¬ 
ness  we  may  freely  forfeit.  And  that 
is  our  reply  to  Dr.  Eadie. 

31.  Bitterness  —  The  climax  of 
wrathful  terms  in  this  verse,  rising  to 
clamour,  sounds  like  a  reminiscence 
of  the  uproar  of  the  Ephesian  mob. 
Acts  xix.  Bitterness— This  is  a  per¬ 
manent  state  of  virulent  temper,  which 
easily  swells  up  into  wrath  and  then 
breaks  forth  in  anger.  Then  may 
follow  outcry  or  clamour  of  the  in¬ 
dividual  or  the  mob.  This  is  the  way 
of  a  turbulent  state  of  society,  ready 
for  tumult.  All— This  climactic  rise 
of  violence  the  Christian  in  Ephesus 
must  put  away.  And  this  is,  as  Dr. 
Eadie  happily  styles  it,  “agenealogy 
of  bad  passions,”  each  begetting  its  suc¬ 
cessor  to  the  end  of  the  fierce  chapter. 
All — Having  their  base  and  fountain 
in  the  final  nania,  (translated  malice,) 
that  is,  badness ,  a  full,  deep,  cherished 
depravity  of  nature,  deepened  by  un¬ 
restrained  indulgence.  And  this  fear¬ 
ful  Ephesian  picture  is  an  example  to 
avoid,  which  our  apostle  will  complete 
by  a  counter  picture  for  a  Christian 
Church  in  Ephesus  in  the  following 
verso. 

32.  The  and  shows  that  this  verse, 
together  with  v,  1,  2,  is  the  comple¬ 
tion  of  31,  as  30  is  of  29.  The  there¬ 
fore  of  the  next  verse,  v,  1,  does  not 
imply  transition  to  a  new  paragraph. 
Be  ye  —  Rather,  become  ye.  This 


does  not  imply,  as  Alford  and  Braune 
(Schaff’s  Lange)  imply,  any  particular 
late  transgression  in  these  respects  by 
the  Ephesian  Christians,  but  only  that 
their  transition  from  Gentilism  to  a 
perfect  Christianity  was  a  perfecting 
process,  a  becoming.  Kind — The  Greek 
word  that  so  nearly  resembled  Christ 
(Chrestos)  that  pagans  confounded  it 
and  Christians  boasted  it.  Note  on 
Acts  xviii,  2.  As  God — All  in  com¬ 
mon  had  been  forgiven,  and  could, 
therefore,  mutually  forgive.  And  in 
the  two  following  verses  St.  Paul  car¬ 
ries  out  into  striking  detail  this  fol¬ 
lowing  our  divine  model,  God. 

CHAPTER  Y. 

1.  Be  ye — Become  ye,  parallel  with 
become  ye  (be  ye)  in  iv,  32,  where  see 
note.  Therefore — In  view  of  the  fact 
that  God .  . .  hath  forgiven  you,  be¬ 
come  followers  (literally,  imitators) 
of  God  by  casting  off  all  bitterness, 
iv,  31,  with  the  guilelessness  of  dear 
children,  who  imitate  their  placable 
father  in  freely  forgiving. 

2.  And — Not  only  as  children  for¬ 
give  and  forget,  but  even  walk  in 
love.  And  that  no  mere  animal  love 
There  are  meretricious  natures  who 
appear  strongly  capable  of  blending 
what  they  esteem  spiritual  with  sexual 
love.  Such  blending,  in  thought  or 
language,  is  morbid,  and  repulsive  to 
a  sound  Christianity.  But  Christian 
love  is  after  the  model  of  Christ, 
which  is  absolutely  pure  and  transcend- 
ently  self  sacrificing.  Hath  given 
himself— By  an  act  of  free,  voluntary 
love.  His  right  to  so  act  he  very  ex¬ 
plicitly  declares  in  John  x,  18.  H* 
performed  this  self-surrender  by  that 


296 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  63. 


ti  But  e  fornication,  and  all  un¬ 
cleanness,  or  covetousness,  f  let  it 
not  be  once  named  among  you, 
as  becometh  saints  ;  4  g  Neither 

filthiness,  nor  foolish  talking,  nor 
jesting,  h  which  are  not  conveni¬ 
ent:  but  rather  giving  of  thanks. 

e  Horn.  6.  1?.;  1  Cor.  6.  18;  2  Cor.  12.  21;  Col. 

3.  5;  1  These.  4.  3. - -f  1  Cor.  5.  1. - q  Matt. 

12.  35 ;  chap.  4.  29. 

right  which  we  all  have  to  suffer  for 
others,  undeterred  even  by  the  guilt  of 
those  who  inflict  the  suffering,  as  well 
as  by  that  divine  right  which  he  pos¬ 
sessed  over  himself.  For  us  —  The 
offering  was  for  us;  to  furnish  bless¬ 
ed  results  to  us,  parallel  to  those  which 
a  sacrifice  under  the  law  furnished  to 
him  in  whose  behalf  the  victim  bled. 
Offering.  .  .sacrifice — The  former  in¬ 
cludes  any  presentation  to  God,  bloody 
or  bloodless ;  but  it  is  also  defined  by 
the  word  sacrifice  as  bloody.  To 
God — Not  given  himself. . .  to  God, 
but  for  us  a  sacrifice  to  God,  as  the 
Levitical  sacrifices  ail  were.  Sweet¬ 
smelling  savour — Literally,  a  smell  of 
fragrance ;  the  smell  referring  to  the 
sensation,  the  fragrance  to  its  agreeable¬ 
ness.  So  Gen.  viii,  21,  at  Noah’s  sac¬ 
rifice,  “  Jehovah  smelled  a  sweet  sa¬ 
vour,”  and  became  propitious.  So  Lev. 
i,  9.  Christ  is  here  doubly  presented : 
1.  In  his  manward  relation,  as  an  exam¬ 
ple  of  unsurpassable  self-sacrificing  love, 
forming  and  glorifying  a  holy  Church 
by  its  inspiring  power;  and,  2.  In  his 
God  ward  relation,  as  a  well  -  pleasing 
self-sacrifice  to  the  divine  well-pleasing. 
The  former  of  these  views  is  admitted 
by  all  classes  of  Christian  thinkers; 
the  latter  is  denied  by  some  classes,  but 
in  vain. 

Second  Contrast— Sins  of  the  flesh, 

v,  3-21. 

a.  Against  Gentile  uncleanness ,  re¬ 
membering  God's  judgment,  beware ,  3-7. 

3.  But — Marking  the  transition  to  a 
new  volume  of  iniquity  in  the  anti- 
Church  of  Gentilism,  to  be  avoided  by 
the  Church  of  Christianity.  Fornica¬ 
tion — All  sexual  sin.  Uncleanness — 
All  disgraceful  vice  or  flagitiousness; 
vice  that  infringes  most  against  the 


5  For  this  ye  know,  that  *  no 
whoremonger,  nor  unclean  per¬ 
son,  nor  covetous  man, k  who  is  an 
idolater,  1 * * 4 5 6  hath  any  inheritance 
in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and  ol 
God.  G  m  Let  no  man  deceive 
you  with  vain  words:  for  because 

h  Rom.  1.  28. - i  1  Cor.  6.  9 ;  Gal.  5.  19. - 

k  Col.  3.  5;  1  Tim.  6. 17. - 1  Gal.  5.  21 ;  Rev.  22. 

15. - rn  Col.  2.  4,  8 ;  2  Thess.  2.  3. 

sense  of  decency,  decorum,  or  honour. 

Hence  it  covers  the  territory  between 

sexual  vice  and  dishonest  greed  of 
gain,  and  is  on  its  opposite  sides  allied 
to  each.  Covetousness  —  Note  on 
iv,  19.  In  both  cases  it  should  be 
rendered  as  here.  Once  named—  Let 
these  vices  be  so  far  from  you  that  the 
very  allusion  to  them  shall  cease.  It 
is  not  so  much  the  verbal  naming  that 
is  forbidden,  as  the  behaviour  and 
thoughts  that  induce  their  naming. 
The  effort  should  be  to  render  such 
vices  unthought  of,  strange,  and  sur¬ 
prising.  Becometh  saints — As  befits 
a  holy  community. 

4.  Filthiness — Indecency  of  word 
or  action.  Foolish  talking — In  which 
sin  and  folly  blend.  Not  conveni¬ 
ent — Not  suitable  for  your  character 
or  profession.  Giving  of  thanks — A 
truer  mode  of  cheerfulness,  and  suit¬ 
able  to  a  body  who  have  so  much  rea¬ 
son  for  gratitude  as  Christians. 

5.  For — A  deep  and  solemn  reason 
for  these  prohibitions.  Ye  know — 
However  ignorant  and  forgetful  the 
Gentiles  may  be,  ye  know.  That  no 
— The  same  triad  of  vile  transgressors 
as  in  ver.  3 :  the  debauchee,  the  shame¬ 
less,  the  business  knave.  An  idolater 
— Who  worships  the  round,  molten  im¬ 
age,  the  dollar,  as  his  god.  Note  on 
Matt,  vi,  24,  and  Col.  iii,  5.  It  be¬ 
longs  to  St.  Paul’s  self-sacrificing  na¬ 
ture,  as  Meyer  finely  remarks,  to  con¬ 
demn  gain-greed  as  the  most  shameful 
ungodliness.  Inheritance  .  .  .  king¬ 
dom — Notes  on  i,  10-14.  Of  Christ 
and  of  God — The  kingdom  of  eter¬ 
nal  glory  beyond  the  judgment  day. 

6.  No  man  deceive  you — Among 
the  heathens,  courtezans  were  priest¬ 
esses,  and  prostitution  was  consecrated 
as  a  religious  rite.  The  Ephesian  Christ- 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  Y. 


297 


of  these  things  n  cometh  the  wrath 
of  God  °  upon  the  children  of  1 * * * * * 7 8  dis¬ 
obedience.  7  Be  not  ye  therefore 
partakers  with  them.  8  p  For  ye 
were  sometime  darkness,  but  now 
*are  ye  light  in  the  Lord:  walk 


as  r  children  of  light:  9  (For 
3  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  in  all 
goodness  and  righteousness  and 
truth;)  10  Proving  what  is  ac¬ 
ceptable  unto  the  Lord.  11  And 
u  have  no  fellowship  with  v  the 


n  Rom.  1. 18. - o  Chap.  2. 2. - 1  Or,  unbelief 

■ - p  Acts  26.  18;  Rom.  1.  21;  chap.  2.  11,  12; 

Titus  3.  3. - q  John  8.  12 ;  2  Cor.  3.  18 ;  1  Thess. 

6.  5;  1  John  2.  9. 


r  Luke  16.  8;  John  12.  36. - *Gal.  5.  22  - — 

t  Rom.  12.  2;  Phil.  1.  10;  1  Thess.  5.  21;  1  Tim. 

2.  3. - u  1  Cor.  5.  9;  2  Cor.  6.  14,  2  Thess.  3.  6. 

- v  Rom.  6.  21 ;  Gal.  6.  8. 


iacs  would  every  day  encounter  soph¬ 
ists  arguing  against  and  ridiculing  the 
rigorism  of  personal  chastity,  and  rep¬ 
resenting  licentiousness  as  a  venial 
matter,  and  even  a  sacred  institution. 
Vain  words  —  Empty  words:  empty 

of  truth  and  value.  For — Very  dan¬ 

gerous  it  is,  indeed,  to  be  so  deceived. 

Wrath. .  .disobedience — Words  that 

remind  us  of  ii,  2,  3 ;  and  suggest  that 
in  Paul’s  view  the  wrath  is  the  result 

of  actual  sin. 

7.  Be — Rather,  become.  Note,  iv,  32. 

b.  Against  their  secret  and  nightly 

shame  be  children  of  light  and  day , 

8-17. 

As  the  darkness  of  night  is  the 
element  in  which  license  and  guilt 
find  their  covert,  so  by  association  of 
thought  license  and  darkness  are  con¬ 
ceptually  identified ;  while,  on  the  con¬ 
trary,  truth  and  purity,  as  well  as 
knowledge,  are  conceptually  identi¬ 
fied  with  light.  These  associations  of 
thought  are  universal  in  the  human 
mind  and  in  human  language.  Zoroas¬ 
trianism  makes  light  and  darkness  the 
emblem  of  the  two  great  kingdoms  of 
good  and  evil  in  the  world.  St.  Paul 
here  intensifies  the  thought,  by  mak¬ 
ing  light  and  darkness  include  not  only 
the  principles  of  good  and  evil,  but  the 
human  embodiments  of  good  and  evil, 
the  Church  and  the  anti-Church. 

8.  Ye  were — While  Gentiles.  Now 
are  ye  light — Not  as  illuminated,  but 
as  luminous  and  illuminating.  So  our 
Saviour:  “Ye  are  the  light  of  the 
world.”  Children  of  light — In  the 
whole  paragraph  there  is  a  blending 
of  the  double  thought  of  moral  and 
physical  light.  So  our  Lord:  “Let 
your  light  so  shine,  that  men  may  see 
your  good  works.”  The  children  of 
Lght  are  those  who  are  not  only  the 


true  sons  of  moral  illumination,  but 
are  so  congenial  with  the  actual  light 
of  day  that  the  sun  may  freely  shine 
upon  all  they  do,  and  illuminate  even 
the  secrets  locked  within  their  breasts. 
And  so,  also,  in  the  uses  of  both  the 
terms  light  and  darkness  there  is  a 
blended  double  reference  to  the  moral 
principles  and  the  classes  of  men  who 
embody  the  principles.  Christians  are 
light,  and  they  are  children  of  light ; 
and,  ver.  13,  the  darkness  of  the  licen¬ 
tious,  by  having  the  light  shine  through 
them,  becomes  light. 

9.  Fruit ...  Spirit —  A  better  read¬ 
ing  substitutes  light  for  Spirit.  The 
graces  produced  by  the  power  of  the 
true  Christian  light,  namely,  good¬ 
ness,  opposed  to  all  the  sins  of  appe¬ 
tite  and  lust;  righteousness,  to  all  un¬ 
just  and  dishonest  dealing  to  men;  and 
truth,  to  all  insincerity,  and  falseness 
to  God  or  man. 

10.  Proving  — That  is,  testing  by 
actual  and  practical  trial  and  experi¬ 
ence.  Acceptable  —  By  finding  the 
witness  of  the  divine  Spirit  approving 
our  course. 

11.  Fellowship  —  St.  Paul’s  ordi¬ 
nary  word  for  Christian  communion ; 
as  1  Cor.  i,  9,  “fellowship  of  his  Son;” 
and  x,  16,  “communion  of  his  blood.” 
It  implies  a  collection  of  participants 
into  a  common  element.  Hence  here, 
enter  not  into  associations  that  share 
in  the*  unfruitful  works.  There  is,  as 
commentators  well  remark,  no  specific 
allusion  to  the  heathen  “mysteries,” 
but  the  words  include  both  them  and 
all  associations  and  clans  of  revellers  in 
dark  and  hidden  licentiousnesses.  Un¬ 
fruitful— As  affording,  to  say  the  least, 
no  advantage.  Works  of  darkness 
— With  the  double  allusion  above  men¬ 
tioned:  works  that  are  morally  dark, 


29S 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  G3. 


unfruitful  works  of  darkness,  but 
rather  w  reprove  them.  12  x  For 
it  is  a  shame  even  to  speak  of 
those  things  which  are  done  of 
them  in  secret.  13  But  rail  things 

_ _  o 

w  Lev.  19.  17;  1  Tim.  5.  20. - x  Rom.  1.  24. 

— V  John  3.  20.  21 ;  Heb.  4.  13. 2  Or,  (Hhcoq - 

and  that  court  the  covert  of  literal 
night.  Reprove— A  very  significant 
term.  First,  it  indicates  a  refutation, 
as  in  an  argument;  second,  a  detection , 
as  of  some  complication  or  conceal¬ 
ment;  and,  third,  an  exposure ,  resulting 
from  both  the  refutation  and  the  de¬ 
tection.  Let  your  life,  conduct,  and  in¬ 
tellectual  powers  be  all  effective  in  re¬ 
futing  the  sophisms  with  which  license 
justifies  or  ennobles  itself,  as  well  as 
in  detecting  and  exposing  the  turpitude 
of  the  license  itself. 

12.  For — To  give  a  reason  why  this 
utter  exposure  should  be  the  aim  of  our 
moral  life.  Shame  even  to  speak— 
To  pronounce  the  indecent  words  that 
express  their  deeds  sullies  the  purity 
of  the  mind.  And  this  fully  decides 
that  the  entire  paragraph  hints  at  al¬ 
most  unmentionable  sins  of  the  flesh. 
In  secret — In  moral  darkness,  covered 
by  the  shades  of  physical  darkness — 
a  deep  night  darkening  upon  a  deeper 
night. 

13.  But — The  reverse  of  this  dark 
concealment.  All  things,  including 
those  lurking  depravities  that  are  re¬ 
proved,  that  is,  truly  detected  by  you, 
who  are  truly  the  light,  are  made 
manifest  in  their  true  enormity  of  char¬ 
acter.  For  whatsoever  doth  make 
manifest  —  More  correctly,  whatso¬ 
ever  is  made  manifest ,  is  no  longer  a 
lurking  obscurity,  a  darkness,  but  it 
becomes  in  truth  a  light.  On  which 
difficult  passage  we  may  note; — 

1.  Scholars  are  now  mostly  agreed 
that  the  Greek  word  for  doth  make 
manifest,  is  not  active,  but  passive ;  is 
being  made  manifest  Ellicott  says  that 
it  occurs  in  the  New  Testament  fifty 
times,  but  never  with  an  active  mean¬ 
ing.  2.  By  the  manifested  things  be¬ 
coming  light,  is  not  meant  that  the 
men  become  converted,  for  it  is  not  the 
men,  but  their  licentious  things  that 
are  the  subject.  Their  base  darknesses 


that  are  2  reproved  are  made  man¬ 
ifest  by  the  light  :  for  whatso¬ 
ever  cloth  make  manifest  is  light, 
a  t  Wherefore  3  he  saith,  *  Awake 
thou  that  sleepest,  and  a  arise  from 

eresl - 3  Or,  it. - z  Isa.  60. 1  ;  Rom.  13. 11.  — 

a  John  o.  25;  Rom,  6.  4 ;  Col.  3.  1. 

and  seducing  problems,  by  being  do* 
tected  and  light-penetrated,  become 
light.  The  dark  falsehood  becomes 
luminous  truth.  And  all  the  more  is 
the  previous  darkness  of  the  problem 
made  evident  and  abominable.  3.  Dif¬ 
fering  from  our  English  translation,  and 
from  Alford  and  others,  who  connect 
by  the  light  with  manifest,  we  refer 
it  to  reproved.  The  direction  is:  Do 
you,  the  light,  reprove  them ;  for  what¬ 
ever  is  by  the  light  reproved  is  mani¬ 
fest  in  its  true  character.  The  required 
end  is  not  that  it  may  be  manifest  by 
the  light,  but  simply,  that  it  may  be 
made  manifest ;  and  to  this  end  \t  is 
duty  that  they  should  be  reproved  by 
the  light.  Moreover,  manifest  should 
come  immediately  before  for,  as  be 
ing  the  term  for  which  the  for  intro 
duces  the  explanation.  This  keeps  in 
view  the  imperative  reprove  of  verse 
11,  for  which  verse  12  renders  the  im¬ 
perative  reason. 

14.  Wherefore — Inasmuch  as  this 
duty  of  bringing  the  darkness  to  light 
is  imperative,  the  following  call  upon 
those  in  darkness,  sleep,  and  death,  is 
issued.  He  saith — Or,  as  in  the  mar¬ 
gin,  it  saith.  Clarke,  after  Grotius, 
plausibly  refers  the  it  to  light,  synony¬ 
mous  with  the  gospel.  But,  in  all  cases 
of  the  use  of  this  formula  of  St.  Paul, 
some  reference  is  made  to  an  Old 
Testament  passage.  Alford  and  Eadie 
think  it  a  reference  to  Isa.  lx,  1:  “Arise, 
shine ;  for  thy  light  is  come,  and  the 
glory  of  the  Lord  is  risen  upon  thee.” 
Here  are  the  three  thoughts  of  a  con¬ 
dition  of  darkness,  an  arising,  (accord¬ 
ing  to  the  best  interpretation.)  and  a  con¬ 
sequent  illumination  from  the  Jehovah- 
Messiah.  Another  opinion,  as  old  as 
Theodoret,  is,  that  the  three  clauses  are 
three  lines  of  an  early  Christian  hymn: 
Awake,  thou  that  sleepest, 

And  arise  from  the  dead, 

And  Christ  shall  give  thee  light. 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  Y. 


299 


the  dead,  and  Christ  shall  give  I  time,  d  because  the  days  are  evil, 
thee  lio-ht  15  l’See  then  that  ye  17  e  Wherefore  he  ye  not  unwise, 
walk  circumspectly,  not  as  fools,  but  f  understanding  /  what  the 
but  as  wise,  16  c  Redeeming  the  |  will  of  the  Lord  is.  B  N  And  1  be 

i  Col.  4.  5. - cCol.  4.  5. - d  Ecclesiastes  12. 1 ; 


chap.  6. 13. - e  Col.  4.  5. 


Both  the  rhythm  and  the  poetic  ima¬ 
gery  confirm  the  supposition  that  we 
have  here  one  of  the  earliest  fragments 
of  Christian  hymnology.  With  great 
plausibility,  therefore,  Braune  blends 
the  two  suppositions,  that  the  words 
are  a  versified  paraphrase  of  Isaiah’s 
words.  This  view,  though  unsuscepti¬ 
ble  of  demonstration,  removes  all  diffi¬ 
culty.  There  is  no  more  improbability 
that  St.  Paul  should  quote  a  paraphrase 
of  Isaiah  from  an  early  hymn  of  the 
Church  than  from  the  Septuagint,  as 
he  more  than  once  does.  Awalie- 
The  concrete  darkness  which  St. 
Paul’s  Ephesians  once  were  (verse  8) 
is  now  transformed  to  human  beings 
wrapt  in  night  and  darkness.  They 
are  lying  in  what  Meyer  expressively 
calls  the  sin-sleep  and  the  sin-death. 
A  double  stratum  of  slumber  and  dead 
ness  lies  upon  them,  the  slumber  de¬ 
noting  the  indifference,  and  the  death 
the  moral  incapability  of  depraved  man 
to  arouse  himself  into  holiness  and 
salvation.  For  the  sin-sleep  there  is 
an  awake ;  for  the  sin-death,  there 
is  an  arise,  a  resurrection.  For,  with 
the  call  and  in  the  call  a  power  is  im¬ 
parted.  Each  dead  man  may  revive  ; 
each  sleeper  may  awake,  if  he  desires 
and  wills  the  bliss  of  life.  All  are  alike 
called ;  and  it  is  the  free  obedience  of 
man  that  renders  the  call  “effectual.” 
Light — The  gracious  light  by  which 
they  themselves  may  become  light, 
and  walk  fearlessly  in  the  full  light 
of  the  literal  day. 

15.  See  —  St.  Paul  now  closes  the 
paragraph,  as  he  did  the  last,  with  a 
deduced  admonition.  Then  —  There¬ 
fore;  that  is,  in  view  of  your  office  as 
light  to  reprove  the  darkness,  held 
forth  in  the  whole  of  this  closing  para¬ 
graph.  To  two  things  were  they  to 
see :  First,  that  they  were  themselves 
unreprovable ;  and,  second,  that  they 
should  be  ready  in  the  reproof  of  prev¬ 
alent  sin.  Circumspectly  —  With 


/Romans  12.  2. - q  1  Thessalonians  5.  18. - 

h  Prov.  23.  20  ;  Isa.  5.  11 ;  Luke  21.  34. 

strictness  of  rectitude,  knowing  that 
critical  eyes  are  upon  you.  Fools 
—  The  children  of  disobedience, 
(verse  6,)  the  foolish  talkers,  (verse  4.) 
Wise  —  Too  thoughtful  to  be  deceived , 
(verse  6,)  ever  solemnly  holding  in 
view  the  future  divine  wrath  upon  li¬ 
centiousness. 

16.  Redeeming  —  Literally,  buying 
off  for  ourselves.  The  time — The  word 
time,  here,  signifies  opportunity  or  oc - 
casion;  that  is,  of  administering  moral 
reproof,  and  testifying.  The  sense  is, 
at  whatever  cost  find  or  seize  the  op¬ 
portunity  to  check  sin.  Days  are 
evil  —  This  is  a  depraved  period,  an 
evil  generation,  rushing  in  a  course  of 
licentiousness,  and  scouting  all  moral 
rebuke.  Few  are  the  chances,  and 
dangerous  the  effort,  to  reprove  the 
impetuous  sinner,  but  at  any  price 
snatch  the  opportunity.  John  the 
Baptist  seized  the  occasion  to  reprove 
Herod  at  the  price  of  his  head.  St. 
Paul’s  whole  life  was  a  series  of  costly 
opportunities  of  rebuking  the  men  and 
the  age. 

17.  Unwise  —  Heedless,  not  using 
the  wits  and  the  knowledge  you  have. 
Understanding— By  direct  testing ,  as 
in  v,  10. 

c.  Against  Gentile  drunkenness  and 
revelry  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  joyous  with  holy  hymns ,  18-21. 

The  anti-Church  of  Gentilism  is  filled 
with  wine,  and  riotous  with  drunken 
song  and  clamour;  St.  Paul  substitutes 
the  holy  Church  of  Christ  as  filled  with 
the  Holy  Spirit  and  rapturous  with 
psalm  and  hymn  and  melody  of  heart 

18.  And  —  Not  (as  Eadie  and  oth¬ 
ers)  marking  “transition  from  general 
to  particular,”  but  from  one  form  of 
fleshly  sin,  sensuality ,  to  another,  inebri¬ 
ety ,  with  its  consequent  riot.  Be  not 
drunk  —  Drunkened,  or  made  drunk 
with  or  by  wine,  the  particular  drink 
for  the  genial.  Wherein  —  In  which. 
Our  translation,  referring  the  wherein  to 


800 


EPTIESfANS. 


A  D.  63. 


not  drunk  with  wine,  wherein  is  I  Spirit;  19  Speaking  to  yourselves 
l,uj.  pe  pnet]  with  the  'in  psalms  and  hymns  and  spirit- 


excess 


^  Acts  16.  25;  1  Cor.  14.  26;  Col.  3.  16;  James  5.  13. 


wine,  and  adding  wherein  is  excess, 

conveys  a  true  and  striking  meaning. 
In  wine  is  the  power  to  create  and 
intensify  the  appetite  for  itself,  and  the 
consequent  excess.  But  critics  are 
agreed  that  the  wherein  refers  not  to 
wine,  but  to  the  being  made  drunk  by  it. 
Alford  avails  himself  of  this  to  add, 
“The  crime  is  not  in  God’s  gift,  but  in 
the  abuse  of  it ;  and  the  very  arrange 
ment  of  the  sentence,  besides  the  spir¬ 
it  of  it,  implies  the  lawful  use  of  it. 
See  1  Tim.  v,  23.”  The  advice  to  Tim 
othy  indicates  that  “  God’s  gift  ”  is  be¬ 
stowed  as  a  medicine;  its  “abuse”  is 
as  a  beverage.  No  one  who  habitually 
uses  wine  as  a  beverage  has  any  assur¬ 
ance  that  he  will  never  be  drunk  with 
it.  At  any  rate  it  is  no  sin,  in  view 
of  such  danger,  for  any  man  to  abstain 
entirely  from  it,  and  it  may  be  a  part 
of  prudential  morality  earnestly  to 
urge  others  to  so  abstain.  Nor  does  it 
seem  to  be  a  very  necessary  duty  for 
commentator  or  preacher  very  careful¬ 
ly  to  maintain  the  right  to  use  it  as  a 
gratification  of  appetite.  Let  those  who 
desire  to  indulge  at  the  risk  of  downfall 
perform  that  work.  Excess  —  The 
exact  parallel  of  the  Greek  word  would 
be  unsavedness ,  or  unsavingness ;  and 
Theophylact  well  defines  its  victim  as 
“one  who  does  not  save,  but  destroys 
both  soul  and  body.”  Hence  profliga¬ 
cy,  self-abandonment  to  ruin.  Pilled 
with  the  Spirit — A  most  striking  an 
tithesis  1  While  Gentilism  is  drunk  with 
wine  let  the  holy  Church  be  filled  with 
the  Spirit. 


“ There's  a  spirit  above,  and  a  spirit  below; 
A  spirit  of  joy,  and  a  spirit  of  woe : 
i  he  spirit  above  is  a  Spirit  Divine; 

The  spirit  below  is  the  spirit  of  wine.” 

19.  Speaking  to  yourselves — Voic¬ 
ing  to  each  other.  For  the  Greek  word 
for  speaking  includes  any  vocal  utter¬ 
ance.  There  may  be  allusion  here  to 
the  antiphonal  or  responsive  music,  in 
which  different  parts  of  the  choir  alter¬ 
nated.  Such  was  the  manner  of  the 
Hebrew  choral  worship,  and  was  very 


early  adopted  by  the  Christian  Church. 
So  the  philosopher  Pliny,  but  a  little 
later  than  when  Paul  wrote  these 
words,  in  his  letter  quoted  in  our  vol. 
i,  p.  5,  says  that  the  early  Christians 
sang  “in  concert,”  that  is,  secum  invi- 
cem,  in  turn  among  themselves,  “a 
hymn  of  praise  to  Christ  as  God.” 
Psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual 
songs  —  For  the  apostle  will  have  a 
joyful  Church,  resounding  with  rich 
and  glorious  melodies.  However  as¬ 
cetic  in  words,  it  shall  be  ever  rejoic¬ 
ing  in  spirit.  Gentilism  is  drunkenly 
obstreperous,  but  Christianity  shall  be 
spiritually  melodious  and  triumphant. 
Psalms — The  psalm  was  inherited  by 
the  Christian  Church  from  her  old  He¬ 
brew  ancestry.  By  the  derivation  of 
the  word  it  signifies  a  sacred  poem  to 
be  chanted  in  accompaniment  with  an 
instrument.  But  during  the  period 
of  churchly  inspiration,  when  each 
one  had  an  improvised  psalm,  (1  Cor. 
xiv,  26,)  the  psalm  lost  the  instrument 
Hymns — The  word  is  inherited  from 
the  pagan  Church,  so  to  speak,  and 
signified  a  poem  sung  in  honour  of  a 
god,  or  gods.  These  are  among  the 
earliest  of  recorded  human  composi¬ 
tions.  The  hymns  of  the  Sanscrit 
Vedas,  sung  in  honour  of  the  gods  who 
were  personifications  of  the  elements, 
are,  some  of  them,  probably  as  old  as 
the  time  of  Moses.  AVorship  natural¬ 
ly  runs  its  emotions  into  rhythm  and 
tune,  and  so  the  apostolic  Church  early 
formed  a  body  of  lnunnology.  Songs 
— Literally,  odes1  derived  from  aeido,  to 
sing;  as  our  word  song  is  derived  from 
sing.  Hence  it  is  any  metrical  com¬ 
position  set  to  tune.  ‘  All  the  jovial 
strains  of  the  Gentile  revellers  could 
be  called  by  this  term ;  and  St.  Paul 
therefore  specializes  it  by  the  adjective 
spiritual.  If,  then,  a  hymn  and  a 
spiritual  song  had  any  difference,  it 
would  be  that  the  former  signified  a 
singing  directly  in  honour  to  God,  while 
the  latter  sang  any  phase  of  Christian 
feeling  or  experience.  Perhaps  the 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  V. 


SOI 


lal  songs,  singing  and  making 
melody  in  your  heart  to  the 
Lord;  20  b  Giving  thanks  always 
for  all  things  unto  God  and  the 

g  Psa.  34  1 ;  Isa.  63.  7 ;  Col.  3.  17 ;  1  Thess.  5. 18 ; 

2  Thess.  1.  3. 

larger  share  of  what  are  at  the  present 
day  called  hymns,  would  belong  to 
the  latter  class  of  spiritual  odes.  And 
in  the  primitive  Church,  however  the 
above  three  terms  differed  in  origin 
and  earlier  meaning,  they  all  ran  into 
each  other  and  retained  but  little  dis¬ 
tinction  of  application. 

20.  Giving  thanks  —  While  the 
mouths  of  gay  Gentilism  are  filled  with 
mad  laughter,  the  true  Church’s  heart 
is  overflowing  with  thanks  unto  God. 
Always  —  For  there  is  never  a  mo¬ 
ment  without  its  blessing.  The  drunk¬ 
ard  is  ever  awaking  from  his  mad  fits 
to  horror  and  despair;  but  with  the 
Christian  there  is  no  interval  of,  and 
no  room  for,  despondency.  All  things 
—  This  may  mean  for,  or  in  behalf 
of,  all  the  Christians  of  the  Church. 
For  as  there  is  no  interval  in  the  time 
of  blessedness,  so  there  is  no  Christian 
exception  to  its  universality.  But 
there  is  no  deduction,  either,  from  the 
all  things  for  which  gratitude  may 
glow ; .  that  is,  all  the  circumstances 
in  which  the  true  Christian  is  placed ; 
for  all  things  work  together  for  his 
good.  And  so  Theophylact  truly  says, 
u  For  not  only  in  our  ease,  but  also  in 
our  griefs ;  and  not  only  for  our  good 
fortunes,  but  for  our  misfortunes, 
and  for  things  we  know  and  for  things 
we  know  not;  for  through  all  these 
are  we  beneficently  conducted,  whether 
we  understand  it  or  not.”  Dr.  Eadie, 
quoting  Chrysostom’s  appalling  remark 
that  we  “  should  be  thankful  for  hell 
itself,”  justly  doubts  whether  it  is  tex¬ 
tual.  Dr.  Hopkins,  with  as  bold  a  logic, 
inferred  that  sinners  ought  to  be  will¬ 
ing  to  be  damned,  and  that  the  damned 
in  hell  ought  to  be  thankful  to  God. 
But  the  apostle’s  all  things  is  circum¬ 
scribed  to  the  providences  through 
which  the  Christian  is  called  to  pass. 
There  are  solemn  and  awful  things  in 
the  universe  for  which  God  never  has 
asked  our  thanks,  but  of  which  we 


Father  1  in  the  name  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  ;  21  ,n  Submitting 

yourselves  one  to  another  in  the 
fear  of  God. 

nieb.  13.  15;  1  Peter  2.  5;  4  11. - mPhil.  2.  3; 

1  Peter  5.  5. 

are  to  think  only  with  solemn  and  rev¬ 
erent  submission.  Unto  God  and 
the  Father — Different  appellatives  of 
the  same  Being.  In  the  name — By 
the  authority.  For  the  name  affixed 
to  a  bond  or  a  decree  is  the  source  and 
assurance  of  its  authority.  The  name 
of  the  sultan  is  the  token  of  submis¬ 
sion  to  the  tribes  of  the  faithful.  So 
the  commission  of  the  apostles  was  in 
the  name  of  Christ;  and  our  prayers 
and  thanks  are  addressed  to  God  in 
that  name.  Miracles  were  performed 
through  that  name,  and  believers  are 
baptized  into  (for  so  Matt,  xxviii,  19 
should  be  rendered)  that  name.  Lord 
Jesus  Christ — Lord ,  Saviour ,  Messi¬ 
ah  ;  for  such  is  the  import  of  these  di¬ 
vine  appellatives. 

21.  Submitting  yourselves  —  Dr. 

Eadie  thinks  this  “  introduces  a  new 
train  of  thought;”  but,  on  the  con¬ 
trary,  it  is  only  the  finishing  of  the 
thought  of  the  paragraph.  The  joyous 
melody  of  the  heart  which  it  inspires 
is  to  be  sustained,  and  discords  avoided, 
by  mutual  concession,  nay,  mutual  sub- 
mission ,  in  honour  preferring  one  an¬ 
other.  Hence  this  submitting  your¬ 
selves  one  to  another  strictly  co-or¬ 
dinates  with,  and  completes,  the  speak¬ 
ing  to  each  other  in,  etc.,  of  verse  19. 
In  the  fear  of  (not  by  the  best  read¬ 
ings  God,  but)  Christ.  Overlying  and 
regulating  our  miltual  joy  and  submis¬ 
sion,  is  our  loving  fear  of  our  loving 
and  adorable  Messiah. 

II.  1^  the  Family  and  Domestic 
Constitutions,  v,  22-vi,  9. 

a.  Wives  and  husbands ,  22-33. 

St.  Paul  here  makes  transition,  clear, 
indeed,  yet  so  slight  as  scarce  to  be 
marked,  from  his  model  Church  to  his 
model  family.  Indeed,  the  two  are 
one.  The  family  is  not  only  a  part  of 
the  Church,  but  also  in  itself  a  Church, 
modelled  ideally  after  the  ideal  Church, 
impregnated  with  Christian  principle 


302 


EPHESIANS. 


22  "  W  ives,  submit  yourselves 
unto  your  own  husbands,  °as  unto 
the  Lord.  21$  For  Pthe  husband 
is  the  head  of  the  wife,  even  as 

wColossians  3.  18:  Titus  2.  5;  1  Peter  3.  1. 
o  Chap.  6.  5. 

through  its  whole  structure.  Scien¬ 
tists  may  show  how  marriage  is  based 
in  our  physiological  nature ;  jurists 
may  show  how  it  forms  a  part  of  the 
civil  constitution;  but  it  is  the  apos¬ 
tle’s  part  to  show  how  it  is  enshrined 
iir  Christian  law,  and  how  the  family 
is  indeed  both  part  of  the  holy  Church 
and  itself  a  holy  Church.  Hence,  let 
no  wives  imagine  that  they  are  to  be 
absolved  by  the  new  Christianity  from 
their  dutiful  position  as  prescribed,  not 
only  by  nature,  but  by  God  and  Christ ; 
nor  let  any  husband  imagine  that  he 
is  discharged  from  his  sacred  responsi¬ 
bilities  and  ties.  On  the  contrary,  the 
looseness  of  Judaism  and  the  profligacy 
of  paganism  are  both  abolished,  and  a 
new  perfect  sacredness  is  infused  into 
the  marriage  constitution. 

22.  Submit  yourselves — So  slight 
is  the  break  from  the  previous  to  the 
present  topic,  that  we  are  obliged  to  go 
back  to  verse  2 1  to  obtain  this  submit, 
the  leading  verb.  For  it  is  not  found 
in  the  best  copies  of  the  text,  and  has 
undoubtedly  been  supplied  by  copy¬ 
ists,  who  perceived  the  blank  without 
realizing  the  reason.  Going  back  to 
ver.  21,  we  find  that  the  mutual  submis¬ 
sion  of  Church  members  and  the  sub¬ 
mission  of  wives,  are  expressed  by 
the  same  word.  It  is  the  submission 
of  joyous  love  under  fear  of  Christ. 
Beugel  truly  notes,  therefore,  that  this 
submit  is  altogether  different  from  the 
obey,  vi,  1,  and  be  obedient,  vi,  5, 
pi  escribed  to  children  and  servants. 
And  that  would  suggest  that  the 
“  obey  ”  prescribed  to  the  bride  in  the 
marriage  service  is  unbiblical.  Your 
own  husbands — Your  own  is  em¬ 
phatic,  as  not  only  yours  as  distin¬ 
guished  from  other  husbands,  but  as 
deeply  and  intensely  your  own.  As 
unto  the  Lord — Said  in  anticipation 
of  what  he  is  about  to  state,  that  the 
husband  represents  Christ  in  the  fam- 

Church. 


\  D.  63. 


q  Christ  is  the  head  of  the  chuicli: 
and  lie  is  the  Saviour  of r  the  body. 
24  Therefore  as  the  church  is  sub¬ 
ject  unto  Christ,  so  let  the  wives 

V 1  Cor.  11.  3. - q  Chap.  1.  22 ;  Col.  1.  18. 

r  Chap.  1.  23. 

23.  Head — He  does  not  say  Lord, 
as  expressing  Christ  in  his  absolute 
capacity,  but  as  head,  representing 
his  relative  office.  As  the  first  plan¬ 
ner  and  organizer,  and  perpetual  rep¬ 
resentative  of  the  family  to  the  world, 
the  husband  is  its  naturally  and  di¬ 
vinely  constituted  head.  By  his  name 
is  the  whole  family  rightly  called. 
Outside  the  home,  in  which  the  wife 
is  empress  of  a  little  kingdom  of  her 
own,  he  is  held  primarily  responsible 
for  the  family  support,  reputation,  and 
advancement.  His  position  is  justly 
held  to  be  dishonoured,  guiltily  or  un¬ 
fortunately,  if  that  responsibility  be 
not  sustained,  or  the  wife  be  called  to 
supply  his  place.  It  is  equally  unbe¬ 
coming  for  her  to  endeavour,  without 
necessity,  either  to  substitute  or  over¬ 
rule  him.  Of  the  wife  —  Including 
her  offspring,  who  are  at  once  'pro¬ 
duced  by  herself,  and  herself;  just  as 
the  Church’s  offspring  are  truly  herself. 
Christ. . .  Church — So  that  the  family 
is  a  picture  outlining  the  sacred  origi¬ 
nal,  and,  therefore,  itself  sacred.  Hu¬ 
man  laws  may  hold  marriage  a  merely 
civil  contract;  but  divine  law  holds  it 
to  be  a  divine  institution.  Hence,  it 
is  not  the  magistrate,  but  the  minis¬ 
ter,  by  whom  the  marriage  rite  should 
be  performed,  and  the  church  should 
be  its  place ;  since,  though  not  a  sac¬ 
rament,  it  is  a  most  highly  religious 
act.  The  marriage  itself,  however 
surrounded  with  jovial  circumstances, 
should  be  performed  by  the  minister  as 
a  most  solemn  religious  ceremonial. 
He,  emphatic  and  distinctive.  Christ 
is  not  only  head,  but  he  is  Saviour 
of  the  churchly  body. 

24.  As  the  Church... so... the  wives 
— Sexual  nature,  on  which  marriage  is 
based,  man  shares  not  only  with  the 
wide  animal  world,  but,  stiange  as  to 
the  unscientific  it  sounds,  even  with 
the  vegetable  world.  But  this  animal 
love,  which  through  all  nature  is  the 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  Y. 


303 


be  to  their  own  husbands  s  in  every 
tiling.  25  1  Husbands,  love  your 
wives,  even  as  Christ  also  loved 
the  church,  and  ugave  himself  for 


8  Col.  3.  ‘20 ;  Titus  2.  9. - 1  Col.  3.  19 ;  1  Peter 

3.  7. - u  Acts  20.  28;  Cal.  2.  20. - v  John  3.  o; 


it  ;  26  That  he  might  sanctify 

and  cleanse  it  vwith  the  washing 
of  water  w  by  the  word,  27  x  That 
he  might  present  it  to  himself  a 


Titus  3.  5;  Heb.  10.  22;  1  John  5.  6. - w  John 

15.  3 ;  17.  17. - x  2  Cor.  11.  2 ;  Col.  1.  22. 


divinely  constituted  source  of  natural 
life,  in  man  is  overlaid  by  a  sentiment 
of  sentimental  love,  which  blushes  at 
and  overshadows  the  mere  animal  ap¬ 
petite,  and  appropriates  with  a  higher 
congeniality,  celebrated  in  poetry  and 
romance,  person  to  person  in  a  heart- 
union.  But  overlying  this  is  a  moral 
love,  which  sanctions  the  two  lower 
impulses  in  their  purity,  and  forms  the 
type  of  Christ’s  own  divine  and  eter¬ 
nal  love  for  those  united  to  him  by 
faith  in  his  redeeming  blood.  Hence, 
in  the  Christian  conception,  the  mari¬ 
tal  love,  in  its  purity,  is  a  type  of  the 
love  of  Christ  for  his  Church.  But  as 
the  Church  rejoices,  with  the  highest 
joy,  over  her  allegiance  to  Christ,  so  a 
reliant  allegiance  to  her  husband,  re¬ 
joicing  at  being  weak  in  herself  and 
strong  in  him,  is  a  woman’s  glory. 
In  every  thing — And  the  more  with¬ 
out  exception,  the  better  for  both. 
But  the  apostle  is  picturing  the  model 
family,  in  which  the  reciprocal  duties 
are  presupposed  as  being  duly  per¬ 
formed.  W  here  the  reverse  is  the 
case,  then  sad  and  necessary  excep¬ 
tions  come  in.  When  the  husband 
neglects  his  duty,  it  may  reasonably 
compel  the  wife  to  overstep  her  nor¬ 
mal  position.  Where  he  enjoins  a  vio¬ 
lation  of  the  law  of  God,  the  law  of 
God  is  supreme.  Yiolence  may  com¬ 
pel  withdrawal,  and  adultery  dissolves 
the  marriage.  Yet  for  the  true  rela¬ 
tion  of  mutual  marriage  love,  where 
the  subordinate  and  the  superior  wills 
are  united  in  one  permanent,  harmo¬ 
nious  train  of  volition,  the  apostle  can 
find  no  type  so  complete  as  the  union 
between  Christ  and  his  Church. 

25.  Christ . . .  gave  himself  — As 
for  the  wives  St.  Paul  read  their  holy 
duties  in  the  type  of  the  Church,  so 
now,  turning  to  husbands,  he  reads 
them  a  still  more  powerful  lesson  in  the 
history  and  character  of  Christ.  Like 
our  great  Exemplar,  the  husband  con¬ 


secrates  and  gives  up  himself  to  his 
wife.  Hence,  polygamy  and  adultery 
at  once  destroy  marriage,  the  very 
essence  of  which  is  the  consecration 
of  person  to  person,  by  a  union  made 
possible  only  by  a  created  formation 
of  both  the  persons.  This  powerful 
self -consecration,  as  being  primary  with 
the  man,  St.  Paul  imposes  expressly 
only  upon  him,  though  presupposing  it 
reciprocally  from  her.  And,  as  repre¬ 
sentative  head,  the  man  is  identified 
with  the  family,  and  suffers  or  pros¬ 
pers  vicariously  with  and  for  it.  He 
suffers  for  its  sins  ;  being  dishonoured 
in  its  dishonour,  and  liable  to  pay  pen¬ 
alties  for  its  offences.  And  not  only 
does  it  suffer  for  his  sins,  but  becomes 
honourable  in  his  honour  and  wealthy 
by  his  wealth. 

26.  Yerses  26  and  27  each  begins 
with  a  that ;  the  former  depending  on 
gave  himself,  the  latter  on  sanctify 
and  cleanse.  It  is  to  be  specially  noted 
that  at  this  verse  Paul  reverses  the  dis¬ 
course,  and  from  illustrating  marriage 
by  the  Church,  gradually  glides  into 
illustrating  the  ' Church  by  marriage, 
as  lie  intimates  in  the  closing  words  of 
v,  32.  This  is  in  accordance  with  what 
we  have  shown,  in  both  our  Plan  (page 
353)  and  our  Commentary,  to  be  the 
main  topic  of  the  epistle — mainly,  the 
genesis  and  nature  of  a  glorious  Church. 
With  the  washing  of  water  —  Re¬ 
ferring,  no  doubt,  to  baptism,  in  which 
the  water  is  the  symbolical  element  of 
the  sanctifying  Spirit,  which  is  the  real 
element.  By  the  word  —  By  the 
gospel  word,  which  is  preached,  by 
which  baptism  is  effected,  and  which  is 
concentrated  into  the  final  baptism  for¬ 
mula.  For,  as  Augustine  says,  ‘‘With¬ 
out  the  word  the  baptismal  water  is 
mere  water.  Add  the  word  to  the 
element  and  it  becomes  a  sacrament , 
which  is  the  word  made  visible.” 

27.  Might  .  .  .  Church  —  Literal- 
lv,  miah.t  nresent  himself,  to  himself,  tht 


304 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  G3. 


glorious  church,  y  not  having  spot, 
or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing;  z  but 
that  it  should  be  holy  and  without 
blemish.  2S  So  ought  men  to  love 
their  wives  as  their  own  bodies, 
lie  that  loveth  his  wife  loveth  him¬ 
self.  29  For  no  man  ever  vet  hated 
his  own  ilesh ;  but  nourisheth  and 
cherisheth  it,  even  as  the  Lord  the 

V  Cant.  4.  7. - sChap.  1.  4. - a  Gen.  2.  23; 

Ilom.  12.  5;  1  Cor.  6.  15;  12.  27. 

Church ,  glorious.  So,  by  Persian  law, 
King  Ahasuerus  purified  Esther,  that 
he  might  present  her  to  himself  a  royal 
bride.  St.  Paul’s  image  is  also  illus¬ 
trated  b}r  the  ancient  monuments  on 
which  are  found  the  pictures  of  the 
Egyptian  lady  in  bath,  with  her  at¬ 
tendants  pouring  the  purifying  waters 
upon  her  person.  Here,  as  elsewhere, 
St.  Paul  idealizes  the  marriage  rela¬ 
tion  bv  making  it  a  parallel  with  the 
union  between  Christ  and  his  Church; 
conclusive  proof  that  he  did  not  hold 
matrimony  as  inferior  in  intrinsic  holi¬ 
ness  to  celibacy.  Note  on  1  Cor.  i,  1.  and 
xi,  3.  Spot — Contracted  from  external 
sources.  Wrinkle — A  blemish  from 
internal  decay.  This  Church,  thus  pre¬ 
sented  to  himself  as  perfect  and  glori¬ 
ous,  is  the  result  attained  through  a  pro¬ 
gressive  sanctification  at  the  final  rec¬ 
onciliation.  For  this  was  the  atone¬ 
ment  and  the  election  through  faith. 

28.  So... as — Are  not  correlatives. 
So  refers  to  as,  in  verse  25,  and  brings 
the  present  verse  into  parallelism  with 
25-27.  As  his  own  body — Not  as 
a  man  would  love  his  own  body,  but  as 
if  being  his  own  body.  And  as  being 
his  own  body,  so,  in  a  sense,  his  own 
other  self ;  so  that  in  loving  his  wife 
he  loveth  himself. 

29.  No  man — It  is  hardly  necessary 
to  except  madmen,  who  do  harm  their 
own  bodies,  for  such  act  from  no  nor¬ 
mal  motive.  Nourisheth  with  ali¬ 
ment,  and  cherisheth  with  warmth 
and  clothing. 

30.  Members  of  his  body — Con¬ 
ceptually,  but  not  literally;  just  as  hus¬ 
band  and  wife  are  one  flesh ;  not,  in 
fact,  one  single  material  hermaphro¬ 
dite  bod}',  but  so  imaged  in  fancy  as 
thereby  to  illustrate  literal  truth  more 


church  :  30  For  *  we  are  members 
of  his  body,  of  his  flesh,  and  of  his 
bones.  31  LFor  this  cause  shall  a 
man  leave  his  father  and  mother, 
and  shall  be  joined  unto  his  w  ife, 
and  they  ctwo  shall  be  one  flesh. 
32  This  is  a  great  mystery:  but  I 
speak  concerning  Christ  and  the 
church.  33  Nevertheless, d  let  ev- 

b  Gen.  2.  24  ;  Matt.  IP.  5 ;  Mark  10.  7,  8. - c  1  Cor. 

6.  16. - d  Verse  25;  Col.  3.  19. 

forcibly  than  any  mere  literal  state¬ 
ment  can.  TVe  are,  also,  members  of 
Christ’s  body,  not  as  offspring  derived 
from  him,  (as  Eve  from  Adam.)  but  as 
one  with  him  in  love,  as  are  man  and 
wife.  Of  his  flesh,  and  of  his  bones 
— These  words  are  of  doubtful  genu¬ 
ineness.  They  are  an  evident  allusion 
to  Gen.  ii,  23  :  “  This  is  now  bone  of 
my  bones,  and  flesh  of  my  flesh.”  Ben- 
gel  says,  Moses  names  “bones”  first 
and  Paul  “  flesh the  former  so  be¬ 
cause  the  bones  are  the  supports  of  tl.e 
natural  frame  ;  but  in  the  new'  creation 
the  “  flesh  ”  of  Christ  is  the  main  ele¬ 
ment.  Thus  far,  wrell ;  but,  unfortu¬ 
nately,  he  adds  :  “  Not  our  bones  and 
flesh,  but  we  ourselves  are  spiritually 
propagated  from  the  humanity  of  Christ, 
which  has  flesh  and  bones.”  It  is  not 
of  propagation  or  derivation  that  St. 
Paul  speaks,  but  of  conceptual  identity. 

31.  For  this  cause  —  That  is,  (in 
Genesis,)  on  account  of  the  created  com¬ 
pletion  of  a  sexual  pair.  Two. .  .one 
flesh  —  Two,  literally;  one,  concep¬ 
tually.  And  this  conceptual  image  of 
oneness ,  by  which  it  is  pictured  that 
man  and  woman,  being  complements 
of  each  other,  are  maritally  united  into 
one  person,  is  formed  in  order  to  place 
in  the  most  loving  light  the  unity  of 
affection  and  the  identity  of  interest  by 
which  they  are  identified  with,  and  vi¬ 
carious  representatives  of,  each  other. 

32.  This  —  The  instituted  fact  that 
a  man  shall  form  marital  connexions 
closer  than  blood  relationship.  Is  a 
great  mystery  —  One  of  the  pro- 
foundest  mysteries  in  all  nature,  lying 
at  the  roots  of  personal  life  and  of  race 
existence.  But  great  as  this  marital 
mystery  may  be,  it  is  not  the  main 
topic.  I  really  speak,  that  is,  am 


A.  D.  63. 


305 


CHAPTERS  V,  VI. 


ery  one  of  you  in  particular  so  love 
his  wife  even  as  himself;  and  the 
wife  see  that  she  e  reverence  her  hus¬ 
band. 

CHAPTER  VI. 
HILDREN,  aobey  your  parents 

e  1  Peter  3.  6. - a  Proverbs  23.  22 ;  Colos- 

sians  3.  20.  _ _ 

speaking,  concerning  a  still  sublimer 
mystery,  namely,  Christ  and  the 

Church.  See  note,  verse  26. 

33.  Nevertheless  —  Although  the 
marital  is  the  subordinate  mystery. 
Let  every  one  of  you — Husband  or 
wife  faithfully  perform  the  duties  here¬ 
in  illustrated.  As  himself — In  ac¬ 
cordance  with  this  conceptual  oneness. 
Reverence. .  .husband — Just  as  it  is 
her  husband’s  duty  to  be  worthy  to  be 
revered,  it  is  one  of  “woman’s  rights” 
— not,  unhappily,  always  attained — to 
have  “a  husband  to  whom  she  can  look 
up.”  But  an  effeminate  man  and  a 
masculine  woman  are  equally  abnormal 
and  unattractive  beings. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

b .  Children  and  Parents,  1-4. 

1.  Children — Direct  address  to  chil¬ 
dren  as  to  the  other  relations;  as  if 
even  the  child  should  hear  the  apos¬ 
tolic  voice  and  obey  in  it  the  divine 
command.  In  the  Lord — Qualifying 
obey,  and  implying  that  their  obedi¬ 
ence  was,  like  every  Christian  char¬ 
acter,  embodied  in  Christ,  who  is  the 
embodiment  of  man’s  duty  and  God’s 
mercy.  This  is  right  —  There  is  a 
natural  and  fundamental  rightness  in 
this  obedience.  The  parents  are  au¬ 
thors  of  your  being ;  they  furnish  you 
with  livelihood  and  bringing  up ;  they 
are  your  representatives  to  the  world, 
responsible  for  your  good  behaviour 
and  well  being.  It  is  right,  therefore, 
that  for  the  proper  discharge  of  those 
responsibilities  you  should  submit  your 
inferior  judgments  and  wills  to  theirs. 
But  this  natural  law  is  sanctioned  by  the 
divine  law.  The  apostle  quotes,  with¬ 
out  any  words  of  introduction,  the  fifth 
commandment  of  the  decalogue,  assum¬ 
ing  that  all  recognise  the  words.  For 
the  same  reason  he  is  free  to  vary  the 
verbal  form. 

You  IV.— 20 


in  the  Lord  :  for  this  is  right. 
2  b Honour  thy  father  and  mother; 
which  is  the  first  commandment 
with  promise  ;  3  That  it  may  be 

well  with  thee,  and  thou  mayest 
live  long  on  the  earth.  4  And, 

frExod.  20.  12;  Deut.  5. 16;  Jer.  35.  18;  Ezek. 
_ 22,  7 ;  Matt.  15.  4. _ 

2.  Honour — Venerate  as  your  nat¬ 
ural  and  divinely  sanctioned  superiors 
and  controllers.  Father  and  mother 
—  Regarding  both  parents  with  equal 
though  distinctive  honour;  the  father 
with  more  awe,  the  mother  with  more 
love.  The  first  commandment  with 
promise — How  first  in  the  decalogue 
with  promise  ?  Does  not  the  second 
commandment  promise  that  God  is  a 
Being  showing  mercy  unto  thousands 
of  them  that  love  him,  and  keep  his 
commandments  ?  The  satisfactory  re¬ 
ply  is,  that  though  embraced  in  this 
second  commandment  this  promise  be¬ 
longs  alike  and  expressly  to  all  the 
commandments,  and  is  not  peculiar 
to  one ;  whereas  the  promise  of  the 
fifth  is  expressly  limited  to  that  alone. 
But  the  apostle  does  not,  of  course, 
mean  that  its  being  the  first  in  order 
of  the  decalogue  is  in  itself  important ; 
but  it  is  important  symbolizing  that  it 
is  first  in  promissory  eminence,  no 
other  decalogue  command  having  any 
promise  at  all.  It  is  in  this  respect 
true  first,  and  last,  and  sole,  and  there¬ 
fore  signal  in  its  promissory  character. 

3.  Well  with  thee — For  conduct 
early  well  regulated  by  home  law,  is 
likely  to  be  followed  by  that  well  regu¬ 
lated  conduct  which  will  secure  the 
well-being  through  life.  The  child  and 
the  youth  that  obeys  and  honours  his 
parents  in  the  spirit  of  the  command 
— that  is,  in  the  Lord,  and  as  obey¬ 
ing  Christ — is  a  true  Christian.  And  as 
the  promise  is  given  to  him  in  that  spirit 
and  character,  never,  but  as  he  aposta¬ 
tizes  from  that  spirit  and  character,  can 
it  be  otherwise  than  well  with  him. 
Misfortune  cannot  ruin  him,  death  can¬ 
not  destroy  him,  eternity  will  set  its  per¬ 
petual  seal  upon  his  well-being.  Live 
long  on  the  earth  — He  to  whom  God’s 
law,  commencing  with  parental  law.  is 
a  regulator  in  life,  keeps  apart  from  vio- 


306 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  63, 


cye  fathers,  provoke  not  your  chil¬ 
dren  to  w  rath  :  but  d  bring  them 
up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition 
of  the  Lord.  5  e  Servants,  be  obe¬ 
dient  to  them  that  are  your  mas- 

c  Col.  3.  21. - <ZGen.l8.19;  Dent.  6.  7,20;  Prov. 

19.  18;  29.  17. - e  Col.  3.  22;  1  Tim.  (3.  1;  Titus 

lent  counsels  and  violent  men.  Tem¬ 
perance,  regular  industry,  and  upright 
behaviour,  are  great  prolongers  of  life. 
This  is  just  as  clear  as  the  reverse  fact 
that  violence,  intemperance,  debauch¬ 
ery,  war,  or  wild  excitements  of  any 
kind,  are  the  real  murderers  of  three 
fourths  of  mankind,  even  in  civilized 
Christendom.  The  average  of  human 
life  would  be  lengthened  by  a  purifica¬ 
tion,  commencing  in  home  law,  of  human 
character.  So  pointedly  does  the  deca¬ 
logue  look  to  the  right  sort  of  parentage 
for  the  right  sort  of  an  age,  a  nation, 
or  a  race. 

Meyer  well  refutes  the  notion  that  the 
promise  of  the  fifth  commandment  wras 
addressed  to  the  people  as  a  whole,  by 
noting  that  them  and  thee  show  that  it 
was  a  promise  to  each  individual.  Yet 
the  long  life  of  each  would  be  the  long 
enjoyment  of  Canaan  to  the  whole. 

4.  Fathers — Specially  addressed  as 
head  and  representative,  with  whom 
despotism,  instead  of  over  indulgence,  is 
the  more  probable  fault.  Provoke  not 
. .  .  wrath — Avoid  exciting  angry  pas¬ 
sions  and  making  such  excitements 
habitual.  The  fierce  countenance  and 
angry  tone  children  will  soon  learn  to 
imitate,  and  become  themselves  readily 
fierce  and  angry.  On  the  contrary,  a 
calm,  serene  firmness  ever  maintained 
is  a  lesson  that  moulds  them  to  calm¬ 
ness  and  serenity  of  character.  Chil¬ 
dren  under  reasonable ,  rather  than  pas¬ 
sionate,  control,  soon  learn  that  there 
is  reason  in  the  control.  Happy  is  the 
family  where  serene  rule  in  the  parents 
diffuses  serene  conduct  through  the 
whole.  Bring  them  up — Embracing 
the  whole  process,  bodily  and  mental, 
of  bringing  from  infancy  to  majority. 
Nurture — Rather,  discipline;  the  en¬ 
tire  training  by  gentle  or  severe  means 
to  right  character.  It  no  doubt  im¬ 
plies  severity  and  chastisement  in  its 
place.  Among  the  Greeks  aKOAcoia , 


ters  according  to  the  flesh,  fwith 
fear  and  trembling,  &in  singleness 
of  your  heart,  as  unto  Christ ; 
6  b Not  with  eyeservice,  as  men- 
pleasers ;  but  as  the  servants  of 

2.  9;  1  Pet.  2.  18. — / 2  Cor.  7.  15;  Phil. 2. 12. - 

O  1  Chron.  29.  17  ;  Col.  3.  22. - h  Col.  3.  22,  23. 

literally,  unchastisedness,  was  a  word  to 
signify  jrrojligacy.  Those  spurious  phi¬ 

lanthropists  w  ho  would  forbid  all  chas¬ 
tisement  of  children,  ought,  in  con¬ 
sistency,  to  prohibit  all  punishment  of 
adult  transgressors,  and  so  abolish  all 
criminal  law,  and  give  up  society  to 

the  mercies  of  lawless  men. 

c.  Servants  and  Masters ,  5-9. 

5.  Servants — See  note,  Luke  vii,  2. 
Alford  thinks  the  word  should  have 
been  translated  slaves ,  but  Macknight 
more  nobly  rejoices  that  the  word  ser¬ 
vants  is  used,  as  including  generical- 
ly  both  bondservants  and  employees. 
Paul  so  exalts  the  motives  on  which 
the  servant  should  act,  as  well  to  suit 
both  the  bondsmen  by  compulsion  and 
the  bondsman  by  an  agreement  to  fur¬ 
nish  service.  According  to  the  flesh 
— As  Christ  is  your  master  according 
to  the  spirit  Fear  and  trembling — 
Not  in  terror  of  the  masters,  but  as  unto 
Christ,  as  the  Corinthians  received  Ti¬ 
tus,  2  Cor.  vii,  15;  and  as  we  should 
all  work  out  our  owrn  salvation.  Phil, 
ii,  12.  Unto  Christ — Not  as  to  a  hu¬ 
man  master,  wrho  has,  indeed,  no  nat¬ 
ural  right  to  your  service,  but  unto 
Christ ;  to  whose  name  it  is  due  that 
you  should  be  a  true  and  honest  serv¬ 
ant.  So  employees  of  all  kinds,  wheth¬ 
er  domestics,  clerks,  or  workmen,  should 
serve  their  employers  with  conscien¬ 
tious  feeling  that  in  serving  them  truly 
they  wore  serving  Christ. 

6.  Eyeservice  —  Service  performed 
only  because  the  eye  of  the  master 
would  detect  its  omission  or  slight  per¬ 
formance.  This  is  serving  the  eye  and 
not  the  interest  of  the  man  we  profess 
to  serve^  Alford  quotes  an  anecdote 
from  the  Greek  of  Xenophon,  for  which 
we  may  give  the  following  condensed 
equivalent.  A  farrier  being  asked 
what  would  quickly  fatten  a  horse,  re¬ 
plied,  “  The  eye  of  the  master.1 * * * 5 6’  Ser¬ 
vants — Or,  as  Alford  frankly  renders 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


307 


Christ,  doing  the  will  of  God  from 
the  heart ;  7  With  good  will  doing 
service,  as  to  the  Lord,  and  not  to 
men  :  8  ‘  Knowing  that  whatso¬ 

ever  good  thing  any  man  doeth, 
the  same  shall  lie  receive  of  the 
Lord,  k  whether  he  he  bond  or  free. 
9  And,  ve  1  masters,  do  the  same 

i  Rom.  2.  6;  2  Cor.  5.  10;  Col.  3.  24. - vfcGal. 

3.  28 ;  Col.  3.  11. - 1  Col.  4.  1. - 1  Or,  modera¬ 
ting. - m  Lev.  25.  43. - 2  Some  read,  both 


things  unto  them,  1  m  forbearing 
threatening:  knowing  that  2  n your 
Master  also  is  in  heaven;  0 neither 
is  there  respect  of  persons  with  him. 

10  Finally,  my  brethren,  be 
strong  in  the  Lord,  and  Pin  the 
power  of  his  might.  11  q  Put  on 
the  whole  armour  of  God,  that  ye 

your  and  their  master. - n  John  13.  13. - 

oRom.  2.  11;  Col.  3.  25. - pChap.  3.  16;  Col. 

1.  11. - <z2  Cor.  6.  7;  1  Thess.  5.  8. 


it,  slaves ,  of  Christ,  who  alone  has  a 
right  to  be  your  master,  and,  as  such, 
requires  your  faithful  service  even  to 
your  wrongful  masters.  For  be  it 
noted  once  for  all,  that  St.  Paul  does 
not  say  of  the  obedience  of  slaves  as 
he  does  of  children,  this  is  naturally 
and  intrinsically  right.  Yerse  1. 

7.  From  the  heart,  (verse  6,)  with 
good  will — There  should  be  a  hearty 
good  will  to  truly  serve  the  master. 
This  feeling  will  ever  constitute  the 
great  distinction  of  a  true  servant. 

8.  The  same  shall  he  receive — 
The  master  may  take  the  service,  but 
God  holds  himself  debtor  for  the  ser¬ 
vice  herein  to  him  rendered. 

9.  Do  the  same  things — That  is,  as 
Chrysostom  interprets,  As  your  bonds¬ 
men  serve  you,  so  do  ye  serve 
your  bondsmen.  Viewing  them 
as  Paul  does,  not  with  an  eye 
to  the  rights  of  men,  but  to  their 
duty  before  God,  he  sees  mas¬ 
ter  and  slave  as  each  bound  to 
serve  the  other  in  Christ.  Late 
interpreters,  however,  explain 
Paul’s  words  as  meaning,  ana¬ 
logically,  Do  what  is  due  from 
you  as  masters.  We  think  the 
old  interpretation  the  true  one. 
Forbearing  threatening  — 

Gaining  obedience  by  kindness 
and  justice.  Your  Master — 

Before  whom  master  and  slave 
are  equal.  Respect  of  per¬ 
sons  —  Any  sacrifice  of  pure 
justice  to  rank  or  position.  See 
notes,  Acts  x,  34;  Rom.  ii,  11. 

Closing  appeals,  10-24. 

10.  Finally — St.  Paul,  hav¬ 
ing  finished  his  model  Church, 
home  Church  included,  now 
lemembers  that  it  is  a  militant 


Church.  His  Ephesians  are  the  elect 
eternal  of  God ;  they  have  become  so  in 
conspicuous  array  against  the  Gentiles 
they  have  left ;  but  they  are  to  fight 
against  apostate  foes  of  God,  who  would 
conquer  and  capture  them  for  a  repro¬ 
bate,  instead  of  an  elect,  destiny.  My 
brethren — The  only  place,  says  Ben- 
gel,  in  which  he  calls  them  brethren ; 
for  in  no  place  are  fellow-soldiers  so 
brethren  as  in  battle  array.  But  later 
critics  decide  that  even  here  the  word 
is  not  genuine.  Be  strong — Rather, 
strengthened ;  for  his  whole  letter  has 
been  cheering  and  triumphant.  Power 
of  his  might — Note  on  Eph.  iii,  16. 

11.  Whole  armour — Our  word  pan¬ 
oply  is  the  same  with  the  beautiful 
Greek  word  navonXia ,  the  sum  total 


308 


El’IIESIAXS. 


A.  D.  63. 


may  be  able  to  stand  against  the 
wiles  of  the  devil.  12  For  wre 
wrestle  not  against  3  r  flesh  and 
blood,  but  against  8  principalities, 

3  Gr.  blood  and  flesh. - r  Matt.  16.  17. - 

s  Rom.  8.  $8;  Col.  2.  15. 2  Luke  22.  53;  John 

of  a  soldier’s  offensive  and  defensive 
equipment.  In  this  great  battle,  of 
which  the  stake  is  eternal  life,  every 
armour  piece  must  be  put  on.  Of  God 
— Not  of  earthly  nor  of  metal  make, 
but  of  celestial  temper,  from  the  divine 
armory,  furnished  for  us  by  God  him¬ 
self.  Wiles — Stratagems,  ambushes, 
and  treacheries  of  a  faithless  old  foe, 
who  disregards  honourable  warfare. 
The  devil — Prince  of  the  kingdom  of 
evil,  and  general  of  its  armies. 

12.  Wrestle — The  wrestle  is  to  us. 
But  as  the  wrestle  requires  no  armour, 
St.  Paul  uses  the  word  in  the  more  ex¬ 
tended  sense  of  struggle.  Flesh  and 
blood  —  Of  which  human  bodies  are 
composed,  and  which  metal  weapons 
mar  and  destroy.  The  real  battle  is 
super-earthly,  in  which  men  are  the 
orizes  of  the  victor,  Christ  or  Satan. 
And  St.  Paul,  in  this  picture  of  the  war, 
looks  upon  men  not  as  the  true  enemies, 
but  as  the  proper  objects,  of  salvation. 
The  wrestle  is  not  with  physical  bodies 
any  more  than  with  material  weapons. 
Principalities — The  same  terms  as  in 
Rom.  viii,  38;  there  applied  to  the  holy 
dominances,  here  designating  their  un¬ 
holy  adversaries.  Rulers ...  of  this 
world — A  single  powerful  term.  Kocfio- 
Kparopdq ,  cosmocrators,  (the  English  lan¬ 
guage  has  not  naturalized  cosmocrat  as 
it  has  democrat  and  autocrat ,)  world- 
rulers.  The  Rabbies  adopted  the  ex¬ 
pressive  Greek  word  in  Hebrew  char¬ 
acters  and  said :  “  Three  kings  were 
cosmocrators ,  ruling  the  world  from  one 
extremity  to  the  other,  Nebuchadnez¬ 
zar,  Evilmerodach,  and  Belshazzar.” 
And  as  this  wrestle  is  not  with  men, 
but  with  higher  powers  in  whose  hands 
men  are  but  mere  instruments,  so  these 
cosmocrators  are  diabolic  powers,  ex¬ 
tending  their  infernal  power  over  our 
world.  Rulers  of  the  darkness  of 
this  world — The  true  reading  unques¬ 
tionably  is,  The  world-rulers  of  this  dark¬ 
ness.  The  term  cosmocrators  expresses 


against  powers,  against  1  the  rul¬ 
ers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world, 
against  4  spiritual  wickedness  in 
6  high  places,  ltt  “Wherefore  take 

12.  31. - 4  Or,  wicked  spirits. - 5  Or,  heav¬ 
enly,  as  chap.  1,  3. - u  2  Cor.  10.  4. 

the  extent  of  their  rule,  and  the  phrase 
this  darkness,  the  limitation  of  their 
territory  and  the  moral  nature  of  their 
realm.  This  darkness  need  not  be 
rendered  this  “  state  of  darkness  ”  with 
Alford ;  but,  if  we  mistake  not,  it  is 
Paul’s  appellation,  simple  and  literal, 
for  this  world ,  just  as  in  v,  8,  the  un¬ 
regenerate  world  is  called  darkness. 
There  may  be  many  darknesses  in  the 
universe  of  worlds  ;  and  our  own  world 
is  this  darkness  overruled  by  its  own 
world-rulers.  Spiritual  wickedness — 
Literally,  The  spiritual  (the  word  being 
a  plural  adjective,  requiring  a  plural 
substantive  to  be  supplied)  of  wicked¬ 
ness.  As  the  substantive  after  spir¬ 
itual  Alford  supplies  “armies,”  Braune 
“hosts.”  As  comprehending  these  and 
more  we  should  rather  propose  forces , 
the  spiritual  forces  of  wickedness. 
High  places — The  word  high  is  an 
unsuitable  rendering  for  the  same  word 
as  is  rendered  heavenly  in  i,  3,  where 
see  note,  and  notes  on  ii,  2,  6,  and  2  Cor. 
xii,  2-4.  High  here  signifies  super- 
earthly  or  supernal;  and  here  specif¬ 
ically  intends  that  region  in  the  super¬ 
nal  in  which  the  spirits  of  good  and 
the  spirits  of  evil  have  their  range.  St. 
Paul  uses  the  very  generic  Greek  word 
rendered  by  us  supernal,  to  include, 
specifically,  either  the  “third  heaven,” 
as  in  ii,  6,  or  the  “aerial  heaven,”  ( the 
air,  of  ii,  2,)  as  here;  just  as  a  European 
might,  under  the  generic  term  America, 
specifically  intend  what  takes  place  ei¬ 
ther  in  New  York  or  New  Orleans. 

Paul’s  terse  description  in  this  verse 
of  the  entire  hostile  array  may  therefore 
be  rendered,  principalities,  powers,  the 
world-rulers  of  this  darkness ,  the  spirit¬ 
ual  forces  of  evil  in  the  aerial  regions. 

13.  Wherefore  —  In  view  of  the 
supernatural  powers  you  ha\e  to  en¬ 
counter.  Surely  a  divine  armour,  and 
the  whole  we  can  use,  are  necessary 
for  a  supernatural  battle.  Of  the 
whole  armour  St.  Paul  mentions  six 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


309 


unto  you  the  whole  armour  of 
God,  that  ye  may  be  able  to  with¬ 
stand  vin  the  evil  day,  and  6 hav¬ 
ing  done  all,  to  stand.  14  Stand 

®  Chap.  5. 16. 6  Or,  having  overcome,  all. 

w  Isa.  11.  5. 


therefore,  w  having  your  loins  girt 
about  with  truth,  and  x  having 
on  the  breastplate  of  righteous¬ 
ness ;  15  y  And  your  feet  shod 

a?  Isa.  59.  17;  2  Cor.  6.  7. - ylsa.  52.  7; 

Rom.  10.  15. 


pieces ;  four  fixed  in  contact  upon  the 
body,  namely:  the  girdle  or  belt,  breast¬ 
plate,  sandals,  and  helmet ;  and  two  in 
the  hands,  the  shield  and  the  sword. 
All  are  protective  but  the  last.  And 
he  mentions  them  in  the  order  in 
which  the  warrior  would  be  apt  to  put 
them  on  for  battle.  First,  as  prelimi¬ 
nary  to  all  easy  action,  he  binds  his 
loose  tunic  in  the  girdle,  then  puts  the 
breastplate  or  coat  of  mail  upon  his 
chest.  Then  taking  his  shield  in  his 
left  hand,  with  his  right  hand  he  first 
puts  on  his  helmet, 
and  then,  taking  his 
sword,  is  ready  for  the 
battle.  Paul’s  soldier 
is  thoroughly  protect¬ 
ed,  save  that  the  legs 
do  not  seem  to  have 
their  greaves  or  bus¬ 
kins.  In  the  evil  day 
— Wherever  or  when¬ 
ever  the  evil  day 
comes,  and  whether  it 
consist  of  adversity,  temptation,  or  on¬ 
slaughts  of  infidel  advocates.  Having 
done  all  of  duty,  whether  of  arming  or 
fighting.  To  stand  firmly  and  perpen¬ 
dicularly  ;  in  contrast  with  falling,  run¬ 
ning,  or  being  captured.  But,  in  fact,  in 
this  battle  the  only  failure  is  cowardice 
or  apostasy;  he  who  truly  fights  is 
never  conquered.  He  is  sure,  after  the 
rush  of  battle  has  past,  to  stand.  Just 
so  in  our  national  ballad,  after  the  night 
of  cannonade  is  over,  and  the  morn¬ 
ing  dawns — “  that  flag  is  still  there. 

14.  Stand  therefore  —  For  what 
else  should  the  soldier  do  ?  Loins 


GREAVES. 


girt  about — For  long  ages  the  girdle 
has  been  the  Oriental  regulator  of  the 


flowing  dress.  On  the  obelisks  of 
Egypt  and  the  bricks  of  Assyria  the 
loins  or  waist  are  seen  circled  by  the 
leathern  or  woven  zone.  Usually  the 
sword  or  dagger  is  thereto  suspended. 
Often  the  girdle  was  very  richly  orna¬ 
mented  ;  and  that  of  one  queen  was 
contributed  by  the  taxation  of  sev¬ 
eral  wealthy  cities.  For  the  priest, 
or  domestic,  or  soldier,  the  tightening 
of  the  girdle  was  the  prelude  to  busi¬ 
ness.  With  truth — Not  only  the  ob¬ 
jective  truth  of  the  gospel,  but  an  in¬ 
terior  trueness  and  fidelity  to  the  truth. 
Strict  Christian  verity  tightly  bound 
around  us  tones  up  for  every  Christian 
duty.  The  breastplate — A  coat  of 


CUIRASS  AND  HELMET. 


mail  designed  to  protect  the  chest  and 
the  breast.  Righteousness — Integri¬ 
ty  or  rectitude  of  Christian  character. 
Placed  upon  the  breast,  the  residence 
of  the  conscience,  it  firmly  guarded  it 
from  danger,  and  so  symbolizes -the 
perfect  security  of  integrity  of  soul. 

15.  Shod — Sandalled.  The  sandal 
was  a  leathern  or  wooden  sole,  strapped 
to  the  bottom  of  the  foot  by  a  thong,  or 
latchet ,  which,  winding  around  the  ankle, 
was  fastened  by  a  knot.  The  sandals 
were  generally  unworn  within  doors, 
and  those  of  the  wealthy  were  some¬ 
times  carried,  tied,  or  unloosed  by  a 
servant.  The  warrio'*  ready  for  battle 


310 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  63. 


with  the  preparation  of  the  gos¬ 
pel  of  peace;  10  Above  all,  tak¬ 
ing2  the  shield  of  faith,  wherewith 
ye  shall  be  able  to  quench  all  the 


z  1  John  5.  4. - als'a.  59.  17;  1  Thess.  5.  8. 

b  Heb.  4.  12;  Rev.  1.  16. 


would,  of  eourse,  be  tightly  sandalled. 
Preparation — Literally,  preparedness , 
readiness.  The  feet  of  the  soldier 
should  be  the  residence  of  readiness , 
alertness ,  nimbleness ,  whether  to  chase 
the  flying  foe,  or  flee  the  victorious 
pursuer,  or,  as  a  herald,  to  bear  the 
offers  of  peace  to  the  enemy  or  the 
news  of  victory  to  his  countrymen. 
Presupposing  all  these  purposes  of  the 
soldier’s  readiness,  it  is  this  last  pur¬ 
pose,  as  herald,  that  St.  Paul  is  led  by 
the  genius  of  the  gospel  to  specify. 
His  words  are  an  evident  allusion  to 
Isaiah  lii,  7,  “Beautiful  upon  the  moun¬ 
tains  are  the  feet  of  him  tliat.bringeth 
good  tidings  ...  of  good.”  Gospel 
of  peace — That  is  the  good  news,  the 
glad  tidings  of  peace  from  God.  This 
blessed  office  is  not  confined  to  the 
ministry  alone,  but  the  whole  Church 
is  a  herald  of  peace.  And  so  every 
Christian  soldier,  even  in  fighting  the 
battle,  is  both  a  warrior  and  a  herald. 
And  his  readiness  to  bear  both  offices 
at  once  are  here  figured  by  the  sandals. 

16.  Above  all — Rather,  over  all ,  as 
protector.  Shield — This  was  a  broad 

sheet  of  wood,  cov¬ 
ered  with  leather, 
usually  four  feet  in 
length  and  two  in 
breadth,  and,  held 
in  the  left  hand, 
covered  about  two 
thirds  of  the  per¬ 
son.  Of  faith  — 
Faith  is  here  sym- 
bolized  in  its  con¬ 
servative  power,  warding  off,  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  fulness  of  its  strength,  all  the 


fiery  darts  of  the  wicked.  17  And 
atake  the  helmet  of  salvation,  and 
bthe  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is 
the  word  of  God  :  1  S  c  Praying 

cLuke  18.  1 ;  Romans  12.  12;  Cologgiang  4.  2; 

1  Thessalonians  5.  17. 

shafts  of  unbelief,  infidelity,  tempta¬ 
tion,  and  sin.  Nay,  more,  faith’s  shield 
is  able  to  quench  all  the  fiery  darts 
of  the  wicked  one.  These  so-called 
darts  were  a  sort  of  hammer  or  mallet, 
with  a  head  filled  with  combustible  ma¬ 
terial,  ignited,  and  a  handle  wherewith 
to  hurl  it  into  the  ranks  of  the  opposing 
army.  But  St.  Paul  bids  his  soldier  to 
quench  these  blazing  missiles  with  his 
shield.  Dr.  Eadie  tells  us,  prosaical¬ 
ly,  that  the  shield  cannot  so  quench  j 
it  can  only  ward  off*  the  dart,  which  is 
quenched  as  it  falls.  But  St.  Paul’s 
shield  of  faith  is  made  of  better  mate¬ 
rial,  and  is  altogether  a  superior  article 
to  the  old  wooden -leathern  shield;  be¬ 
ing  not  only  incombustible,  but  itself 
able  to  do  the  quenching  of  the  fiery 
darts.  Of  the  wicked — Satan,  the 
impersonation  of  evil,  as  Christ  is  the 
incarnation  of  good.  And  thence  we 
know  why  his  darts  are  fiery  ;  not  as 
alluding  to  our  own  burning  lusts,  but  as 
emblems  of  infernal  destruction.  His 
mallet  is  dipped  in  the  fire  of  gehenna, 
and  its  scorch  is  prelude  to  the  ever¬ 
lasting  burnings. 

17.  Helmet — The 
soldier’s  cap,  made 
of  wood,  of  skins  of 
wild  beasts,  or  of 
metal,  adorned  with 
plumes,  and  framed 
to  protect  the  head  against  the  darts  or 
blows  of  the  foe.  Of  salvation  — 
Safety,  moral,  spiritual,  and  eternal ; 
safety  from  the  missiles  of  Satan,  and 
from  sin,  death,  and  hell.  This  warrior, 
then,  is  well  protected,  crowned  even 
now  with  eternal  salvation;  and,  as 
said  above,  sure  to  conquer  unless  he 
turns  ccward  or  apostate.  But  besides 
all  this  defense,  he  bears  the  emblem 
of  all  offensive  war,  the  sword.  The 
word  of  God  —  As  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  was  not  then  written,  this  word 
of  God  must  be  the  Old  Testament,  and 
the  living  word  of  the  gospel  as  al- 


A.  D  63. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


311 


always  with  ail  prayer  and  suppli¬ 
cation  in  the  Spirit,  and  d  watch¬ 
ing  thereunto  with  all  persever¬ 
ance  and  e  supplication  for  all 
saints  ;  19  f  And  for  me,  that 


utterance  may  be  given  unto  me, 
that  I  may  open  my  mouth  s  bold¬ 
ly,  to  make  known  the  mystery  of 
the  gospel.  20  For  which  hI  am 
an  ambassador  *  7  in  bonds ;  that 


d  Matt.  26.  41;  Mark  13.  33. - e  Chap.  1.  16; 

Phil.  1.  4;  1  Tim.  2.  1. - / Acts  4.  29;  Col.  4.  3; 

2  Thess.  3.  L 


g 2  Cor.  3.  12. - h 2  Cor.  5.  20. - i  Acts  26.  29; 

Phil.  1.  7,  13;  2  Tim.  1.  16;  Pkilem.  10.  —  7  Or, 
in  a  chain . 


ready  preached,  and  being  in  process 
of  writing  by  Christ’s  authorized  apos¬ 
tles.  This  sword  is  of 
the  Spirit  because  the 
word  is  by  the  Spirit. 

And  when  the  apostolic 
record  was  finished,  and 
the  volume  of  the  book 
completed  as  the  can¬ 
on  of  Christ's  Church, 
then  the  Testaments,  Old 
and  New,  are  the  sword 
of  the  Spirit  wherewith 
we  fight  the  battles  of 
the  faith.  With  this  our 
Christian  soldier  will  win 
his  victories.  He  will 
not,  indeed,  kill  the  devil,  or  quickly 
drive  him  from  the  field;  but  he  may 
deliver  many  a  victim  from  his  hand. 
And  as  for  himself,  the  devil  can  never 
wrench  the  helmet  of  salvation  from 
his  head. 

18.  The  image  of  the  warrior  in  ar¬ 
mour  is  here  dropped;  but  what  was 
even  in  ancient  times  the  accompani¬ 
ment  of  battle,  prayer,  is  presented 
as  a  main  part  of  the  Christian  soldier’s 
duty.  The  knights  of  the  middle  ages, 
who  were  often  model  Christian  sol¬ 
diers,  consecrated  themselves  to  the 
divine  duty  of  defending  innocence  and 
sustaining  justice,  with  nights  of  fast¬ 
ing  and  fervent  prayer.  All  prayer 
— All  its  forms  and  modes;  whether 
public,  private,  domestic,  or  secret ; 
whether  oral,  ejaculatory,  or  thought 
without  words.  Supplication  —  A 
special  form  of  prayer,  distinguished 
from  ascription  and  thanksgiving ;  here 
specified  as  matter  of  special  request. 
W atching  —  W aking,  earnestly  and 
directly  thereto.  Perseverance — In 
the  frame  and  purpose  of  prayer ;  sup¬ 
plication  its  direct  expression.  For 
all  saints — For  the  common  spiritual  ! 
interests  and  temporal  welfare. 


19.  For  me — Gradually  and  modest¬ 
ly  the  apostle  brings  them  to  the  in¬ 
dividual  point,  himself.  The  for  be¬ 
fore  all  saints  is  rather  concerning; 
the  for  before  me  is  a  diflierent  word, 
in  behalf  of  Pray  in  regard  to  the 
saints  in  general;  but  pray  especially 
for  your  apostle.  But  though  he  asks 
prayer  for  himself  it  is  for  no  selfish 
object.  He  asks  not  for  freedom  from 
his  chain,  rescue  from  the  axe,  or  res¬ 
toration  to  his  friends,  but  for  greater 
efficiency  in  revealing  Christ.  Utter¬ 
ance —  Chrysostom  and  many  others 
refer  this  to  emancipation  from  silence 
imposed  by  Roman  power.  Thus  ho 
says,  (as  quoted  by  Braune,)  “  My  chain 
suppresses  my  free  utterance,  but  your 
prayer  opens  my  mouth,  that  I  may 
boldly  speak.”  But  by  utterance  (Gr., 
word)  we  rather  understand  the  divine 
furnishing  or  prompting  of  both  thought 
and  language,  for  which,  in  a  degree, 
every  true  minister  may  look.  Said 
Henry  Longden,  “  Prepare  your  ser¬ 
mon  as  faithfullv  as  if  there  were  no 

•/ 

Holy  Spirit :  and  then  preach  as  trust¬ 
ingly  in  the  Holy  Spirit  as  if  you  had 
made  no  preparation.”  I. .  .mouth — 
Literally,  that  word  may  be  given  me  in 
the  opening  of  my  mouth.  The  Giver 
of  the  ivord  is  the  Opener  of  the 
mouth.  He  does  the  former  by  inspir¬ 
ing  impulse ;  he  does  the  latter,  first, 
by  providentially  opening  the  way,  and 
then  inspiringly  by  opening  the  mouth. 
Boldly  — For  lie  who  speaks  from  the 
divine  Opener  of  the  mouth  will  very 
likely  speak  with  a  free,  bold,  divine 
fluency.  Mystery  —  The  body  of 
truths  contained  in  the  gospel,  which 
are  a  mystery,  unknown  to  the  world 
until  revealed  now  by  Christ  and  his 
apostles.  Matt,  xiii,  1 1 ;  note  on  Col. 
i,  26. 

20.  For  which — Namely,  the  mys¬ 
tery  of  the  gospel,  the  revealed  olfer 


312 


EPHESIANS. 


A.  D.  63. 


"therein  kI  may  speak  boldly,  as 
I  ought  to  speak.  21  But  ‘that 
ye  also  may  know  my  affairs,  and 
how  I  do,  m  Tychicus,  a  beloved 
brother  and  faithful  minister  in 
the  Lord,  shall  make  known  to 
you  all  things  :  22  "Whom  I 

have  sent  unto  you  for  the  same 

8  Or,  thereof. - k  Acts  28.  31;  Phil.  1.  20; 

l  Thess.  2.  2. - 1  Col.  4.  7. - m  Acts  20.  4 ;  2  Tim. 

of  peace  to  men.  In  bonds — Literally, 
in  a  chain.  Alluding,  perhaps,  to  the 
single  chain  by  which  he  was  con¬ 
nected  to  a  Roman  soldier.  An  am¬ 
bassador,  not  in  robes,  but  in  bonds. 
His  insignia  a  chain,  his  retinue  a  Ro¬ 
man  sentinel,  his  residence  a  prison; 
yet  a  palace,  made  a  palace  by  the 
visitations  of  his  Master,  the  King  of 
kings  and  the  Lord  of  lords.  The 
apostle  means  the  noble  antithesis.  He 
is  asserting  his  own  official  dignity,  not 
courting  sympathy.  Hence  Wetstein’s 
note,  quoted  so  often  with  admiration 
by  commentators,  (as  Meyer,  Eadie, 
Braune,)  “  usually  ambassadors  are  by 
the  law  of  nations  sacred  and  inviola¬ 
ble,  and  cannot  be  held  in  chains,”  is 
below  the  apostle’s  strain.  He  is  by 
his  chain  honoured  and  exalted  above 
all  earthly  ambassadors.  It  was  lan¬ 
guage  like  this  that  inspired  the  heroic 
and  martyr  spirit  in  the  Church ; 
and  caused  it,  not  only  to  glow  so 
brightly,  but  to  rise  to  such  a  height 
that  Christian  prudence  was  obliged  to 
check  its  sometimes  too  earthly  enthu¬ 
siasm.  It  was  in  the  rare  character  of 
Paul,  “  the  apostle  in  a  basket,”  (Acts 
ix,  25, )  the  ambassador  in  a  chain, 
to  raise  humiliations  into  sublimities. 
He  is  indeed  an  ambassador,  but 
from  what  court?  From  the  throne  of 
Christ.  To  what  court?  Kot  to  the 
court  of  Rome,  as  one  commentator  sug¬ 
gests  ;  but  to  the  human  race,  whose 
head  is  Adam.  What  is  his  mission  ? 
To  unfold  the  mystery  of  the  gospel, 
in  which  are  terms  of  reconciliation  to 
the  sons  of  Adam  now  engaged  in  the 
rebellion  of  Satan.  Ought — A  term  of 


purpose,  that  ye  might  know  our 
affairs,  and  that  lie  might  comfort 
your  hearts.  23  "Peace  he  to  the 
brethren,  and  love  with  faith,  from 
God  the  Father  and  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  24  Grace  he  with  all  them 
that  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  p 9  in 
sincerity.  Amen. 


4. 1 2 ;  Tit.  3. 12. - n  Col.  4.  8- - o  1  Pet.  5. 14. - 

V  Titus  2.  7. - 9  Or,  with  incorruption. 


self-assertion ;  yet  not  as  a  self,  but  as 
an  apostle  and  ambassador. 

*21.  From  the  ambassador  he  now 
passes  to  the  man.  But  of  his  person¬ 
alities  no  record  is  made ;  no  mention 
more  lasting  than  the  breath  of  his 
messenger.  Tychicus  —  One  of  the 
group  of  subordinates  around  Paul, 
made  a  group  by  the  attractions  of  his 
character.  See  Col.  iv,  7,  8. 

22.  Comfort  your  hearts — Assur¬ 
ing  y°u  that,  though  in  bonds,  I  am 
still  an  undiscouraged  ambassador. 

23.  Peace — The  eastern  salam  im¬ 
bued  with  the  gospel  spirit.  The 
brethren — In  an  unusual  third  person. 
Love — Xot  merely  pagan  nor  Jewish, 
but  imbued  with  faith  in  Christ ;  such 
love,  therefore,  as  none  but  his  faith¬ 
ful  possess.  1  hese,  that  is,  the  power 
for  these,  must  be  from  God ;  their 
exercise  must  be  from  us.  They  are 
from  God  the  Father,  as  the  primal 
source ;  and  from  Christ,  medium  and 
channel. 

24.  Grace — A  benedictory  and  vale¬ 
dictory  prayer  concerning  all  saints, 
verse  18.  In  remembering  each  other 
let  us  remember  the  holy  all.  In  sin¬ 
cerity — Rather,  in  incorruption.  The 
Greek  term  uoOapoia  is  the  incorruption 
in  1  Cor.  xv,  42,  of  our  resurrection 
bodies,  by  which,  unlike  our  mortal  bod¬ 
ies,  they  change  not,  putrefy  not,  di-.- 
integrate  not,  but  remain  in  endless 
life,  bloom,  and  power.  And  thus  this 
sublime  epistle,  this  lofty  manifesto  of 
Christ’s  ambassador  in  a  chain,  ends 
worthily  of  itself  in  immortality;  the 
immortality  of  the  love  of  Christ  its 
glorious  theme  indeed  I 


INTRODUCTION  TO  PHILIPPIANS. 


- - 

The  history  of  the  founding  of  the  Church  in  the  citv  of  Philippi, 
ehe  birthplace  of  European  Christianity,  is  very  fully  narrated  in  the 
Acts,  chap,  xvi,  where  see  notes.  Eleven  years  had  now  passed;  years 
of  growth  in  the  midst  of  severe  persecution.  Twice  had  St.  Paul 
visited  his  Philippian  brethren,-  and  thrice  had  they  sent  supplies  to 
their  suffering  apostle,  and  now  again  a  fourth  time  to  him  in  prison 
at  Rome.  The  present  epistle  is  his  response  to  their  loving  gift,  with 
the  simple  purpose  of  expressing  his  thanks  and  showing  his  deep 
interest  in  themselves.  None  of  his  epistles  more  abounds  with  the 
lanouagre  of  true,  heartfelt  affection. 

He  had  learned,  doubtless  through  Epapliroditus,  of  the  springing 
up  of  a  self-seeking  spirit,  which  imperilled  their  previous  remarkable 
love  and  unity;  and  also  of  the  attempts  of  Judaizers  to  pervert  them, 
though  thus  far,  having  no  old  Jewish  prejudices,  as  in  Galatia,  to 
which  to  appeal,  apparently  without  success.  Against  these  dangers 
Paul  earnestly  warns  them,  as  well  as  against  the  immoral  lives  of  some 
among  them  which  he  had  known  of  before;  while  he  praises  them 
for  their  love,  encourages  them  in  their  sufferings  from  persecution, 
and  pours  upon  them  the  fulness  of  his  loving  heart. 

It  has  been  almost  universally  believed,  and  questioned  only  in 
recent  times,  that  the  epistle  was  written  by  St.  Paul  near  the  close 
of  his  imprisonment  at  Rome.  The  attempts  to  assign  it  to  Corinth 
or  Cesarea  are  failures,  as  they  do  not  meet  the  conditions  described 
in  the  epist  e  itself,  while  Rome  does. 

St.  Paul  reached  Rome  in  February,  A.D.  61,  and  was  at  once  de¬ 
livered  into  the  charge  of  Burrus,  the  pretorian  prefect,  who  allowed 
him  to  reside  in  his  own  hired  house,  constantly  attended  by  a  soldier. 
Burrus  died  A.D.  62,  and  was  succeeded  by  Tigellinus,  an  infamous 
favourite  of  the  emperor.  Seneca’s  influence  was  broken.  Nero 
married  his  mistress,  Poppea,  and  his  character  and  administration 
constantly  depreciated.  These  events  would  naturally  render  the 
apostle’s  condition  more  severe  and  perilous.  The  tone  of  the  epistle 
corresponds  with  his  changed  condition,  and  shows  it  to  have  been 


814 


INTRODUCTION  TO  PIIILIPPIANS. 


written  Inter  than  those  to  Colossc  and  Ephesus.  If,  as  Alford  and 
others  suppose,  he  was  at  the  close  of  his  two  years'  imprisonment 
(mentioned  Acts  xxviii,  30)  removed  from  his  hired  house  to  the 
pretorian  barracks,  and  put  into  closer  custody,  which  seems  quite 
probable,  its  proper  date  would  be  about  the  summer  or  autumn  of 
A.D.  63. 


PLAN  OF  THE  EPISTLE. 


I.  Introduction .  i,  i_n 

1.  Inscription  and  greeting .  l.  1.  2 

2.  Thanksgiving  and  prayer  in  behalf  of  the  Philip¬ 

pians .  i,  3_ii 

II.  Paul’s  Statement  respecting  himself .  i,  12-26 

1.  Result  of  his  imprisonment. . .  i,  12-18 

2.  His  feelings  as  to  the  issue .  i,  19-24 

3.  His  hopes  of  his  Philippians .  i,  25.  26 

III.  Exhortations .  i,  27— ii.  18 

1.  To  a  befitting  Church  life .  i,  27-30 

2.  To  unity .  ii,  l,  o 

3.  To  self-forgetting  love .  .  ii,  3,  4 

4.  Illustrated  by  the  example  of  Christ .  ii,  5-1 1 

a.  His  self-humiliation .  ii,  5-8 

b.  His  subsequent  exaltation .  ii,  9-1 1 

5.  In  application  of  Christ’s  example .  ii,  12-16 

a.  Paul's  joy  in  their  final  fidelity .  ii.  n,  is 

IY.  Plans  for  tiie  Philippians .  ii,  19-30 

1.  To  send  Timothy .  ii,  19-24 

2.  To  dismiss  Epaphroditus  with  commendations.  ...  ii,  25-30 

Y.  Counsels  against  perils .  iii,  i_iv.  i 

1.  From  Judaizing  teachers .  iii,  l.  2 

2.  Contrast  between  them  and  himself .  iii,  3-16 

3.  From  immoral  examples . iii,  17-iv,  1 

YI.  Concluding  exhortations .  iv.  2-9 

1.  To  individuals .  .  iv,  2,  3 

2.  To  the  whole  Church .  .  iv,  4-9 

YII.  Paul’s  personal  relations .  iv,  1 0—23 

1.  Thanks  for  their  gift .  iv.  10-14 

2.  Grateful  remembrance .  .  iv,  1 5-1 9 

3.  Doxology .  iv,  20 

4.  Salutations  and  benediction .  .  iv,  21-23 


THE 


EPISTLE 


TO  THE  PHILIPPIANS. 

- - 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAUL  and  Timotheus,  the  ser¬ 
vants  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  all  the 
saints  ain  Christ  Jesus  which  are 
at  Philippi,  with  the  bishops  and 
deacons :  2  b  Grace  ~be  unto  you, 

and  peace,  from  God  our  Father 
and  from  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

a  1  Cor.  1.  2. b  Rom.  1.7:2  Cor.  1.  2  ;  1  Pet. 

1.  2. - cRom.  1.  8,  9;  1  Cor.  1.  4;  Eph.  1.  15; 

Col.  1.  3  ;  1  Thess.  1.  2 ;  2  Thess.  1.  3. 


CHAPTER  I. 

I.  Introduction,  i,  1-11. 

1.  Inscription  and  greeting,  i,  1,  2. 

1.  Paul  associates  Timothy  with 
himself  in  the  salutation,  as  he  does  in 
2  Cor.  i,  1,  Col.  i,  1,  and  in  both  epis¬ 
tles  to  the  Thessalonians.  He  accom¬ 
panied  Paul  on  his  first  visit  to  Phi¬ 
lippi,  and  was  afterward  there  alone. 
See  Acts  xvi,  1,12;  xix,  22.  Servants 
—  Bondservants,  belonging  to  Christ 
as  their  Master.  Note  on  Rom.  i,  1  ; 
Luke  vii,  2.  The  official  designation 
of  “  apostle  ”  is  not  used  here,  perhaps 
because  the  genuineness  of  St.  Paul’s 
apostlesliip  had  never  been  called  in 
question  at  Philippi,  as  in  some  other 
places,  but  more  likely  because  of  the 
deep  affection  which  existed  between 
him  and  that  Church.  All — Without 
exception  they  have  all  a  place  in  his 
large  heart.  The  word  is  used  of  pur¬ 
pose,  as  in  vv.  4,  7,  25.  Bishops — The 
same  then  as  presbyters.  These  offi¬ 
cers  are  specially  recognised  in  the  in¬ 
scription,  as  if  quietly  to  check  a  ten¬ 
dency  to  an  undue  personal  assertion, 
of  which  we  shall  find  evidences. 

2.  Thanksgiving  and  prayer  in 
their  behalf,  3-11. 

3.  Remembrance — The  apostle’s 
remembrances  of  them,  taken  separate¬ 
ly  and  as  an  entirety,  led  him  on  every 


3  CI  thank  my  God  upon  every 
1  remembrance  of  you,  4  Always 
in  every  prayer  of  mine  for  you  all 
making  request  with  joy,  5  dFor 
your  fellowship  in  the  gospel  from 
the  first  day  until  now ;  6  Being 

confident  of  this  very  thing,  that 
he  which  hath  begun e  a  good  work 

1  Or,  mention. - <2  Romans  12.  13;  2  Corin¬ 
thians  8.  1;  chapter  4.  14,  15. - eJohn  6.  29; 

1  Thessalonians  1.  3. 


occasion  of  them  to  devout  thanksgiv¬ 
ing  to  God.  The  ten  years  of  their  ac¬ 
quaintance  and  intercourse  had  left 
no  disturbing  thought  or  feeling  in  his 
soul. 

4.  Prayer  and  request  are  the  same 
word  in  the  Greek :  in  every  prayer 
making  prayer  for  you. 

5.  Fellowship — The  ground  of  the 
thanksgiving  is  now  stated.  It  is  not 
their  fellowship  of  love  with  one  an¬ 
other,  wrought  by  the  gospel,  but  their 
fellowship  in  reference  to  the  gos¬ 
pel,  with  all  who  sought  its  success. 
It  was  their  warm  sympathy  and  ready 
interest  in  every  thing  pertaining  to 
its  service,  at  home  and  every- where. 
This  had  been  one  of  their  marked 
characteristics  from  the  day  when 
Lydia,  their  first  convert,  received  the 
gospel ;  and  a  fresh  proof  of  it  the 
apostle  had  just  received  by  the  hand 
of  Epaphroditus. 

6.  Confident — So  uninterrupted  and 
uniform  in  this  respect  had  their  past 
history  been,  that  it  was  a  reasonable 
expectation  that  their  future  would  be 
of  the  same  blessed  character,  but  devel¬ 
oping  with  time  into  a  more  beautiful 
maturity.  This  full  persuasion  deepens 
Paul’s  joy,  and  the  more  so  as  he  con¬ 
templates  its  final  fruit.  A  good  work 
— Plainly,  the  fellowship  just  men¬ 
tioned.  Begun  in  them  on  the  divine 


316 


PHILIPPIAN  S. 


A.  D.  G3. 


in  you * * * *  5 *  will  perform  it  f  until  the 
day  of  Jesus  Christ:  7  Even  as  it 
is  meet  for  me  to  think  this  of  you 
all,  because  3 1  have  you  s  in  my 
heart;  inasmuch  as  both  in  hmy 
bonds,  and  in  1  the  defence  and 
confirmation  of  the  gospel,  kye  all 
are  4  partakers  of  my  grace.  8  For 
]God  is  my  record,  ,nhow  greatly  I 

2  Or,  will  finish  it. — -/Verse  10. 3  Or,  ye 

have  me  in  your  heart. - g 2  Cor.  3.  2. - 

h  Eph.  3.  1 ;  Col.  4.  3 ;  2  Tim.  1.  8. - i  Verse  17. 

- k  Chap.  4.  14. - 4  Or,  'partakers  with  me 

of  grace. 


side  by  God,  and  maintained  and  grow¬ 

ing  for  ten  years,  there  was  good  ground 

(derived  not  from  a  theological  belief 
in  infallible  perseverance,  but  from  the 
present  evidences  of  their  case)  for  ex¬ 
pecting  its  continuance  under  his  gra¬ 
cious  guidance  unto  the  end.  Does 
not  God  always  incite  young  converts 
to  this  same  spirit  of  active  interest 
in  the  cause  of  the  gospel  ?  And,  if 

so,  why  should  it  not  abide  and  grow, 
keeping  the  Church  in  lively  sympa¬ 
thy  with  plans  and  labours  for  the  con¬ 

version  of  the  world?  Day  of  Jesus 

Christ — See  note,  2  Thess.  ii,  2. 

7.  Meet  —  Right  to  cherish  this 
confidence  for  them  all  because  of  his 
deep  love  for  them.  My  heart — As 
the  seat  of  the  affections  and  centre  of 
his  entire  soul,  (note,  Rom.x,  10,)  which, 
as  if  a  capacious  room,  held  them  all. 
And  this  love,  though  partly  personal, 
was  chiefly  for  them  as  sharers  with 
himself  in  the  grace  of  suffering  and 
struggling  for  the  gospel.  They  sym¬ 
pathized  with  him  in  his  bonds,  which 
lie  was  then  wearing,  and  also  in  his 
efforts  during  his  imprisonment  to  win 
converts  to  Christ,  as  well  as  in  the 
judicial  defence  of  himself  as  the  am¬ 
bassador  of  Christ.  Besides,  they  had 
their  own  sufferings,  verse  29. 

8.  God  is  my  record  —  His  wit¬ 
ness  able  to  testify  of  his  yearning 
love,  so  intense  that  it  was  as  if  it 
were  out  of  the  very  heart  of  Christ. 

9.  This  I  pray — The  prayer  (vv. 
9-11)  is  for  their  continual  increase  in 
love  to  Christ,  his  cause,  and  his  peo¬ 
ple  ;  that  love  which  underlay  their 
fellowship  with  the  gospel,  the  sub¬ 


long  after  you  all  in  the  bowels  of 
Jesus  Christ.  9  And  this  I  pray, 
"that  your  love  may  abound  yet 
more  and  more  in  knowledge  and 
in  all  6 judgment;  10  That  °ye 
may  0  approve  things  that  7 8 9  are  ex¬ 
cellent;  rthat  ye  may  be  sincere 
and  without  offence  <i till  the  day 
of  Christ;  11  Being  filled  with 

l  Rom.  1.  9;  Gal.  1.  20;  1  Thess.  2.  5. - 

m  Chap.  2.  26. - n\  Thess.  3.  12;  Philem.  6. - 

5  Or,  sense. - o  Rom.  2.  18;  Eph.  5.  10. - 6  Or, 

try. - 7  Or,  differ. - p  Acts  24.  16;  1  Thess. 

3.  13. - q  1  Cor.  1.  8. 


ject  of  the  thanksgiving,  and  also  made 
them  willing  partakers  with  himself  in 
suffering.  Yet  not  in  the  love  alone 
did  he  desire  growth,  but  more  in  cer¬ 
tain  adjuncts  which  are  always  necessa¬ 
ry  to  its  best  direction  and  most  useful 
employment.  Love  may  be  very  pure, 
honest,  and  full,  and  at  the  same  time 
impulsive,  misdirected,  injudicious,  and 
even  injurious.  So  he  prays  for  its  in¬ 
crease  in  knowledge — a  full  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  truths  of  the  gospel,  by 
which  they  would  readily  detect  any 
perversion  of,  or  addition  to,  them. 
And  in  judgment  —  Doubtless  the 
moral  judgment,  or  spiritual  insight. 

10.  That  ye  may  approve — Love 
thus  balanced  by  intelligence  and  quick 
moral  perception,  and  so  increasing 
more  and  more,  would  render  them 
prompt  to  distinguish  between  things 
that  differ  as  to  right  and  wrong,  and 
so  to  approve  the  excellent,  whether 
in  opinions,  measures  of  Christian  work, 
men  to  do  the  vrork,  or  personal  life. 
The  application  is  very  broad  The  end 
sought  by  this  increase  goes  deep  and 
reaches  far.  Sincere  —  Pure.  The 
original  means  judged  of  in  sunlight. 
In  clear  sunlight  defects  and  flaws  are 
easily  detected.  The  soul  that  in  the 
bright  light  of  God’s  presence  shows 
no  spot,  is  sincere  in  the  sense  of  this 
passage.  Without  offence  —  Blame¬ 
less  in  -external  life,  the  previous  term 
referring  to  the  internal.  This  is  a 
blessed  state  in  which  to  live;  a  neces¬ 
sary  state  for  the  day  of  Christ.  This, 
however,  is  only  negative. 

11.  Filled  with. .  .fruits  of  right¬ 
eousness — Here  is  the  moral  state  in- 


A.  I).  63. 


CHAPTER  I. 


317 


the  fruits  of  righteousness, r  which 
are  by  Jesus  Christ, 8  unto  the  glory 
and  praise  of  God. 

12  But  I  would  ye  should  un¬ 
derstand,  brethren,  that  the  things 
which  happened  unto  me  have  fallen 
out  rather  unto  the  furtherance  of 
the  gospel;  13  So  that  my  bonds 

r  John  15.  4,  5;  Eph.  2.  10;  Col.  1.  6. , 9  John 

15.  8;  Eph.  1.  i2. 8  Or,  for  Christ. 

to  which  God  brings  the  justified  soul, 
the  fruits  of  which  is  found  in  the 
graces,  tempers,  activities,  and  godly 
life  that  are  indispensable  to  the  fullest 
Christian  development.  This  fruit  is 
the  proper  product  of  the  new  nature, 
and  is  possible  only  through  Christ. 
Men  in  whom  it  appears  always  bring 
glory  to  the  God  whose  grace  works 
such  great  results.  This  is  the  posi¬ 
tive  side  of  Christian  growth,  and  im¬ 
plies  the  employment  of  the  whole  na¬ 
ture  in  active  obedience  to  the  will  of 
Christ. 

11.  The  Apostle’s  Statement  of 
his  Condition  at  Rome,  i,  12-26. 

1.  Results  of  his  imprisonment, 
12-18. 

12.  Understand  —  The  Philippians 
had  shown  their  anxiety  in  his  behalf 
by  sending  Epaphroditus  to  him,  who, 
in  addition  to  bearing  their  gift,  was, 
beyond  question,  charged  with  numer¬ 
ous  messages  of  sympathy  and  love. 
No  doubt  they  wished  to  receive  defi¬ 
nite  information  of  the  apostle’s  cir¬ 
cumstances  from  himself.  His  situa¬ 
tion  had  become  truly  more  grave  than 
formerly.  He  probably  no  longer  en¬ 
joyed  the  comparative  freedom  of  liv¬ 
ing  in  “his  own  hired  house,”  but  was 
confined  to  the  barracks  of  the  preto- 
rian  guard.  His  imprisonment. was  a 
grievance  to  himself,  and  in  itself  prom¬ 
ised  no  advantage  to  the  gospel.  Yet 
now  he  writes  that  things  with  him, 
more  than  was  to  have  been,  antici¬ 
pated,  have  turned  out  to  the  further¬ 
ance  of  the  gospel.  Good  news 
about  the  gospel  is  for  them  the  best 
news  about  himself. 

13.  My  bonds  in  Christ — The  first 
result  of  his  imprisonment  was  a  cor- 


8  in  Christ  are  manifest *  lin  all  9  the 
palace,  and  10  in  all  other  places; 

14  And  many  of  the  brethren  in 
the  Lord,  waxing  confident  by 
my  bonds,  are  much  more  bold 
to  speak  the  word  without  fear. 

15  Some  indeed  preach  Christ 
even  of  envy  and  u  strife ;  and  some 

£Chap.  4.  22. - 9  Or,  Cesar's  court. - 10  Or, 

to  all  others. - u  Chap.  2.  3. 


rect  and  wide-spread  intelligence  of  its 
true  cause  and  character.  We  prefer  to 
read,  my  bonds  have  become  mani¬ 
fest  in  Christ.  Men  had  come  to  know 
that  they  were  connected  with  Christ, 
and  endured  in  his  service;  and  that 
Paul  himself  was  not  seditious,  turbu¬ 
lent,  or  a  traitor.  All  the  palace  — 
Probably  the  pretorian  camp  is  meant, 
the  barracks  of  the  imperial  lifeguard, 
perhaps  including  the  detachment  quar¬ 
tered  near  Nero’s  palace.  The  word 
is  never  used  for  the  palace  of  the  em¬ 
peror.  See  note  on  Acts  xxviii,  16,  and 
the  cut  of  Rome.  All  other  —  Liter¬ 
ally,  and  to  all  the  rest.  Very  likely  the 
people  who  had  become  familiar  with 
his  case ;  as  to-day  we  say,  “  every 
body  else.”  Soldier  after  soldier  had 
attended  him,  to  whom  he  had  spoken 
of  the  great  salvation ;  visitors — Jews, 
Christians,  and  pagans — had  freely  re¬ 
ceived  from  his  lips  the  “things  which 
concern  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.”  Acts 
xxviii,  31.  Thus  soldiers  and  visitors 
had  learned  the  true  cause  of  Paul’s 
imprisonment.  To  them  Christ  was 
preached. 

14.  Waxing  confident — A  second 
result  was  the  increased  boldness  of 
Christians  in  preaching.  Many  — 
Rather,  the  greater  part.  Naturally, 
the  peril  of  their  great  leader  would 
inspire  hesitancy  and  wariness  in  his 
friends,  but  his  brave  endurance  of  his 
situation,  his  persistent  discourse  con¬ 
cerning  Christ  to  all  comers,  and  his 
heroic  readiness  to  die  for  him,  kindled 
anew  their  courage  and  zeal,  and  mul¬ 
tiplied  their  labours. 

15.  Some  indeed  preach  —  The 
next  three  verses  show  a  painful  con¬ 
trast  between  two  classes  of  Christian 
preachers  at  Rome.  Both  preached 


318 


PHILIPPI  ANS. 


A.  I).  63. 


also  of  good  will :  10  The  one 

preach  Christ  of  contention,  not 
sincerely,  supposing  to  add  afflic¬ 
tion  to  my  bonds:  17  But  the 
other  of  love,  knowing  that  I  am 
set  for  v  the  defence  of  the  gospel. 

1  8  What  then  ?  notwithstanding, 

v  Verse  7. 

Christ;  but  one  class,  different  from 
those  just  mentioned,  are  moved  by 
envy  toward  the  apostle ;  the  other 
by  love  for  him.  The  latter,  the 
brethren  described  in  verse  14,  work 
under  the  conviction  that  he  is  di¬ 
vinely  set  for  the  defence  of  the 
gospel  $  the  former  are  animated  by 
party  spirit,  here  called  contention,  as 
against  the  apostle.  Not  sincerely — 
Their  intentions  were  not  pure,  as  the 
next  words  show.  Respecting  this 
anti-Pauline  faction  at  Rome  we  are 
largely  left  to  conjecture.  They  were 
not  Jews,  or  Judaizers,  for  Paul  held 
and  denounced  them  as  subverting  the 
gospel,  which  he  does  not  do  here. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  rejoices  in 
the  result  of  their  work  —  Christ  is 
preached  —  while  he  complains  of 
their  self-seeking  spirit  and  improper 
motives.  On  the  whole,  we  think  the 
key  is  supplied  by  the  epistle  to  this 
same  Roman  Church,  ( Romans  xiv, 
where  see  notes,)  written  five  years 
earlier,  where  we  learn  of  the  existence 
among  them  of  an  Oriental  asceticism, 
enjoining  abstinence  from  animal  food 
and  wine,  and  imposing  its  injunctions 
as  laws  of  Christian  piety.  Still  ad¬ 
hering  to  their  petty  heresy,  and  mag¬ 
nifying  it  to  a  test  of  what  they  think 
orthodoxy,  notwithstanding  its  pointed 
condemnation  by  the  apostle,  its  advo¬ 
cates  now  in  their  turn  refuse  to  recog¬ 
nise  him  as  G-od’s  appointed  defender 
of  the  gospel.  They  would  propagate 
their  mongrel  system  with  personal  de¬ 
tractions  of  the  apostle,  but  still  call¬ 
ing  themselves  Christians,  and  as  such 
preaching  Christ,  though  in  pretence 
and  insincerity. 

16.  Affliction — The  explanation  of 
the  not  sincerely  is  their  thinking  to 
add  affliction  to  his  bonds,  making 
worse  his  condition,  which  was  already 


every  way,  whether  in  pretence,  or 
in  truth,  Christ  is  preached ;  aid 
I  therein  do  rejoice,  yea,  and  will 
rejoice. 

19  For  I  know  that  this  shall 
turn  to  my  salvation  w  through  your 
prayer,  and  the  supply  of  *  the 

vc'l  Cor.  1. 11. - sc  Rom.  8.  9. 

bad  enough.  The  precise  nature  of  the 
affliction  is  not  clear.  Alford  supposes 
it  to  be  “  trouble  of  spirit,”  which  hard¬ 
ly  consists  with  verse  1 8.  With  Elli- 
cott  and  others,  we  refer  it  to  outward 
trouble,  by  exciting  his  enemies,  either 
pagans  or  Jews,  and  perhaps  both, 
against  him,  thus  putting  his  life  in 
greater  peril,  as  is  evident  from  his 
regarding  his  death  (verse  20)  as  the 
possible  result  of  their  machinations. 
Critical  texts  invert  the  order  of  verses 
16  and  17. 

18.  What  then?  —  Nothing ,  so  far 
as  the  personal  feeling  of  the  apostle 
is  concerned ;  yet  much,  in  that  in  ev¬ 
ery  way  of  preaching,  whatever  be 
its  motive  or  spirit,  whether  it  be  in 
pretence,  covering  its  real  purpose,  or 
in  truth,  Christ  is  preached.  His 
great  soul  rises  above  the  petty  oppo¬ 
sition  to  himself,  in  the  knowledge  that 
the  name  of  his  Master  is  more  widely 
proclaimed.  In  this  he  rejoices,  and, 
with  his  eye  on  the  future,  adds,  yea, 
and  will  rejoice. 

2.  Paul’s  feeling  as  to  the  final 
issue,  19-24. 

19.  For  I  know — Not  whether  his 

opponents  may  accomplish  their  pur¬ 
pose,  but  that  this  wider  preaching  of 
Christ  will  contribute  to  his  salvation, 
whether  he  shall  live  or  die.  It  can¬ 
not,  then,  be  temporal  deliverance  that 
he  is  expecting,  as  is  further  evident 
from  its  dependence  on  the  supply  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  Of  the  various  inter¬ 
pretations  of  ocjrrjpiav ,  we  think  the 
context  requires  the  reference  to  eternal 
salvatjon,  which  will  surely  be  won  if 
Christ  shall  be  magnified  in  him. 
He,  however,  makes  his  salvation  de¬ 
pendent  on  the  double  means  of  the 
prayer  of  the  Philippians  for  him.  so 
high  is  his  estimate  of  the  intercessions 
of  his  brethren,  and  the  help  supplied 


/{.  D.  C3. 


CHAPTER  I. 


319 


Spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  20  Accord¬ 
ing  to  my  y  earnest  expectation  and 
my  hope,  that  zin  nothing  I  shall 
be  ashamed,  but  that  a  with  all 
boldness,  as  always,  so  now  also 
Christ  shall  be  magnified  in  my 
body,  whether  it  he  by  life,  or  by 
death.  21  For  to  me  to  live  is 

V  Rom.  8. 19. - z  Rom.  5.  5. - a  Eph.  6. 19,20. 

by  the  Holy  Spirit  whom  Jesus  sends 
to  believers. 

20.  According  —  Confidently  look¬ 
ing  out  upon  the  future,  the  apostle  ex¬ 
pects,  just  as  he  hopes,  that  in  noth¬ 
ing — in  no  point  or  thing  to  which  his 
life  has  been  devoted — shall  he  be 
ashamed  ;  brought  to  shame  through 
any  failure  on  his  part.  Its  opposite 
is,  Christ  shall  be  magnified  in  my 
body,  to  which  he  will  contribute  by 1 
all  boldness  of  speech  and  conduct. 
His  opponents  could  not  prevent  that 
in  his  body,  in  one  way  or  the  other, 
either  by  his  life  or  his  death,  would 
the  kingdom  of  Christ  among  men  be 
advanced,  and  so  could  not  destroy 
his  joy  or  defeat  his  salvation.  To 
magnify  Christ  had  always,  hitherto, 
been  the  grand  purpose  of  his  life,  and 
so  now  also,  in  the  present  crisis,  in  a 
closer  imprisonment,  under  the  detrac¬ 
tions  of  brethren,  and  in  the  growing 
savageness  of  the  emperor  Nero,  when 
perils  are  thickening  around  him,  does 
he  hope  to  magnify  him  in  his  body, 
whether  by  life,  or  by  death :  if  by 
life,  through  preaching ;  if  by  death, 
through  an  impressive  martyrdom. 

21.  For  to  me  —  So  far  as  he  is 
personally  concerned,  it  is  a  matter  of 
indifference  whether  he  shall  magnify 
Christ  by  living  or  by  dying.  To  him 
personally,  to  live  is  Christ  :  his 
whole  life,  whether  in  prison  or  in  free¬ 
dom,  with  all  his  energy  of  body  and 
soul,  is  consecrated  to  making  Christ 
known  as  the  only  Saviour.  To  die 
is  gain — That  is,  the  paradisaic  life  is 
an  immeasurable  gain  over  this  earthly 
life.  And  if,  instead  of  speedy  release, 
he  shall  die  a  martyr’s  death,  it  will  be 
known  that  he  died  for  Christ;  and  so, 
in  either  issue,  Christ  will  be  magni¬ 
fied  in  his  body.  Yet  as  to  himself, 


Christ,  and  to  die  is  gain.  22  But 
if  I  live  in  the  flesh,  this  is  the 
fruit  of  my  labour  :  yet  what  I 
shall  choose  I  wot  not.  23  For 
b  I  am  in  a  strait  betwixt  two, 
having  a  desire  to  c  depart,  and 
to  be  with  Christ  ;  which  is  far 
better:  24  Nevertheless  to  abide 

b  2  Cor.  5.  8. - c2  Tim.  4.  6. 

persecuted,  suffering,  imprisoned,  death 
is  more  desirable  than  life.  To  die  is 
aorist,  to  have  died;  pointing  to,  not 
the  dying,  but  the  state  after  death ,  the 
being  with  the  Lord. 

22.  Fruit ...  labour  —  Besides  this 
personal  view,  there  is  his  relation  to 
his  apostolical  work.  Continuance  in 
life  implies  a  continued  ministry,  with 
its  precious  harvest  of  souls  saved  and 
believers  comforted,  so  that  lie  is  quite 
at  a  loss  to  say  what  his  personal  pref¬ 
erence  would  really  be. 

23.  In  a  strait — I  am  held  fast  by  the 
two :  namely,  to  live  or  to  die.  With  their 
powerful  motives,  they  are  as  if  two 
mighty  opposite  forces  were  crowding 
upon  him.  His  personal  desire  leans 
toward  departing.  The  word  for  de¬ 
part  means  to  loose ,  as  a  ship  lets  go  its 
fastenings  to  the  shore.  Such  is  the 
Christian  idea  of  dying.  With  Christ 
— The  apostle  certainly  believed  that  in 
death  his  soul  would  leave  his  body, 
and  immediately  be  with  Christ,  for 
only  so  could  death  be  gain.  The  soul 
is  not,  then,  annihilated  in  the  death 
of  the  body.  See  note  on  1  Cor.  xv,  14. 
It  docs  not  go  with  it  into  the  grave, 
or  lie  in  unconsciousness  awaiting  the 
resurrection,  or  float  around  in  the  air, 
but,  like  the  dying  thief,  departs  to  par¬ 
adise  to  be  with  Christ.  See  notes  on 
Luke  xxiii,  43;  2  Cor.  xii,  4.  It  was 
in  the  disembodied  state  of  both  that 
the  thief  was  in  paradise  with  Christ. 
That  the  imparadised  soul  is  now  with 
Christ,  though  he  be  in  the  highest 
heaven,  see  note  on  2  Cor.  v,  6;  xii,  4. 
Far  better  —  He  who  has  faithfully 
finished  his  earthly  course  and  safely 
reached  heaven,  has  won  all.  No 
wonder  that  the  holy  apostle  felt  the 
drawing  away  from  the  service  here  to 
the  fellowship  and  the  glory  there. 


320 


PHILIPPI  ANS. 


A.  I).  63. 


in  the  flesh  is  more  needful  for 
you. 

25  And  d  having  this  confidence, 

I  know  that  I  shall  abide  and  con¬ 
tinue  with  you  all  for  your  fur¬ 
therance  and  joy  of  faith ;  20  That 
eyour  rejoicing  may  lie  more  abun¬ 
dant  in  Jesus  Christ  for  me  by  my 
coming  to  you  again. 

27  Only  f  let  your  conversation 
be  as  it  becometh  the  gospel  of 

d  Chap.  2.  24. - e2  Corinthians  1.  14:  5.  12. 

- -/Ephesians  4.  1;  Colossians  1.  10;  1  Thessa- 

lonians  2.  12;  4.  1. —  Q  Chap.  4.  1. 

24.  More  needful — Here  is  the  con¬ 

sideration  on  the  other  side,  the  neces¬ 
sity  of  his  stay  for  the  Church  offset¬ 
ting  his  personal  desire. 

3.  Paul’s  hopes  of  his  Philippi- 
ans,  25,  26. 

2T5.  Having  this  confidence  —  So 

fully  was  he  persuaded  of  this  neces¬ 
sity,  that  however  uncertain  he  might 
be  as  to  what  he  ought  to  choose,  he 
felt  it  certain  that  he  would  remain  and 
again  visit  Philippi.  The  return  to  them 
of  their  apostle  could  have  had  no  other 
result  than  the  enlargement  of  their 
faith,  and  the  increase  of  their  joy. 

26.  That  your  rejoicing — Such  an 
increase  of  faith  and  joy  because  of 
his  coming  again,  would  be  good 
ground  for  their  abundant  joy  in  fel¬ 
lowship  with  Christ,  whose  servant  he 
was,  whom  they  were  permitted  again 
to  see  and  hear.  The  apostle,  in  say¬ 
ing  “  I  know,”  should  not  be  under¬ 
stood  as  assured  by  revelation  or  pro¬ 
phetic  insight  into  his  own  future,  but 

rather  as  expressing  the  deep  persua¬ 

sion  and  earnest  hope  of  his  own  mind, 

because  his  liberation  seemed  to  him 

so  important  for  the  Church.  In  chap, 

ii,  17, 'he  seems  less  confident.  There 
is  no  record  of  a  visit  to  Philippi  after 
this  period,  but  the  probability  of:  such 
a  visit  depends  upon  the  decision  of 
the  question  whether  he  was  released 
from  his  present  imprisonment.  See 
Introduction  to  1  Timothy. 

III.  Exhortations,  i,  27— ii,  18. 

1.  To  a  befitting  Church  life,  27-30. 

27.  Only  —  There  is  one  indispen¬ 
sable  condition  on  the  part  of  the  Phi- 


Christ:  that  whether  I  come  and 
see  you,  or  else  be  absent,  I  may 
hear  of  your  affairs,  *  that  ye  stand 
fast  in  one  spirit,  hwith  one  mind 
'  striving  together  for  the  faith 
of  the  gospel;  28  And  in  noth¬ 
ing  terrified  by  your  adversaries: 
k  which  is  to  them  an  evident  to¬ 
ken  of  perdition,  1 * 3 * * * * * * * ii,  but  to  you  of  sal¬ 
vation,  and  that  of  God.  29  For 
unto  you  rnit  is  given  in  the  be- 

h  \  Corinthians  1.  10.- — iJude  3.- — A*2Thes- 

salonians  1.5. - 1  Romans  8. 17;  2  Timothy  2. 11. 

- m  Acts  5.  41 ;  Romans  5.  3. _ 

lippian  Church,  in  order  to  this  joy. 
Your  conversation — The  Greek  tern, 
embraces  the  whole  moral  life.  They 
are  citizens  of  a  spiritual  country,  and 
as  such  tiiey  are  to  live  as  good  citi¬ 
zens  ought.  The  reference  here  is 
to  their  Church  life,  which  they  are 
to  live  worthily  of  the  gospel  which 
began  it  in  them.  The  manner  of  it 
appears  in  four  particulars,  which  the 
aposile  desired  to  find  true  in  their 
case,  whether  he  should  come  and 
see  them,  or,  remaining  absent,  should 
hear.  (1)  Firm  unity  in  a  common 
spirit,  thought,  and  purpose  ;  (2)  with 
one  mind,  soul,  feeling,  and  interest ; 
(3)  striving  together,  and  mutually, 
as  spiritual  athletes,  for  the  vital  faith 
which  the  gospel  gives ;  (4)  in  nothing 
terrified,  like  frightened  horses,  but 
standing  with  steadfast  courage  against 
all  opposition.  Such  a  Church  is  strong 
anywhere  and  in  any  age,  and  only 
such  a  stvle  of  conduct  is  worthy  of 
the  gospel  of  Christ. 

28.  Adversaries— Persecuting  ene¬ 
mies  of  the  gospel.  The  calm  courage 
of  the  Christian  martyr  has  more  than 
once  opened  the  eyes  of  persecutors 
to  the  reality  of  their  own  sin.  They 
may  not  always  see  it,  but  it  is  the 
divinely  appointed  token  of  coming 
destruction  to  themselves  and  salvation 
to  the  faithful. 

29.  For  unto  you — Steadfastness 
in  suffering  foreshadows  eternal  glory, 
because  they  are  called  to  the  grace 
of  suffering  as  well  as  the  grace  of  be¬ 
lieving.  Given — At  conversion,  as  a 
free  bestowment  of  grace  for  Christ’s 
sake,  as  are  all  spiritual  gifts.  It  is  a 


A.  D.  03. 


CHAPTER  II. 


321 


half  of  Christ,  "not  only  to  believe 
on  him,  but  also  to  suffer  for  his 
sake;  30  ° Having  the  same  con¬ 
flict  p  which  ye  saw  in  me,  and  now 
hear  to  he  in  me. 

CHAPTER  II. 

IF  there  he  therefore  any  consola¬ 
tion  in  Christ,  if  any  comfort 
of  love,  aif  any  fellowship  of  the 
Spirit,  if  any  b  bowels  and  mercies, 

n  Eph.  2.  8. - o  Col.  2. 1. v  Acts  16. 19,  &c. ; 

1  Thess.  2.  2. - a  2  Cor.  13. 14. - b  Col.  3. 12. — 

c  J ohn  3.  29. d  Rom.  12. 16 ;  1  Cor.  1. 10 ;  2  Cor, 

13.  11 ;  1  Pet.  3.  8. 

double  gift :  (1)  to  believe  in  Jesus, 
which  saves,  and  (2)  to  suffer  for  his 
sake.  It  is  as  truly  a  privilege  to  suffer 
for  Christ  as  it  is  to  believe  in  him ;  and 
blessed  are  they  who  can  receive  both 
as  given  in  the  behalf  of  Christ. 

30.  The  same  conflict  —  The  old 
persecution  continued.  Saw .  . .  hear 
They  knew  of  the  arrest,  the  scourging, 
the  prison,  and  the  stocks,  as  Paul  had 
endured  them  at  Philippi,  and  they  had 
heard  of  his  situation  at  Pome.  Their 
long  struggle  was  like  his  own,  and  was 
to  be  heroically  endured  unto  the  end. 

CHAPTER  II. 

2.  Exhortation  to  unity,  1,  2. 

1.  Therefore — Resumes  the  “stand¬ 
ing  fast  in  one  spirit”  of  chap,  i,  27. 
Four  distinct  motives  to  perfect  har¬ 
mony  are  now  urged,  namely,  the  con¬ 
solation  found  in  union  with  Christ, 
the  power  of  love  in  prevention  of 
strife,  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  a  basis  of  unity,  and  tender¬ 
ness  of  feeling  for  brethren  and  com¬ 
passion  for  them  who  err,  all  which  the 
apostle  assumes  to  exist  among  them, 
and  in  their  individual  hearts. 

2.  Fulfil.  .  .my  joy — Paul’s  joy  in 
them  he  has  shown,  chap,  i,  4  :  he  now 
would  have  it  made  perfect  by  the 
reign  among  them  of  a  spirit  of  unity. 
That  ye  be  likeminded  —  Rather, 
think  the  same  thing ,  not  in  external 
matters,  but  in  all  the  affairs  of  the 
Church  on  which  they  were  called  to 
form  or  express  an  opinion.  This  is 
not  difficult  to  them  who  are  moved  by 
a  mutual  love. 

Vol.  IV.— 21 


2  c  Fulfil  ye  my  joy,  dthat  ye  be 
likeminded,  having  the  same  love, 
being  of  one  accord,  of  one  mind. 

3  *  Let  nothing  he  done  through 
strife  or  vainglory ;  but  f  in  lowli¬ 
ness  of  mind  let  each  esteem  others 
better  than  themselves.  4  &Look 
not  every  man  on  his  own  things, 
but  every  man  also  on  the  things 
of  others. 

5  h  Let  this  mind  be  in  you, 

6  Gal.  5.  26;  chap.  1.  15,  16;  James  3.  14. - 

/Rom.  12  10;  Eph.  5.  21 ;  1  Pet.  5.  5. - g\  Cor. 

10.  24. - h  Matt.  11.  29 ;  John  13. 15 ;  1  Pet.  2.  21 ; 


1  John  2.  6. 


3.  Exhortation  to  self-forgetting 
love,  3-18. 

3.  Strife  . . .  vainglory — Here  ap¬ 
pears  the  real  evil  at  which  the  apostle 
strikes,  though  this  and  the  following 
verses  are  a  continued  expansion  of  the 
like-minded  of  the  preceding  verse. 
Heretical  doctrines  have  made  no  in¬ 
road  upon  them,  as  in  Galatia,  nor  is 
the  Church  torn  by  internal  factions, 
as  at  Corinth ;  but  certain  opinionated, 
conceited,  self-seeking  individuals,  con¬ 
fident  of  their  own  comparative  ex¬ 
cellences,  and  inconsiderate  of  others, 
were  pushing  themselves  forward  into 
prominence  and  high  positions  for  self¬ 
ish  ends.  They  were  bound  to  be  first 
against  all  odds.  Two  or  three  such 
men  in  a  Church  of  as  many  hundreds 
are  often  enough  to  destroy  its  power. 
Strife — Party  spirit.  Vainglory — 
Empty  pride.  A  better  spirit  is  low¬ 
liness,  that  true  humility  which,  re¬ 
versing  the  too  common  practice,  i3 
severe  toward  one’s  own  failings  and 
lenient  toward  those  of  others,  discov¬ 
ering  their  excellences  and  covering 
their  defects. 

4.  Look  not — A  self-deirying  love 
of  the  brethren  will  consider  their 
rights,  opinions,  claims,  wishes,  inter¬ 
ests,  as  well  as  one’s  own,  and  only 
where  it  prevails  can  true  unity  exist. 

4.  Illustration  in  the  self-denial 
of  Christ,  5-11. 

a.  His  voluntary  self-humiliation ,  5-8. 

5.  This  mind — Identity  in  disposi¬ 
tion  between  them  and  Christ,  especially 
in  his  self-denying  sacrifice  for  others. 
This  is  the  point  for  the  illustration 


PIIILIPPIANS. 


A.  D.  fi3. 


t)  — <  ~i 


which  was  also  in.  Christ  Jesus: 
6  Who,  ‘  being  in  the  form  of  God, 
k  thought  it  not  robbery  to  be  equal 
with  God  :  7  1  But  made  himself 

of  no  reputation,  and  took  upon 

i  John  1.  1,2;  17.  5;  2  Cor  4.  4;  Col.  1.  15; 

Heb  i.3# - k  John  5.  18;  10.33. - 1  Psalm  22.  b; 

Isaiah  53.  3 ;  Daniel  9.  26;  Mark  9.  12;  Romans 
15.  3. - m  Isaiah  42.  1;  49.  3,  6;  o3.  11;  Lzek. 


him  the  form  mof  a  servant,  and 
n  was  made  in  the  1  likeness  of  men : 
S  And  being  found  in  fashion  as 
a  man,  he  humbled  himself,  and 
“became  obedient  unto  death,  even 

34.  23;  Zech.  3.  8;  Matt.  20.  28;  Luke  22.  27. - 

n  John  1.  14;  Romans  1.  3;  Gal.  4.  4;  He1>.  2. 

14,  17. - 1  Or,  habit. - o  Malt.  26.  39;  John 

10.  18;  Heb.  5.  8;  12.  2. 


and  enforcement  of  which  the  example 
of  Christ  is  adduced.  We  may  observe, 
(1)  That  the  incarnate  Christ  alone  is 
here  spoken  of  ought  to  be  l>eyond  all 
question.  He  existed  in  the  form  of 
God  before  he  took  the  form  of  a 
servant.  His  becoming  man  was  pre¬ 
ceded  by  a  self-divestiture,  and  this 
again  by  thinking  a  certain  thing  no 
robbery.  It  is,  then,  the  pre-existent 
Christ  whose  action  in  self-humiliation 
is  here  described;  and  we  have  be¬ 
fore  us,  in  succession,  his  ante-mun¬ 
dane  glory,  his  voluntary  abasement, 
and  his  subsequent  exaltation.  (2)  The 
form  of  God  cannot  mean  his  divine 
nature  or  essence,  although  its  posses¬ 
sion  is  implied,  because  in  taking  hu¬ 
manity  he  did  not  put  off  his  Godhead  ; 
nor  his  extraordinarily  miraculous  pow¬ 
ers,  for  he  retained  them  in  his  incar¬ 
nate  state ;  nor  yet  again  his  attributes 
of  omnipotence  and  omniscience,  for 
he  did  not  divest  himself  of  them.  It 
is  rather  the  majesty  and  glory  in 
which  God  dwells  and  appears  to  the 
eyes  of  the  angels,  manifesting  his  in 
finite  perfections,  the  splendour  and 
visible  “light  which  no  man  can  ap¬ 
proach:”  (1  Tim.  vi,  16;)  the  glory 
which  Christ  had  with  the  Father 
“  before  the  world  was,”  (John  xvii,  5.) 
with  the  myriads  of  attending  angels, 
the  worship  and  honour  paid  him, 
and  his  whole  state  of  heavenly  roy¬ 
alty.  (3)  That  Christ  is  equal  with 
God  is  here  an  asserted  fact.  He  who 
has  the  form  of  God  must  be  on  an 
equality  with  him  in  every  respect,  and 
especially  in  the  possession  of  this 
form,  which  is  the  particular  thing  in 
contrast  with  the  form  of  a  servant 
which  he  chose  instead.  (4)  Thought 
it  not  robbery,  etc. — This  clause  is 
better  translated,  he  deemed  not  his  he 
ing  on  an  equality  with  God  a  thing  to 


be  grouped  at,  that  is,  grasped  and  exclu¬ 
sively  retained  for  himself.  Christ  had 
a  clear  right  both  to  his  Godhead,  and 
the  glorious  mode  of  manifesting  him¬ 
self  in  which  the  inhabitants  of  heav¬ 
en  were  wont  to  see  him.  Equally 
clear  was  his  right  to  retain  that  glory 
and  to  appear  the  God  forever.  Had 
he  been  moved  by  selfishness  instead 
of  love — had  he  looked  only  on  his 
own  things  and  not  also  on  the 
things  of  others — he  would  have  hdd 
fast  his  glorious  state,  and  appeared 
on  earth  in  all  his  majesty.  This  is 
just  what  he  did  not  do.  Conceive 
him  as  deciding  whether  he  will  retain 
his  'glory  or  become  man,  and  we  see 
him  thinking  the  glory  a  thing  not  to 
be  seized  and  firmly  held,  if  by  laying 
it  aside  he  can  better  save  men.  His 
self-denying  motive  is  thus  apparent. 
(5)  Instead  of  an  eager  clinging  to  his 
right  of  his  majestic  glory  in  an  ap¬ 
pearance  among  men,  he,  on  the  con¬ 
trary,  made  himself  of  no  reputation, 
or,  better  translated,  he  emptied  himself. 
But  of  what  did  he  empty  himself? 
Not  his  divine  nature — not  his  essential 
equality  with  God — not  his  attributes — 
not  his  absolute  right  to  his  glory :  of 
these  he  could  not  divest  himself.  lie 
did  not  cease  to  be  God,  but  he  laid 
aside,  phenomenally,  the  form  of  God, 
vailing  his  ineffable  glory,  hiding  his 
awful  majesty,  and  foregoing  the  exhi¬ 
bition  of  himself  to  men  as  God.  (6)  The 
mode  and  extent  of  this  self-divestiture 
appear  in  the  contrast  of  his  assumed 
with  his  previous  condition.  He  had 
the  form  of  God,  he  took  the  fonn  of 
a  servant  of  God  instead.  His  appear¬ 
ance  before  men  was  as  a  servant  who 
obeys,  and  not  the  Infinite  King  who 
commands.  Still  further,  he  was  made 
in  the  likeness  of  men.  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  was  true  man,  but  the  eternal 


A.  D.  G3. 


CHAPTER  II. 


323 


the  death  of  the  cross.  9  Where¬ 
fore  God  also  Pliath  highly  exalted 
aim,  and  *  given  him  a  name  which 
is  above  every  name :  10  r  That 

at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee 
should  bow,  of  things  in  heaven, 
and  things  in  earth,  and  things  un¬ 
der  the  earth ;  11  And  s  that  every 
tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus 


Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God 
the  Father. 

12  Wherefore,  my  beloved,  ‘as 
ye  have  always  obeyed,  not  as  in 
my  presence  only,  but  now  much 
more  in  my  absence,  work  out  your 
own  salvation  with  ufear  and  trem¬ 
bling.:  13  For  '  it  is  God  which 
worketh  in  you  both  to  will  and 


V  John  17.  1,  2,  5;  Acts  2.  33;  Heb.  2.  9. - 

<7  Eph.  1.  20;  Heb.  1.  4. - r  Isa.  45.  23;  Matt. 

28.  18;  Rom.  14.  11;  Rev.  5.  13. 


sJohnl&R*;  Acts  2.36;  Rom.  14.  9;  1  Cor. 
12.  3 .—t  Chap.  1.  5. - it  Eph.  6.  5. - v  2  Cor. 


3.  5;  Heb.  13.  21. 


Logos  took  that  humanity  upon  him. 
(7)  The  description  thus  far  is  of  the 
condescension  of  our  Lord  from  his 
p re-mundane  glory  to  his  self -emptying 
in  his  incarnation.  It  is  now  of  his 
self-humiliation  after  having  taken  hu¬ 
manity  and  vailed  his  glory,  that  is, 
as  the  incarnate  Logos.  In  this  state, 
with  all  the  outward  semblance  of  a 
man,  he  humbled  himself  yet  further, 
by  becoming  obedient  to  the  will  of 
God  unto  the  suffering  of  death  ;  and, 
as  if  this  were  not  going  sufficiently 
low,  even  to  the  death  of  the  cross, 
the  severest  in  pain  and  the  most  revolt¬ 
ing  in  its  shame.  Higher  than  he  was 
he  could  not  be ;  to  a  lower  depth  of 
humiliation  he  could  not  go.  A  more 
powerful  argument  against  “strife,” 
“  vainglory,”  and  ah  self-seeking  could 
not  be  framed. 

b.  The  exaltation  given  because  of  this 
humiliation ,  9-11. 

9.  Wherefore — In  compensation  for 
this  self-emptying  and  self-humiliation, 
God  the  Father  highly  exalted  him 
in  his  ascension  after  his  resurrection, 
and  enthronement  as  universal  King. 
It  is  the  Son  incarnate,  the  God-man, 
that  is  thus  exalted,  the  humanity  en¬ 
tering  with  the  eternal  Logos,  from 
whom  it  is  henceforth  forever  insepa¬ 
rable,  into  the  glory  once  laid  aside  but 
now  resumed.  .  Name— Simply  Jesus. 
This  name  of  his  humiliation  is  now  the 
name  of  his  glory.  The  name  that  was 
once  the  jest  of  the  scoffer  is  made  the 
highest  in  the  universe. 

10.  Should  bow  —  The  object  of 
this  exaltation  is,  that  universal  hom¬ 
age  should  be  rendered  the  God-man, 
every  knee  bowing  at  his  name  in 
submission  to  his  authority.  Angels  | 


in  heaven,  men  on  earth,  and  demons 
under  the  earth,  are  expected  soon  or 
late,  willingly  or  unwillingly,  to  recog¬ 
nise  his  high  position. 

11.  Confess  —  The  thing  to  be  con¬ 
fessed  is  the  universal  Lordship  of  Je¬ 
sus  Christ.  Men  hated,  persecuted,  and 
killed  him ;  and  in  every  age  they  reject 
him:  Satan  tempted  and  would  have 
destroyed  him,  and,  with  his  legions  of 
devils,  still  contests  the  question  of  the 
sovereignty  of  the  earth.  But  all  haters 
and  opposers  of  him  will  finally,  in  love 
or  in  fear,  confess  that  the  J esus  of  the 
cross  is  Lord  of  the  universe,  and  to 
him  the  unwilling  knee  will,  in  the  day 
of  coming  judgment,  be  compelled  to 
bow.  Such  honour  done  to  Jesus,  and 
such  acknowledgment  of  his  Lordship, 
will  redound  to  the  glory  of  God  the 
Father,  whose  Son  he  is,  and  who  has 
thus  exalted  him. 

5.  Exhortation  applying  Christ’s 
example,  12-16. 

12.  Wherefore,  my  beloved — Be- 

minding  them  of  their  habitual  obedi¬ 
ence  to  him,  the  apostle  exhorts  them, 
now  that  he  is  not  present  to  help  them, 
to  great  care  in  working  out  each  one 
his  own  salvation  until  it  is  com¬ 
plete  in  heaven.  The  emphatic  words 
are,  with  fear  and  trembling,  the 
opposite  of  the  secure,  self-sufficient 
spirit  rebuked  in  previous  verses,  and 
the  murmurings  and  disputings  be¬ 
low.  Salvation  begun  is  not  salva¬ 
tion  finished.  The  work  must  be  car¬ 
ried  on  to  the  end,  by  our  own  diligent, 
careful  labour,  with  unfaltering  purpose 
and  unremitting  zeal.  An  exaltation 
to  Christ’s  right  hand  is  given  only  to 
those  possessing  his  unselfish  spirit. 

13.  God. .  .worketh  in  you — One 


PHILIPPIANS. 


A.  D.  63. 


o 


24 


to  do  of  his  good  pleasure.  14  Do 
all  things  w  without  murmurings 
and  x  disputings :  15  That  ye  may 
be  blameless  and  2  harmless,  y  the 
sons  of  God,  without  rebuke,  2  in 
the  midst  of  *a  crooked  and  per¬ 
verse  nation,  among  whom  3  ye 
shine  b  as  lights  in  the  world ; 

wl  Cor.  10.  10;  1  Pet.  4.  9^ — -sc  Rom.  14. 1. - 

2  Or,  sincere. - V  Matt.  5.  45;  Eph.  5.  1. - 

s  1  Pet,  2. 12. - a  Deut.  32.  5. - 3  Or,  shine  ye. 

- b  Matt.  5.  14 ;  Eph.  5.  8. 

of  the  strongest  reasons  for  our  work¬ 
ing.  Both  to  will ...  do  —  Both  the 
willing  and  working,  and  the  one  as 
truly  as  the  other.  The  volition  and 
execution  of  it  in  action  are  our  own; 
the  working  in  us,  that  we  may  resolve 
and  act,  is  God’s.  Our  working  does 
not,  on  the  one  hand,  proceed  from  our¬ 
selves  unassisted  and  uninfluenced  by 
him ;  and  on  the  other,  his  working  is 
not  of  a  nature  that  precludes  the  neces¬ 
sity  of  our  working.  God,  then,  does 
not  create  in  us  the  volition,  or  necessi¬ 
tate  the  acting;  for,  then,  they  would 
be  his  and  not  ours,  except  mechan¬ 
ically  and  unrewardably,  and  the  ex¬ 
hortation  to  work  out,  etc.,  would  be 
as  proper  as  if  a  bell  were  exhorted  to 
ring  when  it  is  struck.  Underlying  the 
passage  is  the  well-known  truth  that 
a  gracious  ability  to  repentance  and 
holiness  is  given  to  all  men  through 
the  atonement,  and  while  this  is  infer¬ 
able  from  what  is  said,  it  is  not  here 
affirmed.  The  Philippians  were  using 
this  power  and  had  entered  upon  the 
way  of  salvation.  Over  and  above 
the  power  just  named,  and  the  addec. 
power  through  their  new  nature  anc 
the  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  they 
are  receiving  special  influences  inciting 
them  to  fresh  resolution  and  action  in 
pushing  through  the  life  they  have  be¬ 
gun.  The  statement  is  more  than  God 
works.  Emphasize  God,  and  the  mean¬ 
ing  is,  it  is  God,  and  nobody  less; 
your  God  and  Father,  who  is  quicken¬ 
ing  your  thoughts,  moving  your  hearts, 
stirring  your  consciences,  and  rousing 
your  wills ;  and  since  he  is  so  earnest, 
be  you  earnest  also.  Add  to  this  the 
divine  motive,  of  his  good  pleasure ; 
on  which  see  notes,  Eph.  i,  9. 


16  Holding  forth  the  word  of  life; 
that  CI  may  rejoice  in  the  day  of 
Christ,  that d  I  have  not  run  in  vain, 
neither  laboured  in  vain. 

17  Yea,  and  if  eI  be  4  offered 
upon  the  sacrifice  fand  service  of 
your  faith,  e  I  joy,  and  rejoice 
with  you  all.  1H  For  the  same 

c  2  Cor.  1.  14;  1  Thess.  2.  19. - dGal.  2.  2; 

1  Thess.  3.  5. - e  2  Timothy  4.  6. - 4  Greek, 

V our ed  forth. — f  Romans  15.  16. - g  2  Cor. 

7.  4;  Col.  1.  24. 

14.  All  things — Without  exception. 
Murmurings  —  Petty  faultfindings, 
and  sullen  grumblings  about  what  is 
or  is  not  said  and  done.  Disputings 
soon  follow  murmurings,  and  both  are 
death  to  love.  They  live  not  with  the 
mind  which  vjos  in  Christ.  Destroy 
selfishness  and  they  die. 

15.  Blameless  and  harmless — Bet¬ 
ter,  pyre  in  character.  Sons  —  Rec¬ 
ognised  by  others  as  true  children  of 
God,  without  rebuke,  unblamable  in 
life.  Lights  —  Christians  are  among 
wicked,  insincere,  gainsaying  men,  as 
the  sun  and  moon  in  the  world,  shed¬ 
ding  light  b}r  their  manner  of  life  upon 
its  deep  darkness. 

16.  The  word  of  life — The  gospel. 

Not  only  ministers,  but  private  Christ¬ 
ians,  teaching  its  doctrines,  pointing  to 
its  salvation,  living  in  its  purity,  and 
illustrating  its  power  in  their  conduct, 
are  holding  it  forth,  and  diffusing 'its 
light.  Run  in  vain — The  figure  is  of 
the  race-course,  where  the  contestant 
puts  forth  his  best  powers,  and  yet 
loses  the  prize. 

c.  Paul's  joy  in  their  fidelity ,  17,  18. 

17.  If  I  be  offered  —  Better,  if  I 
am  even  being  poured  out.  The  apostle 
hoped  to  five  and  witness  their  prog¬ 
ress,  but  remembering  the  danger  in 
which  he  stood,  and  the  possibly  near 
termination  of  his  career,  he  rejoices 
even  in  that  supposition.  He  seems 
to  himself  to  be  as  a  priest  ministering 
at  the  altar,  presenting  the  faith  of  the 
Philippians  as  a  pure  sacrifice  to  God, 
and,  as  he  is  in  the  act,  he  is  suddenly 
slain,  and  his  blood  pours  forth  upon 
the  sacrifice.  So  his  death  by  martyr¬ 
dom  would  be  an  offering  poured  forth 
upon  their  faith. 


A.  D/63. 


CHAPTER  II. 


825 


cause  also  do  ye  joy,  and  rejoice 
with  me. 

19  5  But  I  trust  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  to  send  h  Timotheus  shortly 
unto  you,  that  I  also  may  be  of 
good  comfort,  when  I  know  your 
state.  20  For  I  have  no  man 
16  likeminded,  who  will  naturally 
care  for  your  state.  21  For  all 
k  seek  their  own,  not  the  things 
which  are  Jesus  Christ’s.  22  But 
ye  know  the  proof  of  him,  Jthat, 

5  Or,  Moreover. h  Rom.  16. 21 ;  1  Thess.  3.  2. 

“ — *  Psa.  55.  13. 6  Or,  so  de(tr  unto  me, 

k  1  Cor.  10.  24, 33 ;  13.  5 ;  2  Tim.  4. 10, 16. - 1 1  Cor. 


18.  Do  ye  joy— Such  a  death  he 
anticipates  with  holy  joy,  and  he  would 
have  them  look  at  it  for  him  with  a 
like  spirit,  even  counting  it  an  honour 
that  his  blood  accompanies  the  offer¬ 
ing  of  their  faith. 

IV.  The  Apostle’s  Plans,  19-30. 

1.  The  sending  of  Timothy,  19-24. 

19.  But  I  trust  in  the  Lord — Look¬ 
ing  for  an  escape  from  the  present  dan¬ 
ger,  he  hoped,  through  God’s  permis¬ 
sion,  to  soon  send  Timothy  to  them, 
who,  from  personal  observation,  would 
be  able  on  his  return  to  Pome  to  re¬ 
port  their  true  condition,  which  would 
be  to  him  a  source  of  great  comfort, 
as  the  news  of  himself  in  this  epistle 
would  be  to  them. 

20.  No  man  likeminded — That  is, 
with  the  apostle,  of  the  sort  that  would 
really  feel  an  anxious,  self-sacrificing 
interest  in  their  affairs.  A  precious 
compliment  to  Timothy,  but  a  sad  com¬ 
mentary  on  the  rest.  Yet  more  sad  is 
die  reason. 

21.  All  seek  their  own — Their  own 
things,  instead  of  Christ’s.  Who  are 
embraced  in  this  severe  censure  does 
not  clearly  appear.  Of  the  six  besides 
Timothy  who  were  with  the  apostle  a 
few  months  previously,  (Col.  iv,  10-14,) 
it  is  fair  to  believe  that  they  all,  as  was 
certainly  true  of  some,  were  now  ab¬ 
sent  from  Pome.  Even  the  love  of 
Demas  for  “  this  present  world  ”  (2  Tim. 
iv,  10).  may  have  been  of  a  later  date. 
But  of  all  those  with  him  who  were 
at  all  adapted  to  a  mission  of  this  na¬ 


as  a  son  with  the  father,  he  hath 
served  with  me  in  the  gospel. 
23  Him  therefore  I  hope  to  send 
presently,  so  soon  as  I  shall  see 
how  it  will  go  with  me.  24  But 
mI  trust  in  the  Lord  that  I  also 
myself  shall  come  shortly. 

25  Yet  I  supposed  it  necessary 
to  send  to  you  D  Epaphroditus,  my 
brother,  and  companion  in  labour, 
and  0 fellow  soldier,  Pbut  your  mes¬ 
senger,  and  he  that  ministered  to 


Tim.  1.  2;  2  Tim.  1.  2. - m  Chap.  1.  25; 

22. - n  Chap.  4.  18. - oPliilem.  2. - 

V  2  Cor.  8.  23. - q  2  Cor.  11.  9;  chap.  4. 


4.  17;  1 
Philem. 


ture,  only  one  had  no  selfish  interest  to 
plead.  Timothy  alone  sprang  eagerly 
to  the  front.  Verily,  if  this  is  a  fair 
picture  of  the  average  ministry  of  the 
first  century,  the  average  ministry  of 
the  evangelical  Church  of  to-day  is  at 
least  its  full  equal  in  devotedness,  zeal, 
and  entireness  of  consecration.  But  the 
apostle’s  standard  is  the  true  ideal. 

22.  The  proof — Timothy’  s  conduct 
under  their  own  eyes  during  his  six 
years’  pastorate  among  them,  (Acts 
xvi,)  fully  showed  them  his  true  char¬ 
acter,  especially  in  his  joint  service 
with  the  apostle  to  the  cause  of  the 
gospel.  As  a  son.  .  .father — Loving¬ 
ly,  devotedly,  and  as  if  working  for 
himself,  did  he  give  himself  to  his  spir¬ 
itual  father  for  the  work  of  Christ. 

23.  Presently — Forthwith,  after  as¬ 
certaining  Nero’s  decision  in  his  case. 

24.  Shortly — If  the  decision  should 
be  favourable,  he  would  send  Timo¬ 
thy  at  once,  and  soon  afterward  come 
personally.  But  his  confidence  as  to 
the  matter  is  in  the  Lord,  and  not  in 
Nero. 

2.  Sending  Epaphroditus,  25-30. 

25.  Necessary  —  Paul  will  send 
Epaphroditus  forthwith.  Of  him  we 
know  only  what  is  stated  here.  He  can¬ 
not  be  identified  with  the  Epaphras  of 
Oolosse.  Paul  styles  him  his  brother 
n  the  sonship  to  God,  his  fellow  la¬ 
bourer  in  the  ministry  of  the  gospel, 
and  fellow  soldier  in  the  warfare  for 
Christ.  He  had  come  to  Rome  as  a 
messenger  sent  by  this  Church,  bring¬ 
ing  the  apostle  a  gift  of  money  from 


S26 


PHILIPPI  ANS. 


A.  1).  G3. 


my  wants.  20  r  For  lie  longed 
after  you  all,  and  was  full  of  heavi¬ 
ness,  because  that  ye  had  heard 
that  he  had  been  sick.  27  For  in¬ 
deed  he  was  sick  nigh  unto  death  : 
but  God  had  mercy  on  him;  and 
not  on  him  only,  but  on  me  al¬ 
so,  lest  I  should  have  sorrow  upon 
sorrow.  28  I  sent  him  therefore 
the  more  carefully,  that,  when  ye 
see  him  again,  ye  may  rejoice,  and 
that  I  may  be  the  less  sorrowful. 
29  Receive  him  therefore  in  the 

rChap.  1.  8. - 7  Or,  honour  such. - j?1  Cor. 

16.  18;  1  Thess.  5.  12;  1  Tim.  5.  17. - 1 1  Cor. 

them,  and  had  remained  in  personal 
attendance  upon  him.  He  was  doubt¬ 
less  a  minister  in  that  Church. 

26.  For  he  longed — This  was  the 
chief  reason  for  his  immediate  return. 
Through  overwork  (verse  30)  in  his 
.oving  offices  to  the  apostle,  and,  per- 
naps,  in  preaching,  he  had  fallen  dan¬ 
gerously  sick ;  the  Philippians  heard 
of  it,  and  he  knew  they  had  heard  of 
it.  This  knowledge  created  in  him 
great  mental  distress  and  an  intense 
iesire  to  go  home.  Whether  this  was 
wholly  because  his  great  love  would  re¬ 
lieve  them  from  anxiety,  or  from  some 
apprehended  trouble  there,  we  cannot 
say.  We  evidently  have  not  all  the 
facts. 

27.  Sorrow  upon  sorrow — Ilis  im¬ 
prisonment  brought  him  grief  enough ; 
the  death  of  Epaphroditus,  his  congeni¬ 
al  friend  and  brother,  would  have  been 
an  additional  sorrow  to  him,  the  greater 
because  it  was  in  rendering  him  assist¬ 
ance.  In  mercy  to  himself  then,  as  well 
as  to  his  sick  friend,  and,  doubtless,  in 
answer  to  his  own  intercessions,  was 
the  restoration  to  health. 

28.  More  carefully — More  speedily. 
Whatever  would  cause  them  joy,  would 
diminish  his  own  trouble,  so  deep  was 
his  sympathy  with  them. 

29.  Receive  him — Give  him  a  wel¬ 
come  warm  with  Christian  love  and 
manifestations  of  gladness.  Such  men 
as  he,  full  of  self-denial  and  labour,  are 
worthy  of  the  highest  esteem  of  the 
Church.  The  apostle  had  cautioned 
them  against  overvaluing  self:  this  is, 


Lord  with  all  gladness;  and  7*hold 
such  in  reputation :  30  Because 

for  the  work  of  Christ  he  was  nigh 
unto  death,  not  regarding  his  life, 
*to  supply  your  lack  of  service  to¬ 
ward  me. 

CHAPTER  III. 

FINALLY,  my  brethren, ‘rejoice 
in  the  Lord.  To  write  the 
same  things  to  you,  to  me  indeed 
is  not  grievous,  but  for  you  it  u 
safe.  2  b  Beware  of  dogs,  beware 

16.  17;  chap.  4.  10. - a  2  Cor.  13.  11 ;  chap.  4.  4; 

1  Thess.  5.  16. b  Isa.  56.  10;  Gal.  5.  15. 

perhaps,  a  caution  against  a  tendency 
to  undervalue  others. 

30.  For  the  work  of  Christ  — 
Such  it  was,  for,  done  to  his  apostle,  it 
was  done  to  Christ.  The  money-gift 
which  he  had  brought  is  spoken  of  a3 
their  service,  but  it  had  the  lack  of 
their  personally  presenting  it.  This 
personal  service  Epaphroditus  rendered 
in  fulfilment  of  their  commission,  and 
in  so  doing  he  in  some  way  so  exposed 
his  life  that  it  resulted  in  bringing  him 
to  death’s  door.  Such  a  reason,  by  all 
their  love  for  Paul,  entitled  him  to  a 
hearty  welcome  on  his  return. 

CHAPTER  III. 

Y.  Counsels  against  Perils, 
m,  1-iv,  1. 

1.  Warning  against  Judaizing 
teachers,  1,  2. 

1.  Finally  — The  apostle  seems  to 
have  been  about  closing  the  epistle 
with  a  caution  against  the  Judaizers, 
but  at  the  mention  of  them  as  the  con¬ 
cision,  he  goes  off  into  the  discussion 
which  follows.  Rejoice — This  is  the 
keynote  of  the  whole  epistle,  but  it  is 
to  be  in  the  Lord.  The  same  things 
— Namely,  this  frequent  mention  of 
joy.  See  chap,  i,  18,  25.  26;  ii.  2,  17, 
18,  28  ;  iv,  4,  10.  It  was  not  irksome 
to  him,  while  it  would  certainly  tend 
to  their  safety,  if  it  should  lead  them 
to  seek  their  happiness  in  Christ. 

2.  Beware  of  dogs — Look  to  the 
dogs.  Keep  them  in  view,  in  order  to 
learn  their  true  character.  Note,  Matt. 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  III. 


327 


of  c  evil  workers,  d  beware  of  the 
concision. 

3  For  we  are  etlie  circumcision, 
f  which  worship  God  in  the  spirit, 
and  e rejoice  in  Christ  Jesus,  and 
have  no  confidence  in  the  flesh. 
4  Though  h  I  might  also  have  con- 

c?  o 

c2Cor.  11.  13. - <2  Rom.  2.  28;  Gal.  5.  2. - 

eDeut,.  10.  16;  30.  6;  Jer.  4.  4;  Romans  2.  29; 
4.  11,  12;  CoL  2.  11. 

vii,  6.  The  epithet  implies  religious 
impurity;  and  to  this  day  dogs  is  the 
Moslem  term  for  Christians.  The  evil 
workers — The  same  persons,  agitators 
for  mischief.  The  concision — The 
word  means  an  excision ,  or  cutting  off. 
Note,  Gal.  v,  12.  The  term  defines  the 
opponents  of  whom  they  were  to  be¬ 
ware,  as  J  udaizing  teachers  who  sought 
to  enforce  the  Mosaic  law  on  Gentile 
Christians,  beginning  with  circumcision 
as  necessary  to  salvation.  They  do 
not  appear  to  have  made,  as  yet,  any 
inroads  upon  the  Philippian  Church,  but 
the  caution  here  given  implies  danger 
from  that  quarter.  The  contemptuous 
name  here  employed,  plain  in  the  Greek 
with  the  play  on  words,  implies  that 
having  lost  sight  of  the  spiritual  import 
of  the  rite,  they  were  mere  outward 
manglers  of  the  flesh. 

2.  Paul’s  contrast  of  the  Judaiz- 
ers  and  himself,  3-16. 

3.  We — We  Christians,  whether  for¬ 
merly  circumcised  Jews  or  uncircum¬ 
cised  Gentiles.  Are  the  circumcision 
— The  genuine  circumcision,  possess¬ 
ing  in  Christ  all  that  the  ancient  Abra- 
hamic  rite  symbolized.  Three  char¬ 
acteristics  of  the  real  circumcision 
follow,  which,  by  contrast,  define  the 
false  circumcision,  called  here  the 
concision.  Worship  God  in  the 
Spirit  —  The  best  text  reads  Oeov, 
meaning,  by  the  Spirit  of  God ,  that  is, 
their  service  is  rendered  under  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Rejoice 
in  Christ  Jesus — Better,  glory  in  him, 
and  not  in  the  flesh,  as  did  the  pervert- 
ers.  Gal.  vi,  13.  No  confidence  in 
the  flesh  —  Better,  though  I  am  pos¬ 
sessing  confidence  also  in  the  flesh.  The 
primary  reference  is  to  circumcision 
as  a  mere  bodily  rite,  but  the  meaning 
broadens  out  to  the  earthlv  and  ex- 


fidence  in  the  flesh.  If  any  other 
man  thinketh  that  he  hath  where¬ 
of  he  might  trust  in  the  flesh,  I 
more:  5  1  Circumcised  the  eighth 
day,  k  of  the  stock  of  Israel, 1  of  the 
tribe  of  Benjamin,  ,na  Hebrew  of 
the  Hebrews ;  as  touching  the  law, 

/John  4.  23;  Rom.  7.  6. - a  Gal.  6.  14. - 

h2  Cor.  11.  18. - i  Gen.  17.  12. - k  2  Cor.  11.22. 

- £Rom.  11.  1. - m2  Cor.  li.  22. 

ternal,  as  in  verses  5  and  6.  Neither 
separately  nor  together  can  they  mako 
one  morally  better. 

4.  I  might  also — Having  disavowed 
all  actual  trust  in  external  advantages, 
the  apostle  now,  in  order  to  guard 
against  the  supposition  that  he  has 
no  right  to  these  claims,  affirms  that 
he  has  a  right  to  confidence  in  the 
flesh,  but  does  not  use  it,  as  it  is  of  no 
real  value ;  and  in  such  right  he  claims 
to  have  all  that  any  of  the  Judaizers 
could  boast  himself  to  have,  and  more, 
as  he  proceeds  to  show.  Trust — Bet¬ 
ter,  have  confidence,  as  it  is  the  same 
Greek  word  already  twice  used. 

5.  Circumcised  the  eighth  day — 
So  a  born  Jew,  and  not  a  proselyte  cir¬ 
cumcised  in  adult  years,  or,  like  Isn- 
mael,  after  the  age  of  thirteen.  Stock 
of  Israel — Of  the  true  theocratic  race, 
and  no  son  of  proselytes.  Tribe  of 
Benjamin,  which  never  revulted,  and, 
united  with  Judah,  perpetuated  the  na¬ 
tionality.  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews 
— Of  pure  Hebrew  ancestry  on  both 
sides,  with  no  admixture  of  foreign 
blood  for  near  two  thousand  years. 
The  genealogical  tables  would  show 
this.  As  to  purity  of  linedge,  no  Jew 
could  claim  more,  and  few  so  much. 
A  proselyte,  a  descendant  of  a  prose¬ 
lyte,  a  Jew  in  whose  ancestry,  how¬ 
ever  remote,  was  a  Gentile,  like  Ruth 
the  Moabitess,  or  one  who  had  lost  his 
tribal  record,  or  could  not  prove  his 
descent,  would  fail  here ;  and  here  is 
where  the  apostle’s  zealous  opponents 
failed.  In  blood  and  birth  he  was  their 
superior,  as  he  also  was  in  fidelity  to 
his  religion.  Touching  the  law  of 
Moses,  that  is,  as  to  the  regard  paid 
to  it,  lie  was  a  Pharisee,  whose  dis¬ 
tinction  was,  the  closest  observance  of 
its  minutest  precepts. 


328 


PII ILIPPX AN  S. 


A.  D.  63. 


na  Pharisee;  <>  0 Concerning  zeal, 
p  persecuting  the  church  ;  q  touch¬ 
ing  the  righteousness  which  is  in 
the  law, r  blameless.  7  But  *  what 
things  were  gain  to  me,  those  I 
counted  loss  for  Christ.  8  Yea, 
doubtless,  and  I  count  all  things 
but  loss  1  for  the  excellency  of 
the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus 
my  Lord  :  for  whom  I  have  suf- 


n  Acts  23.  6 ;  2G.  4,  5. 

- V  Acts  8.  3;  9.  1.— 

1.  G. - s  Matt.  13.  44. 


— oActs  22.3;  Gal.  1. 13. 
-tfltoin.  10.  5. - rLuke 


6.  Concerning  .  . .  touching,  and 
touching  of  verse  5,  should  have  the 
same  translation,  meaning  as  regards, 
or  in  respect  of.  His  zeal  for  the  law 
was  shown  by  his  career  as  a  perse¬ 
cutor,  when,  to  save  its  supremacy,  he 
gave  all  his  energies  to  the  destruction 
of  the  Church.  Righteousness  — 
In  the  rightness,  the  right  conduct, 
which  consisted  in  observance  of  the 
law,  he  was  perfect.  Such  he  was 
down  to  the  period  of  his  journey  to 
Damascus.  All  this  is  said  from  his 
old  Judaic  point  of  view;  and  assur¬ 
edly  if  there  was  any  value  in  scrupu¬ 
lous  obedience,  in  persecuting  zeal,  and 
in  rigorous,  unvarying  fidelity,  it  was 
his.  But  his  estimate  of  things  has 
now  greatly  changed ;  and  his  persecu¬ 
tion  of  the  Church  in  which  he  had 
once  gloried  he  has  come  to  regard  as 
his  greatest  sin. 

7.  What  things  were  gain — The 

whole  class  of  things  above-mentioned, 
which  he  had  once  deemed  of  great 
advantage,  and  upon  which  he  had  re¬ 
lied  for  acceptance  with  God,  he  had 
come  to  consider  as  of  no  real  worth 
in  that  respect,  but  rather  as  injurious, 
for  they  shut  him  oif  from  Christ. 

8.  I  count  all  things — At  his  con¬ 
version  the  apostle  esteemed  them  all 
loss,  and  now,  anticipating  a  question 
as  to  his  present  judgment,  he  affirms 
that  he  continues  to  so  esteem  them. 
The  excellency — The  supercminenco 
of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  above 
blood,  birth,  legal  zeal,  and  observance. 
Loss  of  all  things — In  those  terrible 
three  days  of  darkness  at  Damascus  he 
absolutely  forsook  all  in  surrendering 
to  Christ,  and  on  going  forth  he  found 


fered  the  loss  of  all  things,  and 
do  count  them  but  dung,  that  I 
may  win  Christ,  9  And  be  found 
in  him,  not  having  u  mine  own 
righteousness,  which  is  of  the 
law,  but  v  that  which  is  through 
the  faith  of  Christ,  the  right¬ 
eousness  which  is  of  God  by  faith  : 
10  That  I  may  know  him,  and 
the  power  of  his  resurrection,  and 

„  53.  11 ;  Jer.  9.  23,  24;  John  17.  3;  1  Cor. 

2.  2;  Col.  2.  2. - wKom.  10.  3. - v  Kora.  1.  17; 

3.  21,  22;  9.  30;  10.  3,  G;  Gal.  2.  16. _ 

all  actually  gone ;  his  earthly  prospects 
were  blasted,  his  high  fame  withered, 
liis  name  covered  with  scorn,  and  his 
life  in  peril  from  his  countrymen.  And 
now,  after  years  of  a  life  of  toil,  suffer¬ 
ing,  and  trial,  lie  esteems  them  only  as 
dung — mere  worthless  refuse — as  re¬ 
spects  their  power  for  the  salvation  of 
the  soul.  That  I  may  win  Christ 
—  Better,  gain  Christ,  thus  preserving 
the  contrast.  The  for  Christ,  and  for 
whom,  are  now  explained.  To  receive 
and  possess  him  as  a  Saviour,  and  to 
be  joined  to  him  in  a  vital  union,  is  a 
gain  in  comparison  with  which  all  else 
is  truly  vanity. 

9.  Found  in  him — Now,  by  both 
God  and  men.  in  him,  as  the  element 
in  whom  the  soul  lives  and  moves. 
Righteousness — Legal  and  evangeli¬ 
cal  justification  are  put  in  sharp  con¬ 
trast.  One  originates  in  the  law,  the 
other  in  God.  The  former  is  mine 
own  ;  the  result  of  personal  obedience 
to  the  law’s  commands,  as  possessing 
power  or  merit  toward  procuring  ac¬ 
ceptance  with  God;  the  latter  is  ob¬ 
tained  through  faith  in  Christ,  inspired 
by  God,  on  account  of  the  merit  of 
Christ,  and  through  faith  as  the  condi¬ 
tion.  That  self-righteousness  in  which 
Saul  of  Tarsus  had  been  so  confident 
he  had  found  utterly  vain ;  and  re¬ 
nouncing  all  hope  therefrom,  he  turned 
to  Christ,  receiving  his  justification  as 
a  free  gift  of  divine  grace.  By  faith, 
or,  upon  faith,  shows  it  to  be  God’s 
plan  to  bestow  acceptance  on  the  con¬ 
dition  of  faith  in  his  Son.  (See  notes 
on  Rom.  iii,  21-25.) 

10.  Know  him — Freely  justified, 
and  in  union  with  Christ,  the  great  aim 


A.  D.  G3. 


CHAPTER  III. 


329 


w  the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings, 
being  made  conformable  unto  his 
death ;  1 1  If  by  any  means  I  might 
'attain  unto  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead.  12  Not  as  though  I  hac. 
already  >' attained,  either  were  al¬ 
ready  z  perfect :  but  I  follow  after, 
if  that  I  may  apprehend  that  for 

w  Romans  6.  3;  4.  5;  8.  17;  2  Cor.  4.  10,  11; 

2  Tim.  2.  11, 12;  1  Peter  4. 13. - a?  Acts  26.  7. - 

V  1  Tim.  6.  12. 

was  to  know  him  in  the  soul’s  ever- 
deepening  experience  of  his  love,  giv¬ 
ing  that  inner  knowledge  of  him  which 
is  realized  only  in  union  with  him. 
Additional  to  this,  the  apostle  would 
also  know  the  power  which  Christ’s 
resurrection  possesses,  in  the  fullest 
experience  of  the  new  and  holy  life 
which  the  risen  Christ  through  the 
Holy  Spirit  effects  in  them  that  believe  ; 
and,  still  more,  he  would  in  his  union 
with  his  Lord  know  a  participation  in 
his  sufferings  as  well  as  in  his  love, 
being  made  like  him  even  in  death. 
If  he  wished  for  martyrdom,  he  found 
it ;  yet  this  conformity  to  Christ’s 
death  was  not  future  but  present,  and 
was  the  characteristic  of  his  suffer¬ 
ings.  “I  die  daily,”  (1  Cor.  xv,  31,)  and 
“Always  bearing  about  in  the  body  the 
dying  of  the  Lord  Jesus,”  (2  Cor.  iv,  10,) 
are  parallel  declarations. 

11.  Attain  unto  the  resurrection 
• — No  doubt  is  implied  of  the  resur¬ 
rection  of  all  men,  “both  of  the  just 
and  unjust,”  for  on  this  point  the  apos¬ 
tle  had  put  himself  on  record.  Acts 
xxiv,  15.  But  as  Paul  here  uses  for 
resurrection  not  simply  the  ordinary 
Greek  word  anastasis,  uprising ,  but 
exanastasis ,  out  -  uprising,  millenarians 
have  found  a  reference  to  a  supposed 
first  resurrection  in  order  of  time.  Note, 

1  Cor.  xv,  24.  This  they  find  confirmed 
in  the  Greek  preposition  before  the 
dead,  a  true  rendering  of  the  phrase 
being  the  out-uprising  from  (without  the 
article)  deads.  But  of  the  phrase  from 
deads  we  have  shown  that  the  meaning 
may  be  a  resurrection  from  their  own 
dead  selves ,  (Luke  xx,  35;  1  Cor.  xv,  12,) 
that  is,  a  resurrection  from  being  dead. 
The  prefix  ex  in  exanastasis  is,  we  sup¬ 
pose,  as  is  often  the  case,  simply  inten- 


which  also  I  am  apprehended  of 
Christ  Jesus.  13  Brethren,  I  count 
not  myself  to  have  apprehended : 
but  this  one  thing  I  do,  a  forgetting 
those  things  which  are  behind,  and 
teaching  forth  unto  those  tilings 
which  are  before,  14  c  I  press 
toward  the  mark  for  the  prize  of 


z  Heb.  12.  23. - a  Psalm  45.  10 

2  Cor.  5.  16. - b  1  Cor.  9.  24,  26 ; 

c2  Tim.  4.  7,  8;  Heb.  12.  1. 


;  Luke  9.  62; 
Heb.  6.  1. - 


sive  or  emphatic,  and  brings  out  the 
meaning  of  extra-resurrection ;  that  is, 
the  glorious  resurrection ,  or  glorious  side 
of  the  resurrection  simultaneous  with 
the  inglorious  resurrection  of  the  wick¬ 
ed,  as  in  John  v,  26-29.  It  was  to  this 
glorious  extra-resurrection  that  St.  Paul 
aspired. 

12.  Not  as  though  —  The  apostle 
here  guards  against  a  construing  of  his 
wrords  (8-10)  into  over  high  profession. 
He  has  not  attained ;  his  is  yet  only  a 
follow  after ;  namely,  after  that  con¬ 
formableness  to  Christ’s  death  which 
will  be  attained  at  his  own  exanastasis. 
Already  perfect  —  Bather,  already 
perfected ,  referring  not,  as  Clarke,  to  his 
martyrdom,  nor  to  the  physical  resur¬ 
rection  change  only ;  but  to  that  per¬ 
fected  holiness  of  soul,  that  completing 
of  the  regeneration,  which  takes  place 
at  the  exanastasis ,  by  which  the  being 
passes  out  of  the  sphere  of  possible  sin. 
This  a  higher  being  perfect,  which  is 
different  from,  but  does  not  contradict, 
;he  lower  perfect  of  verse  15,  which 
belongs  to  the  earthly  Christian  life, 
and  to  which  St.  Paul  had  attained,  and 
which  was  an  earnest  follow  after. 

13.  Count  not  myself — Whatever 
estimate  the  Philippians  may  have  put 
upon  the  apostle,  or  whatever  may  be 
ours  of  him,  his  estimate  of  himself 
was  a  very  humble  one.  Perhaps  to 
avoid  misapprehension  on  the  part  of 
those  whom  he  has  (chap,  ii,  3)  rebuked 
for  their  self-conceit,  he  reiterates  with 
greater  plainness  what  he  has  already 
said,  both  as  to  what  he  has  gained, 
and  his  striving  for  something  higher. 
One  thing  —  All  else  is  secondary. 
Then  arises  before  Paul’s  mind  the 
image  of  one  running  a  race. 

14.  I  press  —  It  is  the  same  word 


330 


PHILIPPIAN  S. 


d  tlie  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus.  S5  Let  us  therefore,  as 
many  as  be  e  perfect,  f  be  thus 
minded:  and  if  in  any  thing  ye  be 
otherwise  minded,  God  shall  reveal 
even  this  unto  you.  16  Neverthe¬ 
less,  whereto  we  have  already  at¬ 
tained,  e  let  us  walk  h  by  the  same 
rule,  'let  us  mind  the  same  thing. 

17  Brethren,  k  be  followers  to¬ 
gether  of  me,  and  mark  them 


dHeb.3.  1. - el  Cor.  2.  6;  11  20. — -f  Gal. 

5. 10. — -a  Kora.  12.  16;  15.  5. - h  Gal.  6.  16. - 

t  ^  1  Cor.  4.  16;  11.  1;  chap.  4.  9; 

1  JLhess.  1.  6. 1 1  Pet.  5.  3. m  Gal.  1.  7 ;  2.  21 ; 


with  follow  after  in  verse  12,  and  in 
both  cases  it  sets  forth  the  unceasing 
earnestness  of  the  pursuit.  The  mark 
—  The  goal,  which  is  neither  more  nor 
less  than  absolute  conformity  to  Christ. 
Time  and  space  are  excluded,  yet  from 
the  nature  of  the  case  the  close  of  life 
is  the  end  of  the  race.  The  prize  — 
The  object  of  the  race  is  the  incor¬ 
ruptible  crown  (1  Cor.  ix,  25)  which 
the  apostle  was  called  b}r  Christ  from 
heaven  to  run  for  and  win.  This  was 
the  full  compensation  for  his  losses,  the 
glorious  reward  of  his  fidelity. 

15.  As  many  as  be  perfect  —  In¬ 
cluding  himself  in  the  class  thus  desig¬ 
nated,  and  leaving  each  member  of  the 
Philippian  Church  to  decide  whether  or 
not  he  himself  belonged  to  it.  See 
note  on  verse  12.  The  perfection  here 
is  a  moral  perfection,  and,  therefore,  a 
different  thing  from  that  in  verse  12, 
which  the  apostle  declares  himself  not 
to  have  attained.  The  perfect  are 
the  true  circumcision,  as  defined  in 
verse  3,  and  stand  in  contrast  with 
those  who  depend  upon  the  flesh,  and 
thereby  fail  of  an  acceptable  right¬ 
eousness. 

16.  Walk  by  the  same  rule — Dif¬ 
ferent  persons  have  reached  different 
points  along  the  common  path  in  which 
ail  genuine  believers  are  walking,  and, 
however  it  may  be  as  to  any  future  en¬ 
lightenment,  all  are  to  walk  onward  in 
the  same  direction.  Only  those  who 
use  the  light  they  have,  have  a  right 
to  expect  more.  The  last  clause  of 
this  verse,  beginning  with  the  word 
rule,  is  rejected  from  the  best  texts. 


A.  D.  63. 


which  walk  so  as  ’ye  have  us  for 
an  ensample.  IS  (For  many  walk, 
of  whom  I  have  told  you  often, 
and  now  tell  you  even  weeping, 
that  they  are  mthe  enemies  of  the 
cross  of  Christ:  19  “Whose  end 
is  destruction,  “whose  God  is  their 
belly,  and  p whose  glory  is  in  their 
shame,  *  who  mind  earthly  things.) 
20  For  r  our  conversation  is  in 
heaven  ;  s  from  whence  also  we 


6.  12. - n  2  Cor.  11.  15;  2  Pet.  2.  1. - o  Rom. 

16.  18;  1  Tim.  6.  5;  Titus  1.  11. - j)  Hos.  4.  7; 

2  Cor.  11.  12;  Gal.  6.  13. - 7  Rom.  8. 5. - rEph. 

2.  6,  19 ;  Col.  3.  1,  3. - 8  Acts  1.  11. 


3.  Warning  against  immoral  ex¬ 
amples,  17-iv,  1. 

17.  Followers  together — That  is, 

unitedly  imitators  of  the  apostle  in  his 
life,  as  described  in  the  preceding  con¬ 
text,  and  as  they  knew  it  from  personal 
observation.  Furthermore,  they  were 
to  studiously  mark  those  holy  men 
among  themselves  whose  lives  were 
such  as  they  saw  his  own  to  be. 

18.  Many  walk — In  broad  contrast 
with  this  exemplar  were  the  sensual 
lives  of  many  in  that  Church.  They 
are  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  false 
teachers,  already  spoken  of ;  nor  were 
they  pagans.  Doctrinally  orthodox, 
their  lives  proved  them  to  be  practi¬ 
cally  Epicurean,  and  really  enemies 
of  the  cross  of  Christ. 

19.  Whose  end — Eternal  perdition 
instead  of  the  heaven  for  which  the 
cross  would  have  prepared  them. 
Their  belly — Finding  their  highest 
happiness  in  the  sensuality  of  eating 
and  drinking.  The  classics  furnish 
many  like  expressions.  Whose  glory 
— The  low  and  grovelling  pleasures 
which  they  delighted  in,  and  boasted 
over,  were  really  tlieir  shame,  though 
they  did  not  think  it  so.  Who  mind 
— They  thought,  loved,  and  cared  for 
only  earthly  things,  and  of  even  them 
they  were  chiefly  intent  upon  the  most 
debasing. 

20.  For  our  conversation — Rath¬ 
er,  our  country ,  our  citizenship.  The  per¬ 
sons  just  described  belong  to  the  earth, 
and  walk  in  earthliness ;  do  you  walk 
as  we  walk,  for  our  country  is  in  heav¬ 
en.  AVe  belong  to  the  heavenly  com- 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


331 


look  for  the  Saviour,  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  :  21  u  Who  shall 

change  our  vile  body,  that  it  may 
be  fashioned  like  unto  his  glori¬ 
ous  body,  r  according  to  the  work¬ 
ing  whereby  he  is  able  weven  to 
subdue  all  things  unto  himself. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

r|^ HE  RE  FORE,  my  brethren 
JL  dearly  beloved  and  a  longed 


1 1  Cor.  1. 7 ;  1  Thess.  1. 10 ;  Tit.  2. 13. - u  1  Cor. 

15.  43 ;  Col.  3.  4  ;  1  John  3.  2. - v  Eph.  1.  19. - 

io  1  Cor.  15.  26. - a  Chap.  1.  8. - b  2  Cor.  1. 14 ; 

chap.  2.  16;  1  Thess.  2.  19,  20. 


monwealth ;  we  obey  its  laws ;  we 
think,  feel,  and  live  in  accordance  with 
them.  Heaven  has  locality,  as  the 
place  where  the  glorified  Jesus  is,  and 
from  which  he  shall  come  at  his  second 
advent. 

21.  Change — The  future  destiny  of 
the  body  involves  a  condemnation  of 
the  sensuality  with  which  the  “  belly- 
worshippers  ”  degraded  and  besotted 
it,  and  requires  that  it  be  kept  in  honour 
and  purity.  It  is  now,  indeed,  a  vile 
body ;  that  is,  tlce  body  of  our  humilia¬ 
tion ,  our  weakness,  diseases,  corruption, 
and  mortality.  It  is  to  become  like 
the  body  of  glory  of  our  ascended  Lord. 
This  passage,  the  purpose  of  which  is 
to  inculcate  a  pure  life,  incidentally 
supplies  a  key  to  some  of  the  problems 
in  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection. 
The  statement  is  general,  and  embraces 
both  the  dead  and  the  living,  describ¬ 
ing  the  bodily  transformation  which  will 
come  upon  all  alike.  We  are  to  have 
a  body  like  the  risen  and  glorified  body 
of  Christ.  It  is  not  a  substitution  of 
one  body  for  another ;  it  is  a  change, 
but  not  an  exchange. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

1.  Therefore — Conclusion  from  ch. 
iii,  11-21.  This  verse  should  close  the 
preceding  chapter.  Perhaps  no  pas¬ 
sage  in  all  the  writings  of  the  apostle 
so  abounds  in  terms  of  endearment,  as 
though  lie  would  pour  out  upon  his 
parchment  the  fulness  of  his  heart’s 
affection,  concentrating  into  a  sentence 
the  overflowing  love  of  the  entire  epis- 


for,  bmy  joy  and  crown,  so  c  stand 
fast  in  the  Lord,  my  dearly  beloved. 

2  I  beseech  Euodias,  and  be¬ 
seech  Syutyche,  dthat  they  be  of 
the  same  mind  in  the  Lord.  3  And 
I  entreat  thee  also,  true  yokefel¬ 
low,  help  those  women  which  e  la¬ 
boured  with  me  in  the  gospel,  with 
Clement  also,  and  with  other  m;y 
fellow  labourers,  whose  names  are 
in  fthe  book  of  life. 


c  Chapter  1.  27. - d  Chapter  2.  2;  3.  16. — ■ 

e  Romans  16.  3  ;  chapter  1.  27. - /Exod.  32.  32 ; 

Psalm  69.  28 ;  Daniel  12.  1 ;  Luke  10.  20 ;  Rev. 
3.  5 ;  21.  27. 


tie.  Longed  for — See  on  chap,  i,  8. 
My  joy  —  Subjects  of  joy.  Crown 

— Gloried  in  now,  and  to  be  an  occa¬ 
sion  of  greater  glory  at  Christ’s  coming. 
See  1  Thess.  ii,  19.  So  stand  fast  — 
Thus,  both  in  doctrine  and  conduct,  as 
they  have  been  exhorted,  and  as  they 
should  stand  who  are  citizens  of  a 
heavenly  country  and  looking  for  such 
an  eternal  salvation. 

VI.  Concluding  Exhortations,  iv,  2-9. 

1.  To  individuals,  iv,  2,  3. 

2.  Beseech  —  Euodia  and  Syntyche 
were  two  women  of  prominence  in  the 
Church,  who  unhappily  had  fallen  into 
dissensions.  Nothing  more  than  is 
here  stated  is  known  respecting  them 
or  their  disagreement.  The  counsel 
given  to  all  in  chap,  ii,  2,  is  specifically 
repeated  to  them  both,  showing  that 
they  were  both  in  fault,  and  must  each 
seek  a  better  and  a  Christian  spirit. 

3.  Yokefellow — Probably  the  chief 
elder  or  bishop  of  the  Churcli  is  meant, 
who  is  asked  to  help  the  women  named 
in  verse  2  to  a  reconciliation.  The 
apostle’s  heart  was  deeply  stirred  by 
the  knowledge  of  the  variance  of  two 
who  had  been  so  activelv  engaged  with 
himself,  Clement,  and  others,  in  labours 
to  advance  the  gospel.  It  was  both  a 
sin  and  a  scandal.  Clement — Resi¬ 
dent  at  Philippi  at  the  time  referred 
to,  and  probably  the  Clemens  Romanus 
who  was  afterward  bishop  of  Rome. 
Book  of  life — A  more  honourable  me¬ 
morial  than  a  mention  by  name  in  this 
epistle.  Note  on  Luke  x,  20. 


332 


PHILIPPIAN  S. 


A.  D.  63, 


4  e Rejoice  in  the  Lord  always: 
and  again  I  say,  Itejoice.  5  Let 
your  moderation  be  known  unto  all 
men.  h  The  Lord  is  at  hand.  6  '  Be 
careful  for  nothing;  but  in  every 
tiling  by  prayer  and  supplication 
with  thanksgiving  let  your  requests 
be  made  known  unto  God.  7  And 
kthe  peace  of  God,  which  passeth 
all  understanding,  shall  keep  your 
hearts  and  minds  through  Christ 
Jesus.  H  Finally,  brethren,  what¬ 


soever  things  are  true,  whatso¬ 
ever  things  are  1  honest,  whatso¬ 
ever  things  are  just,  whatsoever 
things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things 
are  lovely,  1  whatsoever  things  are 
of  good  report ;  if  there  he  any  vir¬ 
tue,  and  if  there  he  any  praise,  think 
on  these  things.  9  ""Those  things, 
which  ye  have  both  learned,  and 
received,  and  heard,  and  seen  in 
me,  do  :  and  n  the  God  of  peace 
shall  be  with  you. 


4ASfieb.;iOh|f;  !^e1sTohl1-:* 5 * 7 8 9i  Pet  It,  ifeV  k-^  CbiTs  ft 

and  earnestly  as  if  he  were  ignorant  of 

them.  Thus  all  anxieties  and  burdens 

may  be  laid  on  his  hands. 

7.  The  peace  of  God — This  result 
follows.  This  peace,  though  allied  to 
that  which  follows  the  pardon  of  a  sin¬ 
ner.  differs  from  it.  It  is  the  quiet  rest 
which  God  gives  him  who  continually 
surrenders  every  thing  into  his  hand. 

8.  Finally — Certain  things  on  mams 
part  are  important  to  this  manifestation 
of  God’s  peace.  True — Morally  truth¬ 
ful.  Honest — The  old  English  for  our 
honourable,  decorous,  becoming.  Just 

In  accordance  with  eternal  right. 
Pure  —  Untainted  and  unstained. 
Lovely — Calculated  to  wdn  the  heart 
as  well  as  the  judgment.  Good  report 
— Spoken  well  of  among  thoughtful 
and  good  men.  These  are  so  many 
elements  of  practical  Christian  moral¬ 
ity.  The  first  four  go  to  make  up  vir¬ 
tue,  or  moral  excellence  ;  exhibited  in 
actual  life,  they  appear  as  the  lovely 
and  well  spoken  of,  and  are  worthy  of 
praise.  Think — Ponder  them  well. 

9.  Those  things  —  Rather,  which 
things ,  namely,  those  just  enumerated. 
Learned— From  his  personal  teach¬ 
ing.  Received  —  Accepting  the  in¬ 
struction.  Heard — From  others  as  to 
his  character  and  life.  Seen — In  his 
personal  conduct.  These  they  were  to 
do.  Such  is  the  apostle's  own  expan¬ 
sion  of  his  counsel,  in  chap,  in,  17,  to 
an  imitation  of  himself.  The  God  of 
peace —  1  he  result  of  this  course  is  the 
same  as  at  verse  7.  There  it  is  the 
peace  which  God  works ;  here,  the 


2.  Exhortations  to  the  whole 
Church,  4-9. 

4.  Rejoice  —  The  keynote  of  the 
epistle  is  again  struck,  and  repeated 
with  emphasis.  By  its  foundation  in 
fellowship  with  the  Lord,  the  believ¬ 
er’s  joy  towers  above  all  external  cir¬ 
cumstances,  and  may  always  abide, 
even  in  the  most  distressing  conditions. 
Such  is  not  the  joy  of  the  worldling. 

5.  Moderation — The  word  means 
forbearance ,  yieldingness.  It  is  the 
grace  which  is  slow  to  take  offence, 
and  swift  to  forgive;  which  suffers 
wrong  rather  than  quarrels,  and  re¬ 
frains  from  the  rigid  enforcement  of 
legal  rights.  Justice  may  exact  an 
extreme  penalty  and  demand  the  utter¬ 
most  farthing;  but  they  who  are  ex¬ 
pecting  a  Saviour,  from  whom  they  need 
clemency,  may  well  show  all  men  that 
they  are  of  a  like  character. 

6.  Careful — Unduly  solicitous :  yet 
apathy  and  indifference  are  as  widely 
removed  from  the  proper  Christian  spir¬ 
it  as  the  anxious,  disquieting  solicitude 
which  divides  the  heart  and  disturbs  its 
joy,  while  it  leaves  but  half  for  God. 
Note  on  Matt,  vi,  25.  The  true  anti¬ 
dote  is  that  constant  prayer,  which 
carries  every  thing,  great  and  small, 
with  no  exception,  to  God.  We  need 
him  always,  as  w^ell  as  in  the  season  of 
difficulty.  Supplication  presents  the 
specific  petition.  The  thanksgiving 
which  should  accompany  prayer  is 
general,  and  covers  all  past  mercies. 
Prayer,  moreover,  asks,  making  known 
our  desires  to  God,  just  as  specifically 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


9  0  9 
OOO 


10  But  I  rejoiced  in  tlie  Lord 
greatly,  that  now  at  the  last  °your 
care  of  me  2 hath  flourished  again; 
wherein  ye  were  also  careful,  but 
ye  lacked  opportunity.  11  Not 
that  I  speak  in  respect  of  want: 
for  I  have  learned,  in  whatsoever 
state  I  am,  p  therewith  to  be  content. 
12  q  I  know  both  how  to  be  abased, 
and  I  know  how  to  abound  :  every¬ 
where  and  in  all  things  I  am  in¬ 
structed  both  to  be  full  and  to  be 


o  2  Cor.  11.  9. - 2  Or,  is  revived. - p  1  Tim. 

6.  6, 8. - q  1  Cor.  4. 11 ;  2  Cor.  6. 10 ;  11.  27. 

G-od  who  in- works  the  peace.  Not 
content  with  giving  the  grace,  he  conies 
himself. 

/ 

VII.  The  Apostle’s  Personal  Re¬ 
lations,  10-23. 

I.  Thanks  for  the  gift  brought 
by  Epaphroditus,  10-14. 

10.  Rejoiced — The  renewed  proof 
of  their  regard  in  the  relief  sent  by 
Epaphroditus  awoke  in  the  apostle 
a  holy  joy.  They  were,  in  their  so¬ 
licitude,  like  a  tree  putting  forth 
fresh  shoots.  They  had  helped  him 
before,  and,  indeed,  had  never  ceased 
their  care  for  him,  but  they  had  for  a 
long  time  lacked  an  opportunity  of 
manifesting  it. 

II.  Not  that  I  speak — That  he  was 
in  want  he  does  not  deny,  but  he  is 
anxious  that  they  should  not  interpret 
his  joy  in  their  expression  of  sympa¬ 
thy  as  a  mere  satisfaction  at  his  relief. 
His  experiences  had  been  such,  that 
he  had  learned  under  all  circum¬ 
stances,  whatever  they  might  be,  to  be 
content,  meeting  adversity  with  no 
indifference  or  sullen  submission,  but 
with  the  cheerful  composure  which  the 
abiding  peace  of  God  alone  can  give. 
Insensibility  to  privation  and  suffering 
is  no  virtue,  but  to  be  lifted  above 
them  is  the  blessed  work  of  divine 
grace. 

12.  I  know — As  the  result  of  hav¬ 
ing  learned.  He  had  been  in  poverty 
and  want,  and  again  in  sufficiency  and 
more,  without  murmuring  in  the  one, 
or  elation  in  the  other.  He  knew  the 
two  extremes  of  fulness  and  hunger, 


hungry,  both  to  abound  and  to  suf¬ 
fer  need.  13  I  can  do  all  things 
r  through  Christ  which  strength- 
eneth  me.  14  Notwithstanding, 
ye  have  well  done,  that  3  ye  did 
communicate  with  my  affliction. 

15  Now  ye  Philippians  know 
also,  that  in  the  beginning  of 
the  gospel,  when  I  departed  from 
Macedonia, *  1 II. *  no  church  communi¬ 
cated  with  me  as  concerning  giv¬ 
ing  and  receiving,  but  ye  only. 

r  John  15.  5;  2  Cor.  12.  9. - sChap.  1.  7. 

1 2  Cor.  11.  8,  9. 

of  superfluity  and  necessity,  and  was 
fully  initiated  into  both. 

13.  I  can  do  all  things — St.  Paul 
now  passes  from  knowledge  to  power. 
The  severe  discipline  through  which 
he  had  passed,  had  taught  him  the  se¬ 
cret  of  all  strength  for  labour,  endur¬ 
ance  of  persecution  and  privation,  and 
victory  in  the  pangs  of  martyrdom. 
Eadie  well  remarks,  “  This  ability  came 
not  from  his  commission  as  an  apos¬ 
tle,  but  from  his  faith  as  a  saint.  The 
endowment  was  not  of  miracle,  but  of 
grace.”  So,  in  fellowship  with  the 
omnipotent  Christ,  every  believer  is 
omnipotent  for  all  things  to  which  he 
is  called. 

14.  Ye  have  well  done — Ye  did 

beautifully.  There  was  a  high  moral 
beauty  in  this  sympathy,  in  which  they 
put  themselves  into  fellowship  with  his 
condition. 

2.  Grateful  mention  of  the  past, 

15-19. 

15. #Ye  Philippians — This  gift  was 
no  new  thing,  for  that  Church  had, 
from  the  time  of  their  reception  of  the 
gospel,  repeatedly  shown  in  the  same 
way  its  grateful  love.  A  fter  the  apos¬ 
tle  had  left  Macedonia,  and  while  he 
was  at  Corinth,  where  he  supported 
himself  by  working  at  his  trade,  Silas 
and  Timothy  brought  to  him  the  first, 
perhaps,  of  a  series  of  contributions 
sent  him  when  at  a  distance.  The  help 
was  opportune.  2  Cor.  xi,  9.  We  may 
wonder  that  the  Churches  of  Thessa- 
lonica  and  Berea,  in  their  familiarity 
with  his  principle  of  labouring  for  his 
bread  that  he  might  not  be  chargeable 


PIIILIPPIAN3. 


A.  D.  63 


18  For  even  in  Thessalonica  ye 
sent  once  and  again  unto  my  ne¬ 
cessity.  17  Not  because  I  desire 
a  gift :  but  I  desire * * 3 4 * * * * * *  11  fruit  that  may 
abound  to  your  account.  18  But 
3 1  have  all,  and  abound :  I  am 
full,  having  received  vof  Epapli- 
roditus  the  things  which  were  sent 
from  you,  w  an  odour  of  a  sweet 
smell,  xa  sacrifice  acceptable,  well 
pleasing  to  God.  10  But  my  God 
y  shall  supply  all  your  need  zac- 

u  Rom.  15.  28;  Titus  3.  14. - 3  Or,  I  hare  re¬ 
ceived  ail. - r>  Chap.  2.  25. - w  lleb.  13.  16. 

- x  2  Cor.  9.  12. 

to  any,  (see  1  Thess.  ii,  9,  and  2  Thess. 
iii,  8,  9,)  should  have  been  forgetful  of 
his  wants ;  but  no  complaint  is  made 
of  them,  while  the  ye  only  attests 
the  deep  impression  which  the  conduct 
of  the  Philippians  had  made  upon  his 
heart. 

16.  Once  and  again — This  was  at 
an  earlier  date,  while  he  was  still  in 
the  province,  and  so  at  home  with 
them.  They,  perhaps,  learn  now,  for 
the  first  time,  in  this  free  outpouring 
of  precious  memories,  of  the  absolute 
need  which  their  love  had  relieved. 

17.  I  desire  fruit — Here  again  is  a 
sensitive  guarding  against  npsconstruc- 
tion.  It  is  not  the  money  that  he  most 
cares  for.  It  is  rather  its  result  to 
themselves  in  the  spiritual  gifts  always 
bestowed  upon  those  who  give  their 
money  out  of  love  to  the  Master,  and 
in  the  further  rewards  of  the  judgment 
day.  See  Matt,  xxv,  40. 

18.  A  sacrifice — A  loftier  vigw  of 
the  subject  is  now  taken.  Gladly  re¬ 
ceived  by  himself,  and  inuring  to  his 
abundance,  it  was,  in  its  higher  aspect, 
an  olfering  to  God,  freely  brought  to  the 
altar,  with  which  he  was  well  pleased. 

19.  My  God  shall  supply  —  You 
have  supplied  my  one  need,  but  my  God, 
whose  I  am,  and  for  whose  sake  you 
have  done  it,  shall  supply  your  every 
need.  Yre  hike  the  promise  to  include 
both  the  temporal  and  the  spiritual,  lim¬ 
ited,  on  the  one  hand,  only  by  our  ne- 
cessitv  in  the  circumstances  in  which 


cording  to  his  riches  in  glory  by 
Christ  Jesus. 

20  a  Now  unto  God  and  our 
Father  be  glory  for  ever  and  ever. 
Amen. 

21  Salute  every  saint  in  Christ 
Jesus.  The  brethren  b which  are 
with  me  greet  you.  22  All  the 
saints  salute  you, c chiefly  they  that 
are  of  Cesar’s  household.  2tt  d  The 
grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be 
with  you  all.  Amen. 

y  P.sa.  23.  1 ;  2  Cor.  9.  8. - aEph.  1.  7;  3.  16. 

- a  Rom.  16.  27;  Gal.  1.  5. - b  Gal.  1.  2. - 

cChap.  1.  13. - d  Rom.  16.  24. 

we  are  placed,  and,  on  the  other,  only 

b}-  the  infiniteness  of  his  riches  in 
his  state  of  glory.  Measure  this  who 
can !  The  sole  condition  is,  in . . .  Christ 
Jesus,  through  whose  mediation  all  ful¬ 
ness  is  given,  and  in  believing  fellow¬ 
ship  with  whom  alone  can  it  be  looked 
for. 

3.  Doxology,  20. 

20.  Now  unto  God  —  The  thought 

is  too  big  and  glorious  for  a  mere  state¬ 
ment,  and  the  apostle’s  full  soul  bursts 
out  into  doxology. 

4.  Salutations  and  benediction, 

21-23. 

21.  Salute  every  saint  —  There 

are  three  groups  of  these  salutations. 
First,  that  of  the  apostle  to  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  Church  individually,  speci¬ 
fying  none  by  name;  second,  that  of 
the  brethren ,  who  were  most  intimately 
associated  with  himseif,  such  as  Timo¬ 
thy,  Aristarchus,  and  Epaphras,  to  the 
Church  collectively  ;  and,  third,  that  of 
the  whole  Christian  brotherhood,  among 
whom,  however,  are  included  a  special 

class  noted  as  of  Cesar’s  household. 
They  were  persons  connected  with 
Nero’s  palace,  and  probably  slaves  of 
the  emperor,  who  had  been  brought 
into  contact  with  the  apostle  in  nis 
imprisonment,  and,  perhaps,  converted 

through  his  agency. 

23.  The  grace  —  The  evidence  re¬ 
quires,  as  in  Gal.  vi,  18,  the  less  usual 
form,  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus 

Christ  be  with  your  spirit. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  COLOSSIANS. 


- - 

The  authorship  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Oolossians  was  in  the  early 
Church  universally  ascribed  to  St.  Paul,  and  only  at  a  very  recent  day 
has  it  been  questioned.  It  is  directly  quoted,  with  the  use  of  his 
name  as  the  author,  by  Irenaeus,  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  Tertullian,  and 
Origen,  and  it  is  found  in  the  Canon  of  Muratori,  which  dates  about 
A.  D.  160.  Besides  this  external  evidence,  the  internal  is  ample.  The 
name  of  Paul  occurs  in  it  three  times,  chap,  i,  1,  23,  and  iv,  18  ;  it 
refers  to  his  imprisonment  in  chap,  iv,  3,  10.  18  ;  and  it  freely  men¬ 
tions  persons,  known  to  be  his  friends,  as  with  him,  who  are  named 
in  the  same  relation  in  the  Epistle  to  Philemon,  written  at  the  same 
time.  Notwithstanding,  Schrader,  followed  by  Meyerhoff  and  Baur, 
have  doubted  his  authorship,  the  latter,  indeed,  wholly  rejecting  it. 
They  think  they  find  in  it  ideas  and  expressions  belonging  to  the 
Gnosticism  and  Montanism  of  later  times,  and,  therefore,  infer  that  it 
belongs  to  an  age  subsequent  to  that  of  Paul,  and  that  it  was  written,  by 
another  hand.  Meyerhoff  lays  great  stress  on  its  poverty  of  thought, 
differing  in  this  respect  from  the  early  Church,  and  also  thinks  its  doc¬ 
trinal  part  exceedingly  confused  in  its  logic,  which  only  shows  his  in¬ 
ability  or  failure  to  comprehend  its  method.  The  truth  is,  the  heresies 
named  were  in  their  incipiency  at  the  date  of  this  epistle ;  and  while 
they  had  not  taken  the  definite  form  which  they  afterward  assumed, 
tne  system  attacked,  so  far  as  it  had  become  a  system,  presented 
enough  of  the  elements  which  they  afterward  developed  to  account 
for  the  language  of  Paul.  Bishop  Ellicott  well  remarks:  “To  class 
such  an  epistle,  so  marked  not  only  by  distinctive  peculiarities  of 
style,  but  by  the  nerve,  force,  and  originality  of  its  argument,  with 
the  vague  productions  of  later  Gnosticism,  is  to  bewray  such  a  com¬ 
plete  want  of  critical  perception,  that  we  can  scarcely  wonder  that 
such  views  have  been  both  very  generally  and  summarily  rejected.” 

The  Colossian  Church  was  composed  mainly  of  Gentiles,  as  the  mode 
of  address  in  chapter  ii,  13,  shows.  Whether  it  was  founded  by 
St.  Paul  is  a  disputed  question.  His  third  missionary  journey  carried 
him  through  Phrygia  to  Ephesus,  but,  probably,  far  to  the  north  of 
Colosse.  There  is  no  direct  evidence  of  a  visit  to  that  city.  The 
epistle  itself  not  only  makes  no  mention  of  a  former  acquaintance  with 
the  Church,  which  is  unaccountable  if  he  were  its  founder,  but  in 


INTRODUCTION  TO  COLOSSIANS. 


336 

chap,  ii,  1,  lie  plainly  classes  the  Colossians  with  the  Laodiceans  and 
others  who,  he  says,  “  have  not  seen  my  face  in  the  flesh.”  In  chap, 
i,  3-7,  moreover,  it  is  plainly  implied  that  his  knowledge  of  them  was 
gained  by  report.  That  he  intended,  after  his  release,  to  visit  them,  is 
seen  in  his  request  to  Philemon  (verse  22)  to  prepare  him  a  “lodg¬ 
ing.”  The  acquaintance  with  Epaphras  and  Philemon  may  be  ex¬ 
plained  by  supposing  them  to  have  visited  Ephesus  for  purposes  of 
their  own  during  the  apostle’s  three  years’  ministry  there,  listened  to 
his  preaching,  and  embraced  the  Gospel,  which  would  at  once  bring 
them  all  into  a  common  fellowship.  From  Ephesus  as  a  centre  went 
forth,  in  the  persons  of  new  converts,  an  evangelizing  power  to  Co- 
losse,  Laodicea,  Hierapolis,  and  other  places,  resulting  in  Christian 
Churches.  We  thus  suppose  Epaphras  to  have  been  the  founder  of  the 
Colossian  Church.  The  terms  in  which  he  is  spoken  of  in  chap,  i,  7, 
show  that  they  had  “learned  ”  the  Gospel  from  him,  whose  authority  f 
and  correctness  in  teaching,  the  apostle  most  emphatically  confirms. 
As  they  were  mostly  Gentiles,  they  stood  in  a  peculiar  relation  to 
St.  Paul  as  their  apostle,  which  accounts  for  the  affectionate  freedom 
of  his  address. 

The  occasion  of  the  epistle  is  to  be  ascertained  from  the  epistle  it¬ 
self.  Moved  by  love  for  his  revered  friend,  Epaphras  had  joined  the 
apostle  at  Rome,  to  minister  to  his  comfort  and  share  in  his  imprison¬ 
ment.  From  Epaphras’s  report  of  the  spiritual  condition  of  the  Church, 
Paul  learned  the  existence  of  attempts  to  introduce  a  system  of  erro¬ 
neous  doctrine  which  threatened  its  integrity  and  very  life.  Its  feat¬ 
ures,  as  may  be  gathered  from  the  text,  were  threefold.  First ,  the 
reference  to  “  circumcision,”  u  new  moon,”  etc.,  (chap,  ii,  11,  16,)  shows 
a  Jewish,  legalizing  element,  though  not  the  Judaizing  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Galatians.  Second ,  a  theosophy  and  an  gel  o  logy,  which  reck¬ 
oned  Christ  as  one  of  a  host  of  spiritual  intelligences,  proposed  to 
place  them  as  mediators  on  a  level  with  him,  as  equally  worthy  of 
worship  and  trust.  It  thus  degraded  him  from  his  Headship  of  the 
Church  and  his  glory  as  the  Son  of  God,  Creator,  and  only  Redeemer. 
Third ,  it  cultivated  a  severe  asceticism  of  life,  affecting  contempt  of 
the  body,  and  enjoining  mortification  of  the  flesh  in  a  way  of  ritual¬ 
istic  observance.  These  incongruous  elements,  thus  brought  together, 
were  dignified  with  the  lofty  and  pretentious  title  of  u  Tiie  Philoso¬ 
phy.”  The  attempts  thus  far  made  to  trace  it  to  a  single  source  have 
proved  abortive.  Phrygia,  noted  for  the  fanatical  worship  of  Cybele, 
and  a  wild  reverence  for  great  spiritual  powers,  was  a  border-land 
where  Orientalism  and  Hellenism,  Judaism  and  Christianity,  met. 
The  very  atmosphere  was  charged  with  speculation,  and  out  of  the 
thoughts  floating  therein  a  party,  or,  more  likely,  a  single  individual, 


INTRODUCTION  TO  COLOSSIANS. 


337 


undertook  the  framing  of  a  system.  Meyer  rightly  calls  it  “  Judais- 
tico-Oriental.”  It  was  nascent  Gnosticism  with,  perhaps,  an  element 
local  as  yet  at  Colosse.  Note  on  2  Thess.  ii,  7.  Out  of  what  we  here 
find  in  incip.iency  and  crudeness,  afterward  grew  grave  heresies  which 
fill  a  large  space  in  the  history  of  the  Church.  To  meet  and  refute 
Giese  enors  at  an  early  stage  is  the  apostle’s  design  in  writing'.  He 
accomplishes  his  purpose  by  a  rigidly  logical  argument  in  establish 
ment  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  and  then  by  it  sharply  tests  the  new 
philosophy.  The  epistle  then  becomes,  in  antagonism  to  this  philoso¬ 
phy,  a  profound  treatise  on  the  Person  and  Work  of  Christ,  as  the 

supreme  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  the  perfect  Redeemer  of  tire 
world.  / 

b  epistle  was  written  about  the  same  time  with  that  to  the  Ephe¬ 
sians,  and  forwarded  by  the  same  hands.  As  to  priority  of  writing, 
commentators  are  greatly  divided  in  opinion,  the  same  grounds  leading 
different  writers  to  opposite  conclusions.  It  appears  to  ns  more  nat¬ 
ural  that  the  special  and  controversial  should  precede  the  peculiarly 
dogmatic.  As  to  their  marked  resemblance ,  however,  there  is  entire 
agreement.  The  subject  in  both  is  Christ,  but  in  different  aspects 
and  relations:  in  Ephesians  it  is  Christ  ascended,  glorified,  and  as 
related  to  the  Church  ;  in  Colossians,  Christ  prehistoric,  glorified,  and 
as  related  to  redemption.  As  might  be  expected,  the  parallels,  often 
identical  in  woids,  are  numerous,  the  same  truth  not  unfrequently  ap¬ 
pearing  in  new  and  equally  beautiful  relations.  Yet  no  allusion  to  the 
Peculiar  errors  rebuked  in  the  one  is  found  in  the  other.  In  style  and 
diction  they  widely  differ.  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians  no  less 
than  thirty-five  words  occur  which  are  not  found  elsewhere  in  the  New 
Testament,  twenty  of  which  are  in  the  second  chapter.  They  are  to 
be  explained  paitly  by  the  subject,  and  partly  by  the  labored  effort 
aftei  the  full  and  exact  accuracy  of  expression  which  would  at  once 
set  forth  the  entire  truth  and  overwhelm  the  opposing  error. 

The  proper  date  of  the  epistle  is  in  A.  T>.  62,  in  the  earlier  part  of 
the  imprisonment,  during  the  enjoyment  of  the  comparative  freedom 
°f  which  he  was  deprived  after  the  death  of  Barrus.  As  to  the  place 
of  writing,  we  fix  it  at  Rome,  adhering  to  the  common  view  as  alone 
agreeing  with  the  circumstances  of  the  case. 

Yol.  IV.  -22 


PLAN  OF  THE  EPISTLE. 


Introduction .  i,  1-J4 

I.  The  Glorious  Person  and  Redemptive  Work  of  Christ .  i,  15  -ii,  7 

1.  His  exalted  dignity .  i,  15-18 

a.  His  relation  to  God .  15 

b.  His  relation  to  the  universe .  16,  17 

c.  His  relation  to  the  Church .  ]  8 

2.  Divine  plan  of  universal  reconciliation  through  Christ  19,  20 

3.  Its  realization  in  the  experience  of  the  Colossians. . .  .  21-23 

4.  Paul’s  commission,  sufferings,  and  labors .  24-29 

5.  His  solicitude  for  their  unity  and  stability .  ii,  1-5 

a.  Conclusion  based  upon  their  experience .  6,  7 

II.  The  Proposed  u  Philosophy  ”  Considered .  ii,  8-23 

1.  Its  characteristics . .  8 

2.  Transcended  by  Christ .  9,  10 

3.  The  advantage  offered  already  obtained  in  him .  11-13 

4.  The  legalism  sought  to  be  imposed  abolished .  14 

6.  The  angels  themselves  subjected  to  Christ .  15 

6.  Deductions  from  the  foregoing .  ii,  16-23 

a.  Caution  against  legal  observances .  16,17 

b.  Caution  against  angel-worship .  18,  19 

c.  Caution  against  asceticism .  20-23 

III.  Ethical  Counsels .  iii,  l-iv.  6 

1.  The  pursuit  of  heavenly  things  based  on  union  with 

the  risen  Christ .  iii,  1-4 

2.  General  Christian  duties  thence  resulting .  5-1 7 

a.  Avoidance  of  evil  conduct  and  sinful  tempers .  5-11 

b.  Duty  in  culture  and  exercise  of  Christian  graces .  12-14 

c.  Unity  and  mutual  helpfulness .  15-17 

3.  Special  social  duties . iii,  18-iv,  I 

a.  Wives  and  husbands .  18,  19 

b.  Children  and  parents .  20,  21 

c.  Servants  and  masters .  . iii,  22-iv,  1 

4.  Duty  of  prayer .  iv,  2-4 

5.  Intercourse  with  persons  outside  the  Church .  5,  6 

IT.  Conclusion .  7-18 

1.  Personal  communications .  7-14 

2.  Salutations  and  closing  words .  15-18 


THE 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  COLOSSIANS. 

- - 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAUL,  a  an  apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ  by  the  will  of  God, 
and  Timotheus  our  brother,  2  To 
the  saints  b  and  faithful  brethren 
in  Christ  which  are  at  Colosse  : 
c  Grace  be  unto  you,  and  peace, 
from  God  our  Father  and  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  3  d  We  give  thanks 
to  God  and  the  Father  of  our  Lord 


a  Eph.  1.  1. - b  1  Cor.  4.  17;  Eph.  6.  21. - 

c  Gal.  1.  B. - d  1  Cor.  1.  4 ;  Eph.  1.16;  Phil.  1.  3 ; 

4.  6. - e  Verse  9;  Eph.  1.  15;  Philem.  5. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Introduction,  i,  1-14. 

The  Introduction  consists  of  three 
parts:  the  greeting  (verses  1,  2,N-  the 
thanksgiving  for  the  faith  and  love  of 
the  Colossian  Church,  (vv.  3-8,)  and 
the  apostle’s  prayer  for  their  spiritual 
growth  and  holy  life.  (vv.  9-14,)  closing 
with  a  statement  of  the  proper  theme 
of  the  epistle. 

1.  Paul,  an  apostle — See  notes  on 
Rom.  i,  1 ;  1  Cor.  i,  1. 

2.  Saints — As  elsewhere,  a  techni¬ 
cal  name  for  Christians,  who  are  also 
addressed  by  the  warmer  title  of  broth¬ 
ers  in  Christ.  Colosse — Colossce ,  or 
Colassoe ,  as  it  was  often  written,  was 
a  city  of  Phrygia  situated  on  the  river 
Lycus,  a  branch  of  the  Mseander,  and 
near  the  great  road  from  Ephesus  to 
the  Euphrates,  and  was  of  considerable 
importance  in  the  time  of  Cyrus.  It 
was  destroyed  by  an  earthquake  in  the 
ninth  year  of  Nero,  about  A.  D.  63,  but 
was  soon  afterward  rebuilt.  It  now 
lies  in  ruins  about  three  miles  from  the 
modern  village  of  Chonas. 

3.  Give  thanks — Paul  had  learned 
of  the  gracious  state  of  the  Colossian 
Christians  through  the  communications 


Jesus  Christ,  praying  always  for 
you,  4  e  Since  we  heard  of  your 
faith  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  of  fthe 
love  which  ye  have  to  all  the  saints, 
5  For  the  hope  s  which  is  laid 
up  for  you  in  heaven,  whereof  ye 
heard  before  in  the  word  of  the 
truth  of  the  gospel ;  6  Which  is 

come  unto  you,  h  as  it  is  in  all  the 
world;  and *  1 2 3  bringeth  forth  fruit, 

,/Heb.  6.  10. - q  2  Tim.  4.  8;  1  Pet.  1.  4. - 

h  Matt.  24.  14:  Mark  16. 15;  Rom.  10.  18;  ver.  23. 
- i  Mark  4.  8 ;  John  15.  16 ;  Phil.  1. 11. 

of  others,  especially  of  Epaphras,  ver.  8; 
and  the  account  of  their  faith  in  Christ 
and  their  love  to  all  Christians,  incited 
him  to  profound  thanksgiving  and  in¬ 
cessant  prayer  in  their  behalf. 

4.  Since  we  heard  —  Faith,  love, 
and  hope  are  three  graces  inseparably 
connected.  Faith  instrumentally  saves 
the  soul,  makes  it  the  home  of  love, 
and  prepares  it  for  the  final  glorifica¬ 
tion  in  heaven.  This  becomes  at  once 
an  object  of  hope  to  the  believer,  in 
accordance  with  the  prayer  of  our 
Lord :  “  Father,  I  will  that  they  also, 
whom  thou  hast  given  me,  be  with  me 
where  I  am.”  John  xvii,  24.  Children 
of  the  same  Father,  believers  in  the 
same  Saviour,  and  travellers  together 
to  the  same  heaven,  cannot  well  fail 
of  a  deep,  broad  Christian  love.  This 
heavenly  home  is  prepared,  set  apart, 
laid  up,  and  so  made  secure  for  all  be¬ 
lievers,  to  be  given  them  in  its  fulness 
of  bliss  at  our  Lord’s  appearing. 

6.  Come  unto  you  —  Literally,  is 
present  with  you.  The  gospel  in  its 
onward  course  had  reached  them,  and 
was  then  abiding  with  them,  even  as 
it  was  also  in  all  the  world.  We 
must  not  misconstrue  this  hyperbolical 
expression  into  a  literal  assertion  of 


340 


COLOSSI  ANS. 


A.  D.  03. 


as  it  doth  also  in  you,  since  the 
clay  ye  heard  of  it,  and  knew  v  the 
grace  of  God  in  truth:  7  As  ye 
also  learned  of  1  Epaphras  our  dear 
fellow  servant,  who  is  for  you  ma 
faithful  minister  of  Christ;  &  AV ho 
also  declared  unto  us  your  n  love 
in  the  Spirit.  9  'For  this  cause 


t2  Cor.  6.1;  Eph. 
4.  12;  Philem.  23. — 
- n  Rom.  15.  30. — 


3.  2;  1  Pet.  5.  12. - l  Chap. 

-m2  Cor.  11.  23  :  1  Tim.  4.  6. 
-o  Eph.  1. 15. - v  1  Cor.  1.  5. 


we  also,  since  the  day  we  heard  it, 
do  not  cease  to  pray  for  you,  and 
to  desire  r  that  ye  might  be  filled 
with  a  the  knowledge  of  his  will 
rin  all  wisdom  and  spiritual  un¬ 
derstanding;  10  ‘That  ye  might 
walk  worthy  of  the  Lord  lunto  all 
pleasing,  “being  fruitful  in  every 

q  Romans  12.  21;  Eph.  5.  10. - r  Eph.  1.  8. - 

*  Eph.  4. 1 :  Phil.  1.  27  ;  1  Thess.  2. 12. - 1 1  Thess. 

4.  1. u  John  15.  16;  2  Cor.  9.  8;  Phil.  1. 11. 


the  universal  diffusion  of  Christianity 
at  that  period,  or  even  of  its  spread 
throughout  the  Roman  empire.  The 
missionary  labours,  so  prominent  in  the 
history  of  later  years,  forbid  such  an 
interpretation,  while  the  establishment 
of  the  gospel  in  many  of  the  chief  cen¬ 
tres  in  so  brief  a  time,  justifies  the 
readily  intelligible  language  without 
our  forcing  upon  it  a  meaning  which 
cannot  be  confirmed  by  the  facts.  If, 
however,  with  recent  editors,  we  omit 
the  word  and,  this  clause  connects  with 
what  follows  rather  than  with  what 
precedes,  and  the  statement  becomes 
one  of  fruit-bearing  in  all  the  world. 
Fruit  —  The  best  MSS.  read,  and  is 
bringing  forth  fruit  and  increasing :  the 
former  referring  to  its  work  in  them¬ 
selves  individually,  in  their  growing 
holiness  of  character  and  life,  and  the 
latter  to  its  extension  to  other  people 
around  them.  The  personal  spiritual 
growth  of  converts,  and  additions  to 
their  numbers,  marked  its  career  every¬ 
where.  It  had  been  conspicuously  so 
at  Colosse  from  the  very  first.  In 
truth — In  its  true  form,  unmixed  with 
Jewish  or  Gnostic  perversions. 

7.  Epaphras — A  Colossian  by  birth, 
and  the  founder  of  that  Church.  This 
would  be  doubtful  if  the  word  also 
were  genuine.  He  may  have  met  the 
apostle  at  Ephesus,  been  converted, 
and  sent  home  to  evangelize  the  city. 
At  the  present  time  he  was  at  Rome, 
Paul’s  “  fellow  prisoner.”  Philem.  23. 
lie  is  by  some  thought  identical  with 
the  Epaphroditus  of  the  epistle  to  the 
Philippians ;  but  this  is  quite  improba¬ 
ble.  The  high  character  given  him 
here,  as  the  apostle’s  helper,  and  the 
full  ratification  of  his  teaching,  are  his 
'  authoritative  endorsement  as  against 


tlie  errorists  who  would  supplant  him 
at  Colosse  and  subvert  the  gospel.  See 
also  on  iv,  12,  13. 

8.  Love  in  the  Spirit — Brotherly 

love,  the  impartation  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Epaphras  had  been  careful  to  empha¬ 
size  this  side  of  their  character. 

9.  For  this  cause  —  Namely,  the 
report  of  their  faith  and  love,  from  tlfe 
foundation  of  their  Church.  A  like  re¬ 
port  respecting  the  Ephesians  had  in¬ 
cited  the  apostle  to  special  prayer  for 
them.  Eph.  i,  1 6.  There  is  a  marked 
resemblance  in  the  two  prayers,  par¬ 
ticularly  in  the  request  for  an  enlarged 
knowledge  of  God,  as  lying  at  the 
foundation  of  all  spiritual  growth  and 
hope.  In  the  present  case,  the  prayer 
more  specifically  beseeches  that  they 
may  be  filled  with  the  full  knowledge 
of  the  divine  will,  both  as  to  the  truth 
to  be  known  and  believed,  and  also  as 
to  the  things  to  be  done  by  them  as 
Christians.  In  this  knowledge  of  God’s 
thoughts  is  true  wisdom,  but  a  correct 
understanding  of  them  requires  the  il¬ 
lumination  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

10.  That  ye  might  walk  — The 
result  of  such  full  knowledge  is  a  life 
worthy  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  pleasing 
him  in  all  things.  This  is  possible 
only  through  the  teaching  and  help  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  As  mere  intellectual 
processes  are  utterly  unable  to  attain 
this  knowledge,  so  sinful  men,  unaided 
from  on  high,  cannot  thus  walk.  But 
the  life  whose  sincere  aim  is  to  please 
Christ,  though  it  fall  far  below  that  ab¬ 
solute  perfectness  which  his  majesty 
and  holiness  may  rightfully  demand,  is 
yet  a  life  worthy  of  him,  for  it  is 
moved  by  a  love  that  brings  its  best 
and  holiest  tribute  to  his  feet.  A\  hat 
such  a  life  involves  is  further  specified 


A.  D.  G3. 


CHAPTER  I. 


341 


good  work,  and  increasing  in  the 
knowledge  of  God;  11  ''Strength¬ 
ened  with  all  might,  according  to 
his  glorious  power,  w  unto  all  pa¬ 
tience  and  longsuffering  Xwith  joy¬ 
fulness;  1*2  y  Giving  thanks  un¬ 
to  the  Father,  which  hath  made 
us  meet  to  be  partakers  of  z  the 

v  Ephesians  3.  16;  6.  10. - w  Ephesians  4.  2. 

— x  Acts  5.  41 ;  Romans  5.  3. - V  Ephesians 

5.  20. - -s  Acts  26. 18;  Ephesians  1.  11. _ 

in  four  particulars,  fruitfulness, -moral 
growth,  strength  against  evil,  and 
thanksgiving.  Fruitful  —  In  good 
works  extending  beyond  ordinary  be¬ 
nevolence  and  right  doing,  to  all  in¬ 
ward  and  outward  obedience,  and  to 
the  studious  use  of  our  consecrated 
powers  for  whatever  will  glorify  Christ. 
The  figure  is  that  of  a  tree  which  bears 
fruit,  and  is  at  the  same  time  steadily 
growing.  The  believer  is  not  only 
fruitful  in  his  holy  living,  but  in  all 
that  goes  to  make  up  character  he  is 
constantly  increasing  in,  or  rather,  by, 
(as  the  best  texts  show,)  the  full 
knowledge  of  God,  as  the  instrument 
of  his  growth. 

11.  Strengthened  —  Another  ele¬ 
ment  of  the  walk  worthy  of  the  Lord, 

has  respect  to  the  spirit  with  which 
all  persecutions  and  tribulations  should 
be  met.  More  than  a  merely  human 
strength  is  requisite  for  a  proper  endur¬ 
ance  of  trials,  injuries,  and  wrongs,  in 
order  that  the  soul  shall  be  kept  in  pu¬ 
rity  and  peace,  without  resentment  or 
disturbance  of  its  rest  in  Christ,  and  also 
for  that  longsuffering  which  is  for¬ 
bearance  toward  opposers,  gainsayers, 
persecutors,  and  those  who  injure  us,  as 
well  as  for  the  active  duties  of  religion. 
All  might  —  Every  form  of  strength. 
A  divine  invigoration  of  every  faculty 
of  the  soul  is  asked  for.  For  the  grand¬ 
est  human  power  has  its  bounds,  be- 
vond  which  it  is  but  absolute  weakness. 
Over  against  it  is  set  the  almightiness 
of  God,  whose  infiniteness  is  the  only 
degree  of  strength  which  he  can  give 
his  trusting  child.  Suffering  with  joy- 
fulness — Triumph  in  the  fire,  of  which 
the  glorious  company  of  martyrs  are 
witnesses,  thus  becomes  a  possibility. 

12.  Giving  thanks  unto  the  Fa- 


inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light: 
13  Who  hath  delivered  us  from 
a  the  power  of  darkness,  b  and 
hath  translated  us  into  the  king¬ 
dom  of  1  his  dear  Son  :  14  c  In 

whom  we  have  redemption  through 
his  blood,  even  the  forgiveness  of 
sins : 

a  Ephesians  6.  12;  1  Peter  2.  9. - b  1  Thessa- 

lonians  2.  12;  2  Peter  1.  11. - 1  Greek,  the  /Son 

of  his  love. - c  Ephesians  1.  7. 

ther  —  That  is,  the  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  This  is  a  fourth  step  in 
the  walk  worthy  of  the  Lord,  verse 
10.  The  state  of  mind  just  described 
naturally  expresses  itself  in  thanksgiv¬ 
ing.  Which  hath  made — Our  ability 
for  such  a  life,  and  our  fitness  for  a  share 
in  the  heavenly  inheritance,  are  re¬ 
ceived  from  the  infinite  love  of  the  Fa¬ 
ther  through  the  meritorious  sacrifice 
of  his  Son,  by  the  sanctifying  power  of 
his  Spirit.  The  inheritance  falls  to 
the  children  of  God  as  heirs- 

13.  Who  hath  delivered  —  This 
verse  is  in  explication  of  the  preceding 
statement  of  the  Father’s  work.  Dark¬ 
ness  is  the  element  of  evil  and  sin  in 
which  sinners  are,  and  from  which  they 
have  no  power  of  self-deliverance.  It 
is  as  if  an  inexorable  tyrant  held  them 
in  bondage.  The  Father  is  their  deliv¬ 
erer.  At  the  same  time  he  transfers 
them  into  another  realm,  where  holiness 
is  predominant,  namely,  the  kingdom 
of  his  Son.  The  transition  is  whol¬ 
ly  moral,  of  course,  but  as  marked  as  if 
it  were  from  one  territory  to  another. 
His  dear  Son — Rather,  the  Son  of  his 
love ,  as  in  the  margin,  the  only-begot¬ 
ten  of  the  Father,  upon  whom  his  love 
rests. 

14.  In  whom  —  All  human  redemp¬ 
tion  from  deserved  punishment  and 
wrath  is  in  Christ;  in  what  he  is  and  has 
done,  and  only  in  union  with  him,  is  it 
possessed.  The  Redeemer,  whose  shed 
blood  is  the  ransom  price,  is  Lord  and 
King  in  this  kingdom,  in  which  he  reigns 
supreme.  In  this  verse  we  have  a  tran¬ 
sition  to  a  grand  description  of  the  per¬ 
son  and  work  of  our  Lord.  Its  state¬ 
ment,  that  in  the  Son  of  God's  love  we 
have  the  redemption,  is,  we  conceive, 
the  fundamental  thought  and  theme 


842 


COLOSSIANS. 


A.  D.  G3. 


15  Who  is d  the  image  of  the  in¬ 
visible  God,  etlie  firstborn  of  every 
creature :  16  For  f  by  him  were  all 
things  created,  that  are  in  heaven, 

d  2  Corinthians  4.  4  ;  Hebrews  1.  3. - e  Reve¬ 
lation  3.  14. - John  1.  3  ;  1  Corinthians  8.  G; 

of  the  epistle.  Upon  this  proposition 
are  based  the  pointed  warnings  against 
the  errors  which  furnished  the  occa¬ 
sion  of  writing.  The  phrase  through 
his  blood,  has  no  ancient  authority: 
it  is  plainly  borrowed  from  Eph.  i,  7. 

I.  The  Glorious  Person  and  Re¬ 
demptive  Work  of  Christ,  i,  15— ii,  7. 

1.  His  exalted  dignity,  15-18. 

Against  all  possible  systems  of  hu¬ 
man  salvation,  and  especially  that  one 
which  at  Colosse  assumed  a  position 
of  antagonism  with  the  gospel,  and 
through  its  mediatorsliip  of  angels 
with  Christ,  it  is  necessary  to  show  his 
absolute  and  unapproachable  pre-em¬ 
inence  in  himself  and  as  Mediator, 
together  with  the  entire  sufficiency 
of  what  he  has  done.  The  passage, 
though  brief,  is  important  as  one  of  the 
principal  four  which  describe  the  per¬ 
son  of  our  Lord.  Comp.  Eph.  i,  20-23; 
Phil,  ii,  6-11;  arid  Ileb.  i,  2.  3. 

a.  His  relation  to  God ,  15. 

15.  Who  is — The  subject  is  the 
Son  of  his  love,  in  ver.  13.  The  entire 
description  takes  in  both  his  pre-incar- 
nate,  and  his  incarnate  and  now  glori- 
lied  state.  Tlie  division  is  at  the  end 
of  ver.  17.  Both  before  creation  and 
after  his  ascension,  from  eternity  to 
eternity,  he  is  what  is  here  asserted. 
The  word  is  is  the  word  of  eternity. 
Image  —  An  image  of  what  is  invis¬ 
ible  must  itself  be  invisible.  Image 
is  more  than  resemblance  or  likeness  : 
it  is  the  exact  counterpart  of  the  being 
imaged,  perfectly  representing  his  at¬ 
tributes  and  essential  nature,  with, 
therefore,  in  the  present  case,  the  same 
substance,  power,  and  eternity.  As 
Ellicott  observes,  “  The  Son  is  the  Fa¬ 
ther’s  image  in  all  things,  save  only  in 
being  the  Father.”  In  his  pre-exis¬ 
tence,  his  incarnation,  and  his  glorifi¬ 
cation,  all  the  characteristics  of  God  are 
in  him.  In  his  relations  to  the  world 
he  reveals  and  manifests  God ;  but 


and  that  are  in  earth,  visible  and 
invisible,  whether  they  he  thrones, 
or  £  dominions,  or  principalities,  or 
powers  :  all  tilings  were  created 

Ephesians  3.  9;  Hebrews  1.  2. - g  Romans  8.38; 

Ephesians  1.  21 ;  1  Peter  3.  22. 

these  are  not  in  question  here.  They 
belong  to  his  office,  not  to  his  nature 
and  relation  to  God.  Firstborn  of  ev¬ 
ery  creature  —  This  phrase,  standing 
alone,  would  confirm  the  Arian  view, 
that  the  Son  was  the  first  created  be¬ 
ing  ;  but  the  context,  which  ascribes 
to  him  the  whole  creation,  with  no  ex¬ 
ception,  and  also  asserts  his  pre-exis¬ 
tence,  forbids  that  interpretation.  2s o 
creature  can  create  himself,  or  exist 
prior  to  any  creation.  He  created  the 
creation,  and  therefore  existed  before 
all  creation.  Moreover,  first-created  is 
not  the  word  here  used.  Nor  is  the 
reference  to  our  Lord’s  birth  of  a  hu¬ 
man  mother,  as  the  for  of  the  next 
verse  shows;  but  rather  to  that  mys¬ 
terious  emanation  of  the  Son  from  the 
Father,  in  which  he  is  said  to  be  “  be¬ 
gotten  ”  or  “  born.”  A  correct  render¬ 
ing  would  read,  the  firstborn  befoi'e 
every  creature,  that  is,  every  kind 
of  creature  ;  and  in  Scripture,  whatever 
is  before  any  creation  is  from  eterni¬ 
ty.  So  the  Nicene  Creed  expresses  it, 
“begotten  before  all  worlds,”  that  is, 
from  eternity.  In  his  eternal  relation 
to  the  Father,  the  Son  is  the  only  be¬ 
gotten  :  in  his  relation  to  his  creatures, 
he  is  before  them  all.  Besides  prior¬ 
ity  in  time,  he  also  has  the  priority  in 
dignity  and  right  which  belong  to  the 
firstborn. 

b.  Ills  relation  to  the  universe ,  16,  17 

16.  For  —  Because ,  assigning  the 
reason  for  asserting  his  priority,  name¬ 
ly,  the  dependence  of  the  creation  up¬ 
on  him.  The  phrase  by  him  occurs 
twice  in  the  verse,  the  first  being  rath¬ 
er  in  him  as  the  conditional  cause. 
The  idea  of  the  creation  as  conceived 
by  the  Father  was  committed  to  the 
Son  for  its  accomplishment  and  reali¬ 
zation  :  in  him  (emphatic)  did  the  ac¬ 
tual  work  rest.  All  things — Tu  rruvra, 
the  universe ,  including  every  thing  out¬ 
side  the  earth  in  all  space,  and  every¬ 
thing  upon  the  earth.  Thus  much  as 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  I. 


343 


*  by  him,  and  for  him:  17  ‘And 
he  is  before  all  things,  and  by  him 
all  things  consist.  18  And  khe  is 
the  head  of  the  body,  the  church: 
who  is  the  beginning,  ‘the  first- 


h  Rom.  11. 36;  Heb.  2. 10.— t  John  1  1, 3 ;  17. 5; 
1  Cor.  8.  6. - i  1  Cor.  11.  3;  Eph.  1.  10. _ 


born  from  the  dead ;  that *  2  in  all 
things  he  might  have  the  preemi¬ 
nence. 

19  For  it  pleased  the  Father 
that  min  him  should  all  fulness 


£  Acts  26.  23;  1  Cor.  15.  20; 
among  all. - m  John  1. 16; 


Rev.  1.  5. - 2  Or, 

3.  34 ;  chap.  2.  9. 


to  locality.  As  to  kind,  they  were 
things  visible,  the  sun,  moon,  and 
stars,  the  earth,  plants,  minerals,  and 
animals ;  and  things  invisible,  human 
souls,  and,  in  particular,  the  angels, 
with  their  several  orders  of  thrones, 
etc.,  for  whom  the  Colossian  philosophy 
was  claiming  a  superiority  over  him. 
By  him,  also,  was  the  entire  universe 
actually  created  instrumentally ,  proving 
his  infinite  power,  and  for  him,  its 
end,  as  the  sphere  of  his  dominion  and 
the  manifestation  of  his  glory.  He  is 
its  efficient  and  final  cause. 

17.  And  he  is  before  —  Rather, 
and  he  is  himself  before  all  things.  Ob¬ 
serve,  it  is  not  said  that  he  was ,  or 
became ,  but  he  is— the  word  of  eter¬ 
nity  If  he  existed  before  any  act  of 
creation,  he  is  eternal.  All  things 
consist— He  holds  the  universe  to¬ 
gether,  preserves  its  permanence,  and 
maintains  its  order  as  its  sustainer. 
•The  Son  of  God  is  therefore  omnipres¬ 
ent,  as  well  as  omnipotent  and  eternal. 

c.  His  relation  to  the  Church ,  18. 

18.  He  is  the  head  — Better,  he 
himself.  Not  any  angel  or  mere  created 
being,  but  the  Son,  who  has  this  high 
dignity,  is  the  head  of  the  Ohurch. 
The  incarnate  and  glorified  Christ  is 
now  spoken  of.  The  Church,  including 
those  who  have  passed  away  and 
those  yet  on  earth,  is  a  new  spiritual 
creation,  of  which  he  is  the  beginning, 
the  founder,  as  he  is  creator  of  the  uni¬ 
verse,  and  so  rightful  Lord  and  Govern¬ 
or  of  both.  He  is  also  the  firstborn 
from  the  dead,  e/c  ruv  veKptiv,  out  from 
the  dead ,  leaving  others  behind.  The 
phrase  occurs  in  but  three  other  places. 
See  note  on  Luke  xx,  35.  He  is  the 
firstfruits  (1  Cor.  xv,  23)  of  the  coming 
harvest,  the  first  who  rose  out  of  all  the 
myriads  of  the  dead  with  the  immortal, 
glorious  body.  Here,  too,  he  has  pre¬ 
cedence.  Preeminence — In  order  that 
in  all  things  he  might  become  preeminent. 


The  iv  ttcLolv  must  be  held  as  co-exten- 
sive  with  the  ra  navra.  The  pre-in- 
carnate  Son,  the  A oyog  aoapnoq,  was 
Lord  of  the  entire  creation,  and  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  maintaining  this  supremacy  in 
the  A oyog  evaapKo £,  the  Son  incarnate, 
requires  his  priority  in  the  resurrec¬ 
tion,  which  in  its  turn  is  essential  to 
his  supremacy  in  the  Church.  Our 
Lord’s  Headship  in  the  Church  is  fully 
brought  out  in  the  parallel  passage  in 
Eph.  i,  22,  where  see  notes.  Here  it 
enters  as  an  element  in  the  broader 
view  of  him  as  Head  of  the  universe, 
which  distinguishes  the  present  epistle. 
It  was  the  divine  purpose  that  every¬ 
where  and  in  all  things  the  incarnate 
Christ  should  have  the  highest  place, 
although  it  will  not  be  fully  realized 
until  the  final  triumph  at  the  end  of 
time. 

2.  Divine  plan  of  a  universal  rec¬ 
onciliation  through  Christ,  19,  20. 

19.  It  pleased — Whether  we  trans¬ 
late,  as  Ellicott,  “  Because  in  him  the 
whole  fulness  was  pleased  to  dwell;”  or, 
as  Alford,  ‘‘For  in  him  God  was  pleased 
that  the  whole  fulness  should  dwell,” 
or,  as  in  Hie  text,  which  on  the  whole 
is  preferable,  supplying  God,  however, 
rather  than  the  Father ,  the  doctrinal 
result  is  the  same.  The  point  in  hand 
is  to  state  the  ground  upon  which  the 
preeminence  is  given  to  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  in  whom  the  human  is 
in  union  with  the  divine,  making  him 
in  so  far  different  from  the  Son  previous 
to  the  incarnation.  It  is  explained 
by  the  two  great  facts  which  it 
pleased  God,  not  arbitrarily,  but  as 
the  deliberate  outflow  of  his  infinite 
wisdom  and  love,  to  embody  in  his 
plan.  The  first  relates  to  his  qualifi¬ 
cation  :  that  in  him  the  whole  fulness 
should  permanently  dwell.  But  ful¬ 
ness  of  what?  Various  answers  are 
given,  of  which  we  think  the  true  one 
is  the  fulness  of  those  attributes  which 


344 


COLOSSI  ANS. 


A.  D.  G3. 


dwell;  20  And,  3 "having  made 
peace  through  the  blood  of  his 
cross,  °  by  him  to  reconcile  p  all 
things  unto  himself;  by  him,  I  say, 

3  Or,  mukina  veace. - n  Eph.  2. 16. - o  2  Cor. 

5.  18. - v  Eph,  1.  10. 

lit  him  for  this  supremacy  and  for  his 
redeeming  work,  such  as  power,  author¬ 
ity,  grace,  wisdom,  and  love.  They 
are  not  partial  or  limited  in  him,  but 
perfect.  This  is,  doubtless,  the  same  as 
saying  that  the  divine  perfections  dwell 
in  him,  while  it  is  not  quite  the  state¬ 
ment  of  chap,  ii,  9,  where  the  divine 
essence  is  spoken  of,  which  is  not  in 
question  here. 

20.  And  —  It  also  pleased  God  to 
make  him,  thus  qualified,  infinitely 
transcending  in  dignity  and  excellence 
all  possible  qualification  of  any  crea¬ 
ture,  the  medium  of  the  reconciliation. 
This  is  the  second  fact  in  the  great 
plan.  “  This  indwelling,”  says  Bengel, 
“  is  the  foundation  of  the  reconcilia¬ 
tion.”  The  Greek  order  is :  And 
through  him  (Christ)  to  reconcile  all 
things  unto  himself  (God),  having  made 
peace  through  the  blood  of  his  cross. 
The  emphatic  point  is,  that  it  is  through 
Christ  that  God  planned  and  has  under¬ 
taken  the  reconciliation  of  the  universe 
to  himself.  The  reconcile  of  this  verse 
is  parallel  with  the  gather  together  of 
Eph.  i,  10,  yet  with  a  broader  scope, 
by  as  much  as  Christ’s  headship  in  the 
universe  is  broader  than  his  headship 
in  the  Church.  Yet  here,  as  there, 
we  must  distinguish  between  the  divine 
idm,  as  framed  before  the  foundation 
of  the  world,  and  its  actual  realization 
at  the  final  consummation.  The  sin 
which  began  with  the  angels  has  ex¬ 
tended  to  men,  and  so  affected  the  en¬ 
tire  creation  that  the  harmony  of  the 
universe  is  disturbed.  Now  it  is  God’s 
plan  that  the  incarnate  Son  shall  media- 
torially  restore  this  harmony  of  the  uni¬ 
verse  with  himself,  laying  the  ground 
of  it  in  the  shedding  of  his  blood  on 
the  cross.  He  is  the  Lamb  of  sacrifice 
foreordained  from  eternity,  1  Pet.  i,  20. 
And  lest  there  should  be  doubts  as  to 
how  far-reaching  the  plan  is,  we  are 
told  that  the  all  things  embraces  the 
t.iingj  in  earth,  and  the  things  in 


whether  they  be  things  in  earth,  or 
things  in  heaven. 

21  And  you,  <Jthat  were  some¬ 
time  alienated  and  enemies  4  in 

(/Ephesians  2.  12. 4 Or,  by  your  mind  in 

wicked  works. 

heaven,  which  terms  are  identical  with 
those  employed  in  verse  1G  to  designate 
the  entire  totality  of  created  things, 
and  can  here  mean  no  less.  The  glo¬ 
rious  divine  intention,  then,  was  a  rec¬ 
onciliation  co-extensive  with  the  same 
universe  which  the  Son  mediatorially 
created.  Thus  far  the  plan  itself :  in 
its  execution  the  whole  tendency  is  tow¬ 
ard  a  glorious  ultimate  result.  The 
Reconciler  is  exalted  to  the  throne  of 
the  universe.  Myriads  upon  myriads 
of  men,  saints  rejoicing  on  high,  and 
saints  serving  below,  have  found  his 
peace.  The  sinless  angels,  who  never 
saw  God  except  through  the  Son,  see 
him  now  in  the  glorified  Christ,  and 
are  brought  nearer  to  him.  Of  what 
the  final  realization  will  be,  the  passage 
does  not  speak.  The  resurrection  will 
destroy  death ;  redeemed  men  and  bliss¬ 
ful  angels  will  people  heaven  ;  and  the 
physical  creation  be  freed  from  its  sub¬ 
jection  to  vanity.  But,  reversely,  it  is 
in  the  power  of  wicked  men,  freely  act¬ 
ing,  to  trample  on  the  atonement  and 
reject  the  proffers  of  peace,  thus  de¬ 
feating  in  themselves  the  divine  plan. 
Fallen  angels,  who  would  seem  to  have 
been  included  in  the  intended  mercy, 
possibly  in  their  refusal  of  honour  to 
God’s  Son,  and  their  mad,  persistent 
rebellion  against  him  in  their  day  of 
probation,  have  thrown  themselves  out 
from  its  benefits,  so  that  they  and  their 
dark  abode  are  not  included  in  the  rec¬ 
onciliation.  Yet  lost  angels  and  men 
will  finally  be  compelled  to  bow  in  un¬ 
willing  subjection  to  the  sceptre  of 
Christ,  so  that  the  whole  universe  will 
confess  him  Lord.  See  note,  Eph.  i,  10. 

3.  The  idea  realized  in  the  expe¬ 
rience  of  the  Colossians,  21-23. 

21.  You  that  were. .  .alienated — 
As  in  science,  so  in  religion,  experi¬ 
ence  establishes  the  theory.  Formerly 
alienated  from  God  in  affection,  and 
enemies  —  hostile  to  him  in  intellec¬ 
tual  action  and  notions  of  truth,  as 


345 


A.  D.  63.  CHAPTER  I. 


your  mind  rby  wicked  works,  yet 
now  hath  he  reconciled  22  5  In 
the  body  of  his  flesh  through  death, 
1  to  present  you  holy  and  un¬ 
blamable  and  unreprovable  in  his 
sight :  23  If  ye  continue  in  the 

faith  u  grounded  and  settled,  and  be 
v  not  moved  away  from  the  hope  of 
the  gospel,  which  ye  have  heard, 
w  and  which  was  preached  x  to  ev¬ 
ery  creature  which  is  under  heav¬ 
en  ;  y  whereof  I  Paul  am  made  a 
minister ; 


24  2  Who  now  rejoice  in  my  suf¬ 
ferings  afor  you,  and  fill  up  1 2 * *  that 
which  is  behind  of  the  afflictions 
of  Christ  in  my  flesh  for  c  his 
body’s  sake,  which  is  the  church : 

25  "Whereof  I  am  made  a  minis¬ 
ter,  according  to  dthe  dispensation 
of  God  which  is  given  to  me  for 
you,  5  to  fulfil  the  word  of  God ; 

26  Even  ethe  mystery  which  hath 
been  hid  from  ages  and  from  gen¬ 
erations,  fbut  now  is  made  mani¬ 
fest  to  his  saints:  27  ?To  whom 


75 : 


r  Titus  1.  16. - .9  Eph.  2.  16. - t  Luke  1. 

Eph.  1. 4 ;  1  Thess.  4.  7  ;  Titus  2. 14 ;  Jude  24.-— 

u  Eph.  3.  17. - V  John  15.  6. — - w  Horn.  10.  18. 

- x  Verse  6. - V  Acts  1.  17 ;  2  Cor.  3.  6;  Eph. 

3.  7;  1  Tim.  2.  7. - z  Rom.  5.  3;  2  Cor.  7.  4. 


a  Eph.  3.  13. - b  2  Cor.  1.  5,  6;  Phil.  3.  10  ; 

2  Tim.  1.  8. - c  Eph.  1. 23. - d  1  Cor.  9.  17 :  Cal. 

2.  7;  Eph.  3.  2. - 5  Or,  fully  to  preach  the 

■word  of  God,  Rom.15.19. - e  Rom.16.25;  ICor. 

2.  7  ;  Eph.  8.  9. - -f  2  Tim.  1. 10. - 0  2  Cor.  2.  14. 


abundantly  manifest  in  wicked  life, 
they  were  now  actually  reconciled 
with  God  through  Christ. 

22.  Body. .  .flesh. .  .death— Only  by 
the  actual  death  of  our  Lord’s  human, 
physical  body  has  atonement  been  made 
for  sin,  and  salvation  for  sinners  be¬ 
come  possible.  The  statement  is  in 
silent  contrast  with  the  doctrine  of  the 
mediation  of  angels  who  have  no  blood 
to  shed  and  no  body  of.  .  .flesh  to  die. 
It  is  also  opposed  to  all  schemes  of 
reconciliation  to  God  without  an  atone¬ 
ment  by  death.  The  end  to  be  at¬ 
tained  is  to  present  all  who  are  saved 
from  sin,  holy  in.  themselves,  spotless 
and  irreproachable  in  their  relations  to 
God  before  him  in  the  judgment  day. 

23.  If  ye  continue — That  is,  assum¬ 
ing  your  persistence  in  the  life  of 
faith.  A  turning  from  the  gospel  to 
some  substitute  would  work  a  forfeit¬ 
ure  of  its  promised  result.  Every 
creature — Not  that  all  men  had  then 
actually  heard  it,  but  it  is  provided  for 
all  and  proclaimed  for  all  without  limi¬ 
tation. 

4.  Paul’s  commission,  sufferings, 
and  labours  in  order  to  their  full 
knowledge  of  Christ,  24-29. 

24.  Now — Chained,  and  in  his  Ho¬ 
man  prison.  Love  can  make  happy 

.anywhere.  Sufferings  —  Not  vicari¬ 
ous.  Afflictions  of  Christ  —  Not  his 
atoning  passion :  that  was  complete  on 
the  cross.  The  Church  is  the  body  of 
which  he  is  the  Head,  so  that  the  per¬ 


secutions  and  tribulations  endured  by 
it  in  its  members  fall  upon  him.  He 
suffers  if  they  suffer.  (Isa.  lxiii,  9.) 
What  is  done  to  them  is  done  to  him. 
And,  as  if  a  certain  amount  of  suffering 
was  to  be  endured  by  the  Church,  the 
apostle  was  rapidly  contributing  what 
yet  remained.  Joyfully  did  he  bear  it 
for  the  sake  of  the  Church. 

25.  Minister — Servant ,  of  the  gos¬ 
pel,  in  verse  23,  here  of  the  Church. 
Dispensation — Stewardship,  the  office 
of  a  servant,  for  the  work  of  preaching ; 
not  a  priesthood  to  offer  sacrifice  or  to 
administer  sacraments.  His  sphere  of 
labour  was,  by  the  terms  of  his  commis¬ 
sion,  among  the  Gentiles,  and  his  work 
was  to  preach  to  them  the  unsearcha¬ 
ble  riches  of  Christ.  Eph.  iii,  5. 

26.  Mystery  —  The  word  used  of 
facts  and  truths  not  fully  revealed,  oc¬ 
curs  four  times  in  this  epistle,  and  in 
that  to  the  Ephesians  six  times,  and  al¬ 
ways,  with  a  single  exception  in  the 
latter,  with  a  reference  more  or  less 
direct  to  Christ.  Here  it  is  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  salvation  through  Christ,  or, 
more  simply,  Christ  himself.  He  had 
not  been  revealed  to  former  ages  of  the 
world,  for  they  were  not  prepared  to 
receive  a  Saviour  ;  and  even  the  angels 
had  not  fully  comprehended  the  great 
plan.  Now  he  is  revealed  to  the  apos¬ 
tles,  (Eph.  iii,  5,)  preached  by  them, 
believed  in,  and  thus  is  made  mani¬ 
fest  to  his  saints.  Believers  know 
Christ. 


346 


COLOSSI  ANS. 


A.  D.  63. 


God  would  make  known  wliat  is 
hthe  riches  of  the  glory  of  this 
mystery  among  the  Gentiles;  which 
is  Christ  6 in  you,  ‘the  hope  of  glo¬ 
ry  :  28  Whom  we  preach, k  warn¬ 
ing  every  man,  and  teaching  every 
man  in  all  wisdom ; *  1 2  that  we  may 
present  every  man  perfect  in  Christ 
Jesus:  29  '"Whcreunto  I  also  la¬ 
bour,  "striving  "according  to  his 
working,  which  worketh  in  me 
mightily. 


h  Rom.  9.  23:  Eph.  3.  8. - 6  Or,  among  you. 

- i\  Tim.  1. 1. - k  Acts  20.20. - Z2Cor.  11.  2; 

Eph.  5.  27. - m  1  Cor.  15. 10. - n  Chap.  2.  1. 


27.  God  would  make  known  — 

Partly  by  an  understanding  of  the  truth, 
and  partly  by  an  individual  experience 
of  the  glory  of  his  salvation.  What 
a  transition  for  a  pagan  !  Mystery 
among  the  Gentiles  has  its  parallel 
and  explication  in  Christ  in  you ; 
Christ  being  the  mystery ;  and  he, 
dwelling  in  and  reigning  over  the  soul, 
is  himself  the  hope  of  eternal  glory. 

28.  Whom  we  preach — Not  the 
philosophy  offered  them  as  a  substitute 
for  the  gospel,  not  circumcision,  not 
the  worship  of  angels,  not  asceticism, 
but  Christ,  was  the  one  theme  of  the 
preaching  of  Paul  and  Timothy,  and, 
moreover,  Christ,  as  he  is  set  forth  in 
this  chapter,  in  his  Godhead,  his  incar¬ 
nation,  his  atoning  sacrifice,  his  resur¬ 
rection,  his  headship  in  the  Church,  his 
lordship  in  the  universe,  the  only  Sav¬ 
iour  of  men.  Thus  sharply  are  the 
lines  drawn  between  the  true  and  false 
preachers,  whether  of  that  time  or  the 
present.  The  manner  of  their  preach¬ 
ing  also  appears.  Warning — Reitera¬ 
ting  the  truth  and  rousing  to  repent¬ 
ance  and  active  service.  Teaching — 
Instructing  in  Christian  doctrine,  espe¬ 
cially  as  related  to  a  holy  life.  In  all 
wisdom  —  Not  the  subject,  but  the 
method  of  the  teaching  is  meant,  refer¬ 
ring  to  the  skilful  adaptation  of  means, 
plans,  and  arguments  to  the  end  sought, 
beginning  with  conversion  and  reach¬ 
ing  on  to  the  day  of  judgment.  The 
triple  use  of  the  phrase  every  man 
shows  the  apostle’s  constant  concern 
for  the  souls  under  his  caie. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FOR  I  would  that  ye  knew  what 
great  1  a  conflict  I  have  for 
you,  and  for  them  at  Laodicea, 
and  for  as  many  as  have  not  seen 
my  face  in  the  flesh  ;  2  1  That 

their  hearts  might  be  comforted, 
c  being  knit  together  in  love,  and 
unto  all  riches  of  the  full  assur¬ 
ance  of  understanding,  dto  the  ac¬ 
knowledgment  of  the  mystery  of 
God,  and  of  the  Father,  and  of 

o  Eph.  1. 19 ;  3.  7,20. 1  Or,  fear,  or,  care. 

a  Phil.  1.  30;  chap.  1.29;  1  Thess.  2.  2. - b  2  Cor. 

1.  6. c  Chap.  3.  14. d  Phil.  3.  8;  chap.  1.  9. 


29.  Labour,  striving  —  Warning, 

teaching,  toiling,  agonizing,  with  all  the 
strength  God  gave  him,  to  land  every 
convert  safe  in  heaven.  Such  is  the 
picture  of  this  model  minister  of  Christ 
before  the  Church  of  all  ages. 

CHAPTER  II. 

5.  The  apostle’s  solicitude  for 
their  unity  and  stability,  1-5. 

1.  What  great  conflict  —  His  deep 

anxiety  of  soul ;  an  agony  of  striving. 
Laodicea  was  a  wealthv  commercial 
city  on  the  border  of  Phrygia  and  Lydia, 
about  eighteen  miles  west  of  Colosse, 
the  seat  of  one  of  the  seven  Churches 
of  Asia.  (See  on  Revelation  iii.  14.) 
The  Christians  there  were  evidently  ex¬ 
posed  to  the  same  danger  with  those  at 
Colosse.  Most  of  them,  in  both  cities, 
seem  never  to  have  seen  their  apostle, 
as  was  doubtless  true  of  other  neigh¬ 
bouring  Churches. 

2.  Acknowledgment — Rather  full 

knowledge.  The  apostle’s  struggle  was 
that,  being  closely  united  together  in 
Christian  love,  which  is  a  great  safe¬ 
guard  against  false  doctrine,  they  might 
by  intellectual  conviction  and  the  in¬ 
ward  working  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  have  a 
clear  and  complete  persuasion  of  the 
truth,  or,  in  other  words,  a  full  knowl¬ 
edge  of  this  great  mystery  of  God,  so 
that  in  their  souls  finding  conscious  rest 
therein,  they  would  be  strong  against 
all  attempts  to  shake  their  faith.  The 
readings  of  the  MSS.  of  the  concluding 
words  greatly  vary.  Top  Oeov  Xfuarov 
seems  to  be  the  best  supported,  and  we 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  II. 


347 


Christ ;  3 *  2 3 4 5 6 7  In  e  whom  are  hid 

all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and 
Knowledge.  4  And  this  I  say, f  lest 
any  man  should  beguile  you  with 
enticing  words.  5  For  & though  I 
be  absent  in  the  flesh,  yet  am  I  with 
you  in  t  he  spirit,  joying  and  behold¬ 
ing  hyour  order,  and  the  ‘steadfast¬ 
ness  of  your  faith  in  Christ.  6  kAs 
ye  have  therefore  received  Christ 

2 Or,  Wherein. - el  Cor.  1.  24;  2.  6,  7;  Eph. 

1.  8;  chap.  1.  9. - -/'Rom.  16.  18;  2  Cor.  11.  13; 

Eph.  4.  14;  5.  6;  verses  8,  18. gl  Cor.  5.  3: 

i  Thess.  2.  17. - h  l  Cor.  14.  40. i  1  Pet.  5.  9. 

would  read,  the  mystery  of  God ,  even 

Christ;  that  is,  Christ  is  the  mystery. 

3.  In  whom — Christ,  the  revealer  of 
God  and  the  truths  relating  to  him. 
They  are  in  him,  hid,  until  revealed. 
The  great  questions  of  human  thought 
of  all  the  ages  centre  here,  and  only  in 
Christ  is  their  solution  possible. 

4.  Beguile  you — The  statements  of 
the  three  preceding  verses  are  intended 
to  guard  them  against  being  deceived 
by  false  reasoning  or  artful  rhetoric. 

5.  Your  order — As  yet  they  were  a 
compact,  well-organized  body,  standing 
in  solid  phalanx  firmly  in  the  faith. 
No  wonder  that  Paul  rejoiced,  as  with 
his  mind’s  eye  he  saw  them. 

a.  Conclusion  based  upon  their  experi¬ 
ence  of  salvation. 

6.  Ye.  .  .received  Christ  Jesus  the 

Lord — In  this  statement  of  fact  the  ar¬ 
gument  culminates.  It  appeals  to  their 
experience.  They  received  the  doctrine 
of  Christ  from  Epaphras,  they  received 
Christ  himself  into  their  hearts  by  faith, 
and  it  was  that  Christ  the  Lord,  Creator, 
and  Saviour,  who  is  so  fully  described  in 
the  preceding  chapter.  They  had  therein 
found  their  soul’s  salvation.  Their  ex¬ 
perience  verified  the  doctrine,  and  fur¬ 
nished  a  firm  basis  for  the  exhortation  to 
walk  in  him.  Continue  the  life  you 
have  begun. 

7.  Rooted  —  Changing  the  figure, 
but  always  keeping  Christ  as  the  element 
in  which  this  life  is  lived,  we  are  rooted 
in  him  as  a  tree  strikes  its  roots  deep 
into  the  soil  and  becomes  better  nour¬ 
ished  and  more  immovable ;  built  up  in 
him,  as  a  building  upon  a  rock,  adding 
stone  to  stone,  thus  steadily  and  solidly 


Jesus  the  Lord,  so  walk  ye  in  him: 
7  1  Rooted  and  built  up  in  him, 
and  established  in  the  faith,  as  ye 
have  been  taught,  abounding  there¬ 
in  with  thanksgiving. 

8  m Beware  lest  any  man  spoil 
you  through  philosophy  and  vain 
deceit,  after  n  the  tradition  of  men, 
after  the  3  0  rudiments  of  the  world, 
and  not  after  Christ. 

k  1  Thess.  4. 1 ;  Jude  3. 1  Eph.  2.  21, 22 ;  3. 17 ; 

chap.  1.  23. - raJer.  29.  8;  Rom.  16.  17;  Eph. 

5. 6 ;  verse  18 ;  Heb.  13. 9. - n  Matt.  15.  2 ;  Gal.  1. 

14. - 3  Or,  elements. - jo  Gal.  4. 3,  9 ;  verse  20. 

growing ;  established,  confirmed  in 
the  way  of  faith,  just  as  it  was  taught 
at  the  outset;  and  abounding  in  that 
faith  with  deep  gratitude  to  God. 

The  apostle  having  thus  unfolded 
the  divine  idea  of  redemption,  and  re¬ 
minded  the  Colossians  of  their  experi¬ 
mental  knowledge  of  its  verity,  pro¬ 
ceeds  next  to  an  examination  of  the 
particular  system  offered  them  in  its 
stead. 

II.  The  Proposed  “  Philosophy  ’• 
Considered,  ii,  8-23. 

1.  Its  characteristics,  8. 

8.  Beware . . .  Take  heed — Pointing  to 
some  well-known  person  who  urged  up¬ 
on  them  his  philosophy,  as  he  termed 
it,  as  a  substitute  for  Christ,  which  the 
apostle  pronounces  an  empty  cheat. 
To  spoil  means  to  carry  oif  as  plunder. 
Thus  would  the  false  teacher,  if  possi¬ 
ble,  carry  them  ofl,  body  and  soul. 
The  caution  is  not  against  all  philoso¬ 
phy,  nor  is  the  Greek  philosophy  re¬ 
ferred  to,  but  a  peculiar  Colossian  sys¬ 
tem  which  combined  Oriental  spiritual¬ 
istic  speculations  (verse  18)  with  Jew¬ 
ish  ritualism,  (verse  16,)  and  set  itself 
in  opposition  to  the  gospel.  From  the 
apostle’s  point  of  view,  its  characteris¬ 
tics  were,  first,  positively,  it  was  given 
by  tradition  of  men,  and  so  was  of 
human  origin ;  it  was  made  up  of  ru¬ 
diments  of  the  world ;  elementary 
religious  ideas  gathered  from  various 
non -Christian  sources;  and,  second, 
negatively,  it  was  not  according  to 
Christ,  as  all  true  philosophy  is. 
Philosophy  is  a  search  for  the  truth. 
Within  the  domain  of  revelation  it 


348 


COLOSSI  ANS. 


A.  D.  63. 


5)  For  Pin  liim  dwelleth  all  the 
fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily. 
10  *  And  ye  are  complete  in  him, 
r which  is  the  head  of  all  'princi¬ 
pality  and  power: 

11  In  whom  also  ye  are  1 2 3  cir¬ 
cumcised  with  the  circumcision 


made  without  hands,  in  “putting 
off  the  body  of  the  sins  of  the  flesh 
by  the  circumcision  of  Christ  : 
12  T  Buried  with  him  in  baptism, 
wherein  also  wye  are  risen  with  him 
through  *  the  faith  of  the  operation 
of  God,  y  who  hath  raised  him  from 


p  John  1.  14;  chap 
r  Eph.1.20;  1  Pet.  3.22.— 
10.  10;  Jer.  4.  4;  Korn.  2 


1.  19. - Q  John 

— #Chap.  1. 16.— 
29 ;  Phil.  3.  3. 


1.  16. - 

— t  Deut. 


u  Romans  6.  6 ;  Eph.  4.  22 ;  chap.  3.  8,  9. - 

x>  Romans  6.  4. - w  Chap.  3.  1. - ajEph.  1.  19; 

3.  7. - V  Acts  2.  24. 


heartily  accepts  its  authority,  and  is 
always  in  harmony  with  the  truth  re¬ 
vealed  by  Christ. 

2.  Transcended  by  Christ,  9,  10. 

9.  In  him  —  And  in  none  else,  now 
in  heaven  as  well  as  when  he  was  on 
earth,  dwelleth  really,  permanently, 
and  never  henceforth  to  be  separated 
from  his  humanity,  the  fulness  of  the 
Godhead,  the  totality  of  the  attributes 
and  perfections  of  the  divine  nature. 
The  word  translated  Godhead  means 
nothing  less  than  the  divine  nature  and 
essence.  Bodily,  not  as  a  charism,  as 
in  chap,  i,  1 9,  but  corporeally,  manifest¬ 
ed  in  his  glorious  body.  Angels  have 
no  such  glory  of  person  or  authority 
as  teachers.  Nor  was  that  indwelling 
Godhead  reduced  to  the  dimensions  of 
a  human  soul,  so  as  to  be  the  human 
soul  of  Jesus.  It  was  the  fulness  of 
the  Godhead. 

10.  Complete  —  The  statement  is 
double.  First,  Ye  are  in  union  with 
him ;  second,  in  virtue  of  that  union, 
ye  are  filled  full ,  as  the  word  complete 
means,  with  all  the  plenitude  of  his 
gracious  gifts.  An  empty  philosophy 
can  add  nothing  to  this,  and  is  there¬ 
fore  needless.  Perfectly  conclusive  as 
this  is,  it  is  confirmed  by  the  relation 
of  Christ  to  the  angels  whom  it  is  pro¬ 
posed  to  worship.  He  is  the  head  of 
every  order  of  them.  As  the  unincar¬ 
nate  Son,  he  created  them,  chap,  i,  16  ; 
through  his  death  (verse  15)  he  has 
brought  them  under  the  Headship  of 
the  divine-human  Christ.  He  is  their 
Lord,  and  alone  to  be  adored,  and  they 
depend  on  him. 

3.  The  advantage  offered  already 
obtained  in  Christ,  11-13. 

11.  Ye  are  circumcised  —  The 

aorist  were.  The  u  philosophy  ”  en¬ 
joined  certain  Jewish  legal  obser¬ 


vances,  of  which  circumcision  is  taken 
as  the  representative.  But  in  their 
union  with  Christ,  they  had,  at  their 
conversion  and  baptism,  already  re¬ 
ceived  the  real,  spiritual  circumcision 
in  their  regeneration,  of  which  the 
outward  rite  was  only  a  symbol.  The 
former  was  without  hands,  and  di¬ 
vine  ;  the  latter  with  hands,  and  hu¬ 
man.  In  the  latter  a  small  portion  of 
flesh  was  cut  off ;  in  the  former  the 
whole  body  of  the. .  .flesh,  spiritually 
speaking,  was  put  off  in  the  solemn 
renunciation  of  a  life  of  carnality  and 
sin.  The  circumcision  of  Christ  is 
that  which  he  works  in  our  spiritual 
renewal  through  union  with  himself. 

12.  Buried  —  Rather,  having  been 
buried ,  coincident  in  time  with  the 
above,  were  circumcised  and  the  were 
raised  (as  are  risen  should  read)  be¬ 
low.  This  death  to  sin  as  a  control¬ 
ling  power,  the  burial  which  consum¬ 
mated  it,  and  the  resurrection  which 
followed,  were  ideally  in  connexion 
with  their  baptism,  when  they  openly 
professed  a  renunciation  of  sin,  and 
promised  to  lead  a  new  life.  Really, 
the  mighty  transformation  had  its  ef¬ 
ficiency  in  their  union  with  Christ, 
their  baptism  attesting  their  identifica¬ 
tion  with  his  death,  burial,  and  resur¬ 
rection.  Risen— By  faith  in  the  same 
mighty  power  which  raised  Christ 
from  the  dead.  Where  the  resurrec¬ 
tion  is  holiness  and  faith  is  its  instru¬ 
ment,  what  must  the  burial  be  ?  Only 
he  who  is  prepared  to  affirm  the  power 
of  faith  to  lift  one  from  submersion  in 
water  can  say  that  the  burial  is  im¬ 
mersion.  To  infer  it  from  this  passage 
is  to  make  the  apostle’s  argument 
against  ritualism  supply  a  new  yoke 
for  Christian  necks.  See  also  notes  on 
Rom.  vi,  1-4 


A.  D.  G3. 


CHAPTER  II. 


349 


the  dead.  13  z  And  you,  being 
dead  in  your  sins  and  the  uncir- 
cumcision  of  your  flesh,  hath  he 
quickened  together  with  him,  hav¬ 
ing  forgiven  you  all  trespasses ; 

14  a  Blotting  out  the  hand- writ¬ 
ing  of  ordinances  that  was  against 


sEph.2.1,5,6. - o-Neh.4.5;  Psa.51.1;  Isa. 43.25; 

Eph.  2. 15. - b  Gen.  3. 15 ;  Psa.  68. 18 ;  Isa.  53. 12 ; 


us,  which  was  contrary  to  us,  and 
took  it  out  of  the  way,  nailing  it 
to  his  cross ; 

15  And  b having  spoiled  c  prin¬ 
cipalities  and  powers,  he  made  a 
show  of  them  openly,  triumphing 
over  them  4  in  it. 

Matt.  12.  29;  Luke  10. 18;  John  12.  31 ;  Eph.  4.  8; 
Heb.  2.  14. - cEph.  6.  12. - 4  Or,  in  himself. 


13.  And  you  —  This  is  an  appeal 
again  to  their  experience,  as  in  chap,  i, 
20.  It  is  the  argumentum  ad  hominem, 
showing  that  what  has  been  said  gen¬ 
erally  inverses  11,  12,  is  true  in  them 
specially.  Their1 * *  old  state  was  one  of 
spiritual  death :  they  were  wicked  and 
heathen — uncircumcised  Gentiles.  God 

quickened  them,  made  them  alive 
through  the  life  of  the  risen  Christ. 
To  complete  and  point  the  argument,  it 
is  further  added  that  with  this  new 
life  was  given  them  the  free,  gracious 
forgiveness  of  all  their  transgressions, 
and  without  the  imposition  of  the  phys¬ 

ical  rite  of  circumcision,  which,  as  the 
next  verse  shows,  was  no  longer  in 
force.  Through  Christ  alone,  without 
accessories,  they  were  saved. 

4.  The  legalism  sought  to  be  im¬ 
posed  is  abolished,  14. 

14.  Blotting  out — Rather,  having 
blotted  out.  The  interpretations  of  this 
verse  are  very  various,  and  many  of 
their  difficulties  arise,  as  we  think, 
from  a  failure  to  observe  its  logical 
connexion.  We  conceive  it  to  be  a 
simple  statement  that  God  had  wiped 
out  the  whole  ritual  system.  Circum¬ 
cision  could  not,  therefore,  be  required 
as  a  condition  of  spiritual  life,  and 
they  themselves  had  found  that  life 
without  it.  Handwriting  of  ordi¬ 
nances — The  Mosaic  ceremonial  law : 
the  obligatory  bond,  whose  numerous 
minute  decrees  were  difficult  and  op¬ 
pressive.  Contrary  to  us — Peter  ex¬ 
pressed  the  same  when  he  styled  it  “  a 
yoke. .  .which  neither  our  fathers  nor 
we  were  able  to  bear.”  Acts  xv,  10.  We 
cannot  interpret  it  of  the  decalogue, 
for  that  was  not  abolished  by  Christ’s 
death,  as  was  the  ritual,  whose  provi¬ 
sions  pointed  to  and  were  thus  fulfilled 
in  him.  It  was,  doubtless,  the  best 
possible  system  for  the  period  of  its 


enactment ;  but  it  had  accomplished  its 
purpose,  and  the  time  had  come  for  it 
to  pass  away.  Its  precepts  were  ob¬ 
literated;  it  was  as  if  nailed  to  the 
cross,  and  thus,  as  a  document,  de¬ 
stroyed.  As  the  cross  was  the  instru¬ 
ment  of  death,  when  Christ  died  it 
died.  Ritual  circumcision  is,  therefore, 
at  an  end. 

5.  The  angels  themselves  sub¬ 
jected  to  Christ,  15. 

15.  Having  spoiled — The  verse  re¬ 
lates  to  that  feature  in  “  the  philoso¬ 
phy  ”  which  pertains  to  the  worship  of 
the  holy  angels.  It  is  wholly  irrelevant 
to  say,  with  most  commentators,  that 
Christ  in  his  death  conquered  and  tri¬ 
umphed  over  the  infernal  powers :  it 
proves  nothing  on  the  point  in  hand. 
The  principalities  and  the  powers 
refers  us  back  to  verse  10,  where 
Christ  is  said  to  be  their  Head.  We, 
therefore,  hold  the  holy  angels  to  be 
meant,  as  is  absolutely  essential  to  a 
conclusiveness  in  the  argument.  The 
verse  closely  connects  with  the  pre¬ 
ceding  one.  The  Mosaic  ritual  was 
given  through  the  ministry  of  angels, 
(Gal.  iii,  19,  Heb.  ii,  2,)  who  were 
thus  the  revealers  of  God  in  that 
shadowy  dispensation.  He  now  took 
away  that  handwriting,  first,  suspend¬ 
ing  it  on  the  cross  that  it  might  die, 
and,  second,  he  divested  himself  (instead 
of  spoiled)  of  the  principalities  and 
the  powers  as  promulgators  of  his 
law,  and  subjected  them  to  the  incar¬ 
nate  Son  as  their  Head,  through  whom 
alone,  thenceforth,  he  will  reveal  him¬ 
self.  He  then  openly — at  the  ascen¬ 
sion —  exhibited  them  as  subject  to 
Christ,  and  as  if  following  him  in 
triumphal  procession  as  their  Lord. 
Whatever  power,  then,  the  false  teacher 
supposed  the  angels  to  have  had  in  re¬ 
vealing  God,  their  office  in  that  respect 


350 


COLOSSI  AN  S. 


A.  D.  63 


16  Let  no  man  therefore  d  judge 
you * * *  6  in  emeat,  or  in  drink,  or  6  in 
respect  fof  a  holyday,  or  of  the 
new  moon,  or  of  the  sabbath  (lays: 

17  &  Which  are  a  shadow  of  tilings 
to  come ;  but  the  body  is  of  Christ. 

18  hLet  no  man  7  beguile  you  of 
your  reward  8  in  a  voluntary  hu¬ 
mility  and  worshipping  of  angels, 

d  Kora.  14.  3. 5  Or  for  eating  and  drink¬ 
ing. - e  Korn.  14.  2;  1  Cor.  8.  8. - GOr,  in  part. 

- -f  Rom.  14.  5;  Gal.  4.  10. - g  Heb.  8.  5;  9.  9; 

10.  1. - h  Verse  4. 

was  at  an  end.  Nor  could  the  worship 

which  belonged  to  Christ  be  given  to 

them. 

6.  Deductions  from  the  forego¬ 
ing,  16-23. 

a.  Caution  against  legal  observances , 

16,  17. 

16.  No  man... judge  you — As  to 

the  right  or  wrong  of  your  conduct,  in 
eating,  or  in  drinking,  or  in  the  obser¬ 
vance  of  the  annual,  monthly,  or  week¬ 
ly  festivals.  In  these  matters  there  is 
no  obligation.  A  divine  authority  was 
claimed  for  them  ;  but  Paul  insists  that 
they  were  but  a  shadow  whose  sub¬ 
stance  is  Christ.  The  Jewish  seventh- 
day  Sabbath  is  here  meant,  and  not 

the  Christian  first-da v  Sabbath.  The 

%> 

Jewish  aspects  of  the  Sabbath  are  done 
away,  but  not  the  day  itself  as  enjoined 
in  the  decalogue,  which  was  given,  not 
through  the  ministry  of  angels,  but  by 
the  audible  voice  of  God  himself,  and 
which  the  Saviour  taught  is  “for  man” 
universally.  Note,  Horn,  xiv,  5,  6. 

17.  Things  to  come  —  Not  future 
when  Paul  wrote,  but  when  the  law 
was  given.  They  all  pointed  to  Christ; 
all  their  virtue  was  derived  from  him, 
and  they  who  are  united  to  him  realize 
all  the  good  which  they  foreshadowed. 

b.  Caution,  against  angel-worship , 
18,  19. 

18.  Beguile  —  The  marginal  judge 
against  you,  is  more  accurate.  The 
allusion  is  to  the  judge  who,  presid¬ 
ing  at  the  games,  fraudulently  deprives 
him  of  the  prize  to  whom  it  should  be 
awarded.  The  false  teacher  would 
deprive  them  of  their  rightful  reward 
of  the  incorruptible  crown  by  mis¬ 
leading  them  in  the  way  of  attaining 


intruding  into  those  things  '  which 
he  hath  not  seen,  vainly  puffed  up 
by  1) is  fleshly  mind,  19  And  not 
holding  kthe  Head,  from  which  all 
the  body  by  joints  and  bands  hav¬ 
ing  nourishment  ministered,  and 
knit  together,  increaseth  with  the 
increase  of  God.  20  Wherefore 
if  ye  be  1  dead  with  Christ  from 

7  Or,  judge  against  you. - 8  Greek,  being 

a  voluntary  in  humility. - i  Ezek.  13.  3; 

1  Tim.  1.  7. - k  Eph.  4.  15,  16. - 1  Korn.  6. -3,  5; 

7.  4,  6:  Gal.  2.  19;  Eph.  2.  15. 

it.  His  character  is  described  in  four 
particulars.  1.  He  wiUs ,  or  delights  in, 
a  pretended  humility  wrhich  held  God 
to  be  so  unapproachable  and  incom¬ 
prehensible  that  the  mediation  of  in¬ 
ferior  spiritual  beings  was  necessary. 
Worshipping  of  angels  would  readily 
fall  in  with  this  theory.  Notwithstand¬ 
ing  the  apostle’s  labour  and  caution, 
this  evil  took  so  deep  root  in  Phrygia 
and  Pisidia,  that  three  centuries  later 
the  Council  of  Laodicea  forbade  the 
practice  by  a  special  decree,  condemn¬ 
ing  it  as  idolatry  and  an  abandonment 
of  Christ.  2.  He  stands  upon  what 
he  has  seen,  and  pretends  to  a  profound 
knowledge  of  the  heavenly  world  by 
wonderful  visions.  Most  recent  critics 
omit  the  word  not.  3.  Believing  that 
he  has  fathomed  the  mysteries  of  the 
spiritual  world,  he  is,  though  pretending 
to  humility,  really  but  without  reason 
inflated  by  his  own  spiritualized  sen¬ 
sualism. 

19.  Not  holding — A  fourth  partic¬ 
ular  is,  he  does  not  hold  fast  the  Head, 
who  is  Christ,  and  so  not  only  derives 
no  life  from  him,  but  exalts  his  crea¬ 
tures  to  a  level  with  him.  thus  denying 
him  his  rightful  eminence.  Increas¬ 
eth — As  the  human  body  strengthens 
and  growTs  by  its  joints  and  sinews 
being  properly  nourished  and  knit  to¬ 
gether,  so  the  body  of  Christ,  from  him 
as  the  source,  and  holding  him  fast  as 
the  means,  grow’s  with  the  increase 
which  God  wrorks. 

c.  Caution  against  asceticism,  20-23. 

20.  Dead  with  Christ — Better,  if 
ye  died  with  him,  in  your  baptism ;  see 
on  verse  12.  The  rudiments  of  the 
world,  here  and  in  ver.  8,  are  identical 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  II. 


351 


*"  the  9  rudiments  of  the  world, 
n  why,  as  though  living  in  the 
world,  are  ye  subject  to  ordinances ; 
21  °Touch  not,  taste  not,  handle 
not ;  22  Which  all  are  to  perish 

with  the  using,  p  after  the  com¬ 
mandments  and  doctrines  of  men? 
23  « Which  things  have  indeed  a 

m  Verse  8. - 9  Or,  elements. - n  Gal.  4.  3,  9. 

-o  1  Tim.  4.  3. - p  Isa.  29.  13;  Matt.  15.  9; 


show  of  wisdom  in  r  will-worship, 
and  humility,  and  10  neglecting  of 
the  body;  not  in  any  honour  to 
the  satisfying  of  the  flesh. 


i 


CHAPTER  III. 

F  ye  then  abe  risen  with  Christ, 
seek  those  things  which  are 


Titus  1.  14. 


with  the  handwriting  in  ver.  14,  which 
was  claimed  to  be  still  in  force.  It 
died  with  Christ,  and  you  so  share  in 
his  death  that  you  are  removed  from  its 
authority.  Why — The  expostulation 
is  very  pertinent.  As. .  .living  in  the 
world — In  things  outside  of  Christ. 
Are  ye  subject — Literally,  why  do  ye 
allow  yourselves  to  be  dogmatized  to? 
St.  Paul  thus  shows  the  arrogance  of 
the  attempt  to  bring  them  under  the 
old  wiped-out  sj-stem,  and  rebukes  tire 
Colossians  for  listening  to  it.  While 
they  were  in  imminent  danger,  it  is 
not  clear  that  any  of  them  had  as  yet 
fallen. 

21.  Touch... not — These  expres¬ 
sions  are  quoted  from  the  false  teach¬ 
er,  as  specimens  of  the  ordinances 
referred  to. 

22.  Which  all  .  .  .  perish  —  The 

things  thus  forbidden,  were  made  to 
be  eaten  and  to  perish  with  the  con¬ 
sumption  of  them.  This  verse,  thus 
far,  with  the  preceding  one,  should  be 
read  as  a  parenthesis.  Command¬ 
ments — Connects  with  ver.  20,  and  is 
a  part  of  the  question.  These  ascetic 
impositions  sought  to  enslave  their 
consciences  by  commands  and  systems 
of  men,  and  were  not  made  obligatory 
by  God. 

23.  A  show  of  wisdom— The  re¬ 
puted  and  real  character  of  the  sort  of 
things  spoken  of  are  now  put  in  final 
contrast.  The  system  embraced  will- 
worsh.p,  a  voluntary,  self  -  imposed 
service,  called,  in  verse  1 8,  worship¬ 
ping  of  angels ;  a  so-called  humility 
which  pretended  a  fear  of  drawing  near 
to  God,  joined,  in  ver.  18,  with  angel- 
worship;  and  a  rigorous  austerity  of 
the  body,  abusing  it  under  pretence  of 
sanctity,  and  withholding  from  it  its 


Q 1  Tim.  4.  8. - r  Verse  18. 10  Or,  punish- 

ing ,  or,  not  sparing. - a  Rom.  6.  5;  Eph. 

2.  6;  chap.  2. 12. 

proper  care.  It  purported  to  be  a  sys¬ 
tem  of  self-abnegation,  and  so  before 
the  popular  eye  it  had  the  show,  or 
reputation ,  of  a  true  and  profound  wis¬ 
dom,  while,  really,  it  was  far  from  its 
substance.  Not  in  any  honour,  but 
rather  dishonour,  of  the  body,  which 
they  affected  to  despise,  but  which,  in 
St.  Paul’s  view,  was  to  be  cared  for  as 
a  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  true 
effect  of  the  whole  system  was  the 
satisfying  of  the  flesh,  the  sinful  na¬ 
ture,  feeding  it  to  satiety,  and  inflating 
it  by  the  conceit  and  pride  which  it 
engendered. 

CHAPTER  III. 

III.  Ethical  Counsels,  iii,  1-iv,  6. 

1.  The  pursuit  of  heavenly 
things  based  on  union  with  the  ris¬ 
en  Christ,  1-4. 

1.  If  ye  then  be  risen — Better,  if 
ye  then  be  raised  together.  The  refer¬ 
ence  is  definitely  to  the  period  of  their 
baptism,  (chap,  ii,  12,)  and  to  the  spir¬ 
itual  resurrection  symbolized  by  it,  and 
ideally  coincident  with  it.  As  in  chap, 
ii,  20,  a  rule  of  conduct  is  deduced  from 
the  fact  of  their  having  died  with 
Christ,  so  here  also  another  is  founded 
on  their  resurrection  with  him.  Tliev 
then  began  a  life  of  holiness.  Thence¬ 
forth  they  were  servants  of  the  as¬ 
cended  Christ,  and  citizens  of  the  heav¬ 
enly  kingdom.  They  were  consecrated 
to  the  pursuit  of  things  above,  holy 
and  heavenly.  Seek — Strive  earnestly 
to  gain  all  that  heaven  has  for  the  re¬ 
deemed,  its  mansion,  its  purity,  its  joy, 
its  glory.  Christ  sitteth — Two  things 
are  asserted :  Christ  is  in  heaven,  and 
he  is  seated  on  the  right  hand  of 
God.  See  on  Eph.  i,  20. 


352 


COLOSSIAXS. 


/a  • 


D.  G3. 


above,  where  b Christ  sitteth  on  the 
right  hand  of  God.  2  Set  your 
1  affection  on  things  above,  not  on 
tilings  on  the  earth.  3  cFor  ye  are 
dead,  dand  your  life  is  hid  with 
Christ  in  God.  4  eWhen  Christ, 
who  is  four  life,  shall  appear,  then 
shall  ye  also  appear  with  him  ^in 
glory. 

5  h  Mortify  therefore  ‘  your  mem¬ 


bers  which  are  upon  the  earth ;  kfor- 
nication,  uncleanness,  inordinate 
affection,  1 2 * * 5 б. 7 8  evil  concupiscence,  and 
covetousness,  m  which  is  idolatrv: 
G  n  For  which  things’  sake  the 
wrath  of  God  cometh  on0 the  chil¬ 
dren  of  disobedience:  7  Pin  the 
which  ye  also  walked  sometime, 
when  ye  lived  in  them.  8  But  now 
*  ye  also  put  off  all  these ;  anger, 


b  Rom.  8.  34;  Eph.  1.  20. - 1  Or,  mind. -  i  Rom .  6.  13.; — k  Eph.  5.  3.— — /  1  Thess.  4  5. 


cRom.  6.  2;  Gal.  2.  20:  chap.  2.  20. - cl  2  Cor. 

5.  7;  chap.  1.  5. - el  John  3.  2. - -/John  11.  25. 

(7 1  Cor.  15.  43;  Phil.  3.  21. - /t  Rom.  8.  13; 


Gal.  5.  24. 


2.  Set  your  affection  on  things 
above — This  is  broader  counsel  than 
to  seek  them.  Think  of  them,  care  for 
them.  Let  them  occupy  your  thoughts 
and  affections.  Two  courses  of  life  and 
two  classes  of  things  were  before  them. 
They  are  more  fully  described  in  Phil- 
ippians  iii,  1 7-20,  where  the  words  they 
“  mind  earthly  things  ”  finishes  the  cli¬ 
max  on  the  unchristian  side.  Only 
things  above  comport  with  the  life 
upon  which  the  Christian  enters  at  liis 
conversion  and  baptism. 

3.  Ye  are  dead — Ye  died ,  namely, 
to  sin,  and  put  off  the  things  on  the 
earth,  its  pleasure,  its  spirit,  its  work! 
ly  life.  This  is  done  in  repentance, 
and  it  is  formally  declared  in  the  terms 
of  the  baptismal  covenant:  —  “Dost 
thou  renounce  the  devil  and  all  his 
works,  the  vain  pomp  and  glory  of  the 
world,  with  all  covetous  desires  of  the 
same,  and  the  carnal  desires  of  the 
flesh,  so  that  thou  wilt  not  follow  or 
be  led  by  them  ?”  A  dead  man  has 
nothing  to  do  with  earthly  things.  But 
the  new  life,  the  inward  and  spiritual 
life  begun  under  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  moral  resurrection  which 
follows  the  dying  to  sin,  proceeds  from 
a  vital  union  with  Christ,  and  partakes 
of  his  life.  It  must,  therefore,  be 
heavenlv  in  its  character,  and  directed 
toward  heavenly  things.  As  yet,  it 
is  hid,  or  concealed,  together  with 
Christ,  its  source  and  element,  in 
God,  in  whose  bosom  Christ  is,  (John 
i,  18,)  so  that  it  cannot  be  fully  known 
until  Christ  is  fully  revealed. 

4.  When  Christ. .  .shall  appear — 


m  Eph.  5.  5. - n  Rom.  1. 18;  Eph.  5.  6;  Rev. 

22. 15. - o  Eph.  2.  2. - v  Rom.  6. 19 ;  1  Cor.  6. 11 ; 

Eph.  2.  2;  Titus  3.  3. - (/Eph.  4.  22;  Heb.  12.  1 ; 

James  1.  21 ;  1  Pet.  2.  1. 

Shall  he  manifested  at  his  second  com¬ 
ing,  being  in  hiddenness  no  longer. 
As  he  is  now  the  life  of  all  believers, 
they  will  share  with  him  in  all  its  ul¬ 
timate  developments  in  the  resurrection 
and  in  the  glorification  of  both  soul 
and  body. 

2.  General  Christian  duties,  5-17. 

а.  Avoidance  of  evil  conduct  and  sin¬ 

ful  tempers,  5-11. 

5.  Mortify — Moke  dead.  Let  nothing 
live  that  is  at  war  with  a  death  to  sin 
and  a  true  life  in  Christ.  Kill  your 
bodily  members,  so  far  as  their  action 
is  merely  earthly  and  sinful.  Some 
specimens  of  it  in  this  direction  follow. 
See  notes  on  Rom.  i,  24  and  Eph.  v,  5. 
These  sins  of  impurity,  which  are  con¬ 
nected  with  the  animal  .nature,  have 
their  seat  in  the  soul.  Renounced  by 
the  will,  they  must  be  unpractised  in 
fact,  and  the  tendencies  to  them  de¬ 
stroyed  by  the  sanctifying  Spirit. 

б.  Wrath  of  God  —  Both  in  this 
world  and  the  world  to  come.  See  on 
Eph.  v,  6,  where  the  same  expression 
occurs. 

7.  Ye  also  walked — Thev  had  once 

V 

been  alive  to  these  things,  and  freely 
practised  them,  as  did  the  mass  oi 
heathens  around  them.  But  they  had 
now  become  alive  to  God,  and  had  put 
off  those  sins. 

8.  But  now — Having  become  alive 
with  Christ.  Ye  also  put  off  all 
these  —  The  passions-  herein  enumer¬ 
ated  by  the  apostle,  besides  the  things 
previously  mentioned ;  all  sins  of  un¬ 
kindness,  of  which  some  specimens  are 
given.  Anger — Passion  warmly  vent- 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  III. 


353 


wrath,  malice,  blasphemy,  r  filthy 
communication  out  of  your  mouth. 
9  8  Lie  not  one  to  another,  1  see¬ 
ing  that  ye  have  put  off  the  old 
man  with  his  deeds;  10  And  have 

r  Eph.  4.  29. - s  Lev.  19. 11 ;  Eph.  4.  25. - 1  Eph. 

4.  22. - wRom.  12.  2. 

ing  itself  outwardly.  Wrath — Pas¬ 
sion  boiling  within.  Malice — Badness 
of  heart.  Blasphemy  —  Calumnious 
speech.  Filthy  communication  — 
Not  only  obscene  language,  but  all 
foul-mouthed  abusiveness.  These  are 
all  incompatible  with  a  pure  heart  or 
the  life  of  Christ. 

9.  Lie  not — No  lie  is  white  in  God’s 
sight.  See  on  Eph.  iv,  25,  where  the 
positive  side  of  truthfulness  is  also  en¬ 
joined.  Lying  was  then  and  is  now  a 
frightfully  prevalent  vice  of  heathen 
communities.  A  converted  heathen 
does  not  step  at  once  from  the  vileness 
of  his  old  life  into  the  habit  of  the 
highest  Christian  morality.  He  must 
learn  its  laws.  His  conscience  must 
be  brought  under  their  control.  Even 
then  he  will  need  frequent  and  repeated 
admonition,  accompanied  with  the  mo¬ 
tives  and  discipline,  which  the  gospel 
so  amply  furnishes.  This  sufficiently 
accounts  for  the  occurrence  of  such 
counsels  against  vice  as  are  found  here 
and  in  other  epistles.  They  are  a  per¬ 
petual  testimony  against  the  moral  de¬ 
basement  existing  every-where  and 
among  all  classes  without  the  gospel, 
and  a  setting  forth  for  all  time  of  the 
lofty  purity  which  Christianity  forever 
demands.  But  is  not  the  counsel  need¬ 
ed  to-day,  and  even  among  many 
Christians  ?  Lying  about  one  another 
is  wrong ;  but  lying  to  one  another  is 
the  thing  forbidden.  Concealments  and 
misrepresentations  in  trade,  false  col¬ 
ouring  in  narrative,  exaggerations  and 
omissions  in  conversation,  intentional 
conveyance  of  wrong  impressions,  vio¬ 
lation  of  pledges,  disregard  of  promises, 
refusal  to  pay  subscriptions,  breaking 
of  solemn  covenants,  are  only  speci¬ 
mens  of  the  lying  of  the  present  day. 
Seeing  that — This  verse  being  proper¬ 
ly  separated  from  the  eighth  only  by  a 
comma,  the  motive  here  assigned  ap¬ 
plies  to  the  entire  precept  in  the  eighth 
Vol.  IV. — 23 


put  on  the  new  man,  which  uis  re¬ 
newed  in  knowledge  v  after  the 
image  of  him  that  w created  him: 
11  Where  there  is  neither  x  Greek 
nor  Jew,  circumcision  nor  uncir- 

vEph.  4.  23. - 'wEph.  2.  10. - a*  Rom.  10.  12; 

_ 1  Cor.  12.  13;  Gal.  3.  28;  Eph.  6.  8. 

and  ninth  verses.  The  truth  expressed 
is  the  same  with  that  in  verse  3,  oniy 
under  the  different  figure  of  a  garment 
laid  aside  and  another  put  on.  The 
old  man- — The  former  unregenerate 
nature,  the  flesh,  which  they  that  are 
Christ’s  have  crucified.  Gal.  v,  24.  His 
deeds  —  The  outward  life  inspired 
by  tins  sinful  nature,  ranging  from  a 
neglect  of  the  salvation  of  Christ  to 
the  low  sensuality  depicted  above. 

10.  And  have  put  on  the  new 
man — The  regenerate  nature,  attained 
in  the  new  birth,  which  is  a  new  crea¬ 
tion.  Their  action  was  a  free  submis¬ 
sion  of  themselves  to  God’s  working 
in  them  by  his  renewing  power.  This 
state,  utterly  incompatible  at  the  outset 
with  a  life  of  selfishness  and  impurity, 
is  one  of  growth  and  development.  It 
is  a  characteristic  of  the  new  man  that 
it  is  continually  being  renewed  more 
and  more  after  the  image  of  Christ, 
the  creator  of  this  new  man,  who  is 
himself  (chap,  i,  15)  “the  image  of  the 
invisible  God.”  His  likeness  is  more  or 
less  perfectly  created  in  every  regen¬ 
erate  heart.  In  knowledge — Rather, 
unto  full  knowledge ,  namely,  of  God. 
As  the  new  birth  gives  us  our  first 
knowledge  of  him,  growth  increases 
our  knowledge.  As  Olshausen  (fol¬ 
lowed  by  Alford)  points  out,  the  intel¬ 
lectual  aspect  of  the  divine  image  is 
here  put  forward,  while  Eph.  iv,  24 
exhibits  its  ethical  character.  Perfect 
knowledge  of  God  is,  then,  the  end  of 
the  new  creation. 

11.  Where  —  In  this  new  order  of 
humanity,  of  which  Christ  is  the  head 
and  representative,  no  class  distinction 
of  worth,  or  privilege,  or  disability  is 
recognized,  whether  based  on  national 
differences*  as  Greek  and  Jew;  on 
previous  religious  forms,  as  circum¬ 
cised  and  uncircumcised ;  on  lowness 
in  culture,  as  Barbarian  and  Scyth¬ 
ian  ;  or  on  social  position,  as  bond 


354 


COLOSSI  ANS. 


A.  D.  63. 


cumcision,  Barbarian,  Scythian, 
bond  nor  free:  J'but  Christ  is  all, 
and  in  all.  12  2  Put  on  therefore, 
a  as  the  elect  of  God,  holy  and  be¬ 
loved,  b bowels  of  mercies,  kind¬ 
ness,  humbleness  of  mind,  meek¬ 
ness,  longsuffering;  13  c  Forbear¬ 
ing  one  another,  and  forgiving  one 
another,  if  any  man  have  a  2  quar¬ 
rel  against  any :  even  as  Christ  for¬ 
gave  you,  so  also  do  ye.  14  dAnd 

y  Eph.  1.  23. - sEph.  4.  24. - a  1  Thess.  1.  4. 

- b  Gal.  5.  22;  Eph.  4.  2;  Phil.  2.  1. - cMark 

11. 25;  Eph.  4.  2. - 2  Or,  complaint. - d  1  Pet. 

4.  8. - e  John  13.  34;  Romans  13.  8;  1  Cor.  13; 

and  free.  These  differences  remain 
as  between  man  and  man,  but  none  of 
them  affects  their  relation  to  Christ. 
He  is  all.  Every  thing  centres  in  him, 
and  he  becomes  every  thing  to  them 
who  love  him.  He  is  also  in  all  be¬ 
lievers,  dwelling  in  them,  and  so  bring¬ 
ing  all  into  union  with  himself,  and 
brotherhood  with  each  other. 

b.  Duty  in  culture  and  exercise  of 
Christian  graces ,  12-14. 

12.  Put  on — As  putting  off  the  old 
man  carries  with  it  his  characteristic 
qualities,  putting  on  the  new  man 
in  like  manner  requires  the  possession 
of  his  virtues.  They  are  to  be  as  an 
outer  garment,  the  first  seen  or  felt  in 
our  intercourse  with  others.  As  the 
elect  —  Chosen  on  gospel  terms,  as 
God’s  spiritual  Israel,  to  possess  and 
exhibit  these  graces.  Bowels  of  mer¬ 
cies — Answering  to  the  term  tender¬ 
hearted  in  the  parallel  passage.  Eph. 
iv,  32.  Humbleness— Toward  one  an¬ 
other.  Eph.  iv,  2, 

13.  Forbearing— As  to  present  of¬ 
fences,  thus  emphasizing  the  last  two 
virtues.  Forgiving — The  past,  freely, 
absolutely,  lovingly.  Quarrel— Better, 
ground  of  complaint.  Even  as  Christ 
— Here  is  the  model  for  our  forgiving. 
For  the  maintenance  of  governmental 
authority  he  must  require  the  offender 
to  ask  forgiveness.  So  may  we  when 
we  are,  like  him,  upholders  of  law. 
But  the  spirit  which  led  him  to  the 
cross,  that  he  might  buy  the  chance  to 
forgive,  will,  if  it  be  in  us,  beget  for¬ 
giveness  of  our  brethren  without  the 
asking. 


above  all  these  things  *put  on  char¬ 
ity,  which  is  the  f  bond  of  perfect¬ 
ness.  15  And  let  *  the  peace  of 
God  rule  in  your  hearts,  hto  the 
which  also  ye  are  called  'in  one 
body;  kand  be  ye  thankful.  10  Let 
the  word  of  Christ  dwell  in  you 
richly  in  all  wisdom  ;  teaching 
and  admonishing  one  another  1  in 
psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual 
songs,  singing  ,nwith  grace  in  your 

Eph.  5.  2;  1  Thess.  4.  9;  1  Tim.  1.5;  1  John  3.  Zi. 

- -f  Eph.  4.  3. - u  Romans  14.  17 ;  Phil.  4.  7. 

- hi  Cor.  7.  15. - i  Eph.  2.  16. - A*  Chap.  2.  7. 

- 1 1  Cor.  14.  26 ;  Eph.  5.  19. - m  Chap.  4.  6. 

14.  Above  all. .  .charity — Of  this 

spiritual  robing,  love  is  the  outer  gar¬ 
ment.  It  is  the  love ,  literally;  the  well- 
known  love,  often  standing  as  the  rep¬ 
resentative  and  sum  of  all  the  graces 
of  the  Christian,  but  here  as  a  beauti¬ 
ful  and  important  addition.  The  bond 
—  The  girdle  binding  together  all  the 
other  graces  into  a  perfect  whole,  thus 
keeping  each  article  of  this  spiritual 
dress  in  its  proper  place  and  office.  So 
love  is  both  the  supplement  and  the 
inspiration  of  all  the  rest. 

c.  Unity  and  mutual  helpfulness, 
15-17. 

15.  The  peace  of  God — Bather,  of 
Christ.  The  peace  which  he  breathes 
into  the  soul,  reigning  in  and  govern¬ 
ing  their  affections  toward  one  another, 
becomes  the  blessed  bond  of  their 
Church  unity.  Be  ye  thankful  — 
Grateful  to  God  for  the  calling  into  his 
Church. 

16.  The  word... dwell — So  that 

the  individual  members  of  the  Church 
shall  have  a  perfect  familiarity  with 
the  teaching  of  Christ  as  given  by  the 
evangelists  and  apostles.  Ellicott  and 
Alford,  following  Bengel  and  others, 
agree  that  this  clause  properly  ends 
with  the  word  richly.  The  remaining 
clauses  will  then  correspond:  in  all 
wisdom  teaching,  etc.,  almost  identi¬ 
cal  with  chap,  i,  28,  and  in  grace.  . . 
singing,  etc.  The  former  refers  to 
their  singing  to  each  other  in  public 
and  social  worship,  and  for  their  Am- 
tual  edification ;  the  latter  is  a  singing 
silently,  in  their  hearts,  when  alone, 
and  to  God.  See  on  Eph.  v,  19. 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  III. 


855 


hearts  to  the  Lord.  17  And  n  what¬ 
soever  ye  do  in  word  or  deed,  do 
all  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
•giving  thanks  to  God  and  the  Fa¬ 
ther  by  him. 

18  p  Wives,  submit  yourselves 
unto  your  own  husbands,  as  it  is 
fit  in  the  Lord.  19  r  Husbands, 
love  your  wives,  and  be  not  s  bitter 
against  them.  20  1  Children,  obey 
your  parents  u  in  all  things  :  for 
this  is  well  pleasing  unto  the  Lord. 
21  v  Fathers,  provoke  not  your 
children  to  anger ,  lest  they  be  dis¬ 
couraged.  22  w  Servants,  obey  x  in 
all  things  your  masters  ^according 
to  the  flesh;  not  with  eyeservice, 

n  1  Cor.  10.  31. - o  Rom.  1.  8;  Eph.  5.  20; 

chap.  1.  12;  1  Thess.  5. 18;  Heb.  13. 15. - v  Eph. 

5.  22;  Titus  2.  5;  1  Pet.  3.  1. - q  Eph.  5.  3. - 

r  Eph.  5.  25 ;  28.  23 ;  1  Pet.  3.  7. - s  Eph.  4.  31. - 

t  Eph.  6. 1, 4. - u  Eph.  5.  24 ;  verse  22 ;  Titus  2. 9. 

- v  Eph.  6. 

17.  Whatsoever — In  the  relations 
mentioned,  though  the  rule  may  prop¬ 
erly  enough  cover  our  entire  conduct. 
In  the  name — As  Christians,  bearing 
his  name,  having  his  Spirit,  moving  in 
his  presence.  Giving  thanks — Mak¬ 
ing  the  whole  life  abound  in  thanksgiv¬ 
ing.  To  God.  .  .the  Father — Omit¬ 
ting  and  with  the  oldest  MSS. ;  and 
always  through  Christ ,  as  our  only  way 
of  approach  to  him. 

3.  Special  social  duties,  18-iv,  1. 

a.  Wives  and  husbands,  18,  19. 

18.  Wives  —  This  and  the  follow¬ 
ing  verses  have  their  parallels  nearly 

'  verbatim ,  though  often  expanded  by 
argument  or  illustration,  in  Eph.  v,  22, 
etc.,  where  see  the  notes.  Fit  in  the 
Lord — In  their  relation  as  Christians, 
for  in  a  Christian  marriage  the  hus¬ 
band  is  the  divinely  ordained  head  of 
the  wife. 

19.  Love  your  wives  —  As  their 
head  and  protector,  with  Christ’s  love 
for  the  Church  as  the  model.  Be  not 
bitter — Sharp,  exasperated,  the  exact 
opposite  and  ruin  of  love. 

b.  Children  and  parents ,  20,  21. 

20.  Children — The  precept  notes 
no  exceptions.  While  obedience  to 
parents  is  the  natural  duty  of  children, 
the  reason  here  assigned  is  its  accept- 


as  menpleasers;  but  in  singleness 
of  heart,  fearing  God:  23  zAnd 
whatsoever  ye  do,  do  it  heartily, 
as  to  the  Lord,  and  not  unto  men; 
24  a  Knowing  that  of  the  Lord  ye 
shall  receive  the  reward  of  the  in¬ 
heritance:  bfor  ye  serve  the  Lord 
Christ.  25  But  he  that  doeth 
wrong  shall  receive  for  the  wrong 
which  he  hath  done :  and  c  there  is 
no  respect  of  persons. 

CHAPTER  IY. 

MASTERS,  agive  unto  your  ser¬ 
vants  that  which  is  just  and 
equal ;  knowing  that  ye  also  have 
a  Master  in  heaven. 


w  Eph.  6.  5;  1  Tim.  6.  1;  Titus  2.  9;  1  Pet. 

2.  18. - x  Verse  20. - y  Philem.  16. z  Eph. 

6.  6,  7. a  Eph.  6.  8. b  1  Cor.  7.  22. - c  Rom. 

2.  11 ;  Eph.  6.  9 ;  1  Pet,  1.  17 ;  Deut.  10.  17. - 

a  Eph.  6.  9 ;  Lev.  19.  13 ;  25.  39,  43 ;  Isa.  58.  3,  5,  9 ; 
Jer.  34.  9,  17 ;  Mai.  3.  5. 

ableness  as  befitting  their  relation  as 
Christians.  Most  MSS.  read  kv  k vpicp, 

in  the  Lord. 

21.  Provoke  not  —  Do  not  irritate 
your  children,  by  unreasonableness, 
undue  severity,  perpetual  faultfinding, 
or  passionate  speech  and  conduct. 
Many  a  child  becomes  discouraged 
in  the  performance  of  his  filial  duty, 
and  reckless  of  results,  by  the  sad 
home  treatment  to  which  he  is  sub¬ 
jected.  And  if  he  be  ruined  forever,  a 
share  of  the  responsibility  belongs  to 
the  irritating  father. 

c.  Servants  and  masters ,  22-iv,  1. 

22.  Servants — See  notes  on  1  Cor. 
viii,  21,  and  Eph.  vi,  5. 

CHAPTER  IY. 

1.  Masters — St.  Paul  directs  Christ¬ 
ian  masters  to  render  to  their  slaves 
what  is  just  and  equal — doubtless  in 
their  condition  as  slaves.  What  the 
latter  might  justly  require  was  justly 
due.  The  equality  is  best  interpreted 
by  the  Golden  Rule,  which  requires  the 
same  spirit  in  the  master  that  is  here 
enjoined  upon  the  slave.  A  Master 
in  heaven  —  Whose  law  of  love  i3 
binding  upon  both,  and  who  will  pun¬ 
ish  all  injustice  and  unkindness. 

4.  Duty  of  prayer,  2-4. 


COLOSSI  ANS. 


A.  L>.  63. 


356 


2  b  Continue  in  prayer,  and  watch 
in  the  same  cwith  thanksgiving; 
S  d  Withal  praying  also  for  ns,  that 
God  would  eopen  unto  us  a  door 
of  utterance,  to  speak  f  the  mystery 
of  Christ,  efor  which  I  am  also  in 
bonds:  4  That  I  may  make  it 
manifest,  as  I  ought  to  speak. 

5  h  Walk  in  wisdom  toward  them 
that  are  without,  'redeeming  the 

b  Luke  18.  1;  Itom.  12. 12;  Eph.  6.  18;  1  Thess. 

5.  17. - cChap.  2.  7. - dEph.  6.  19;  2  Thess. 

3.  1. - el  Cor.  16.  9;  2  Cor.  2.  12. - -/Matt. 

13.  11 ;  1  Cor.  4.  1 ;  Eph.  6.  19;  chap.  1.  26. 

2.  Prayer — Keep  the  constant  prac¬ 
tice  of  it.  Watch  —  Be  earnestly  ac¬ 
tive  in  the  duty,  with  a  wakefulness  of 
soul,  always  accompanying  it  with 
thanksgiving. 

3.  A  door  of  utterance — The  in¬ 
tercession  desired  is  for  the  removal  of 
any  and  all  hinderances  to  the  free 
preaching  of  the  gospel,  and  the  fur¬ 
nishing  an  opportunity  to  its  extension. 
Was  not  their  prayer  really  answered, 
though  in  a  different  way,  as  indeed 
God  often  answers,  when  the  apostle’s 
closer  imprisonment  resulted  in  “the 
furtherance  of  the  gospel?”  Phil,  i,  12. 
The  mystery — Namely,  of  which 
Christ  is  the  sum.  See  on  chap,  ii,  2. 

4.  Ought  to  speak — Doubtless  the 
apostle  is  thinking  of  that  untram¬ 
melled  speech  which  comported  both 
with  his  high  calling  and  his  heart’s 
desire,  but  which  his  imprisonment 
hindered.  Whether  the  answer  shall 
come  through  his  release  or  in  some 
other  way,  he  will  be  content  if  the 
cause  of  the  gospel  be  advanced. 

5.  Intercourse  with  persons  out¬ 
side  the  Church,  5,  6. 

5.  Walk  in  wisdom  —  The  social 
relations  of  Christians  with  non-Christ¬ 
ians,  and  the  proper  manner  of  life  in 
respect  to  them,  constitute  one  of  the 
most  important  topics  of  the  epistle. 
Heathens  then,  as  worldly  men  do  now, 
largely  judged  Christianity  from  the 
lives  of  its  adherents,  rather  than  from 
their  professions  or  its  doctrines.  The 
counsel  looks  beyond  the  avoidance  of 
all  cause  of  reproach  to  a  persuasion  of 
the  unconverted  that  the  gospel  is  true 
and  divine.  It  means  that  practical 


time.  0  Let  your  speech  be  always 
k  with  grace,  1  seasoned  with  salt, 
mthat  ye  may  know  how  ye  ought 
to  answer  every  man. 

7  "All  my  state  shall  Tychicus 
declare  unto  you,  who  is  a  beloved 
brother,  and  a  faithful  minister 
and  fellow-servant  in  the  Lord  : 
&  "Whom  I  have  sent  unto  you  for 
the  same  purpose,  that  he  might 

a  Eph.  6.  20 ;  Phil.  1.  7. - h  Eph.  5. 15 ;  1  Thess. 

4. 12. i  Eph.  5. 16. k  Eccles.  10. 12. 1  Mark 

9.  50. - m  i  Peter  3.  15. - n  Eph.  6.  21. - 

o  Eph.  6.  22. 

wisdom  in  social  intercourse  —  that 
sound  common  sense  —  which  would 
plan,  live,  work,  and  talk  for  that  re¬ 
sult.  Redeeming  the  time — Better, 
buying  up  for  yourselves  the  opportu¬ 
nity.  Olshausen  remarks  (from  Beza) 
that  “the  phrase  is  taken  from  the  fig¬ 
ure  of  a  provident  merchant  who  uses 
everything  for  his  ends.”  We  are  to 
watch  for  the  opportunity  to  commend 
the  gospel  and  win  a  soul,  seizing  the 
right  time  to  speak,  in  order  that  we 
may  advance  the  Master’s  cause. 

6.  With  grace — In  grace,  as  its 
element  or  dress.  Our  conversation 
should  be  in  a  religious  spirit,  of 
course,  but  calculated  to  win  favour  as 
well.  Seasoned  with  salt  —  Not 
pointless  and  profitless,  but  penetrative 
and  purifying,  through  the  presence  of 
the  Spirit,  whose  action  salt  symbolizes. 
Thus  an  earnest,  wide-awake  Christian 
might  always  be  ready  to  make  an  ap¬ 
propriate  answer  to  any  inquiry  or  ob¬ 
jection  to  the  gospel  from  a  non-Christ¬ 
ian  with  whom  he  might  be  conversing. 

IY.  Conclusion,  7—18. 

1.  Personal  communications,  7-1 4. 

7.  Tychicus  —  With  this  and  the 
following  verses,  Eph.  vi,  21,  22,  is  al¬ 
most  word  for  word.  Our  only  knowl¬ 
edge  of  Tychicus  before  this  time  is 
that  he  was  an  Asiatic,  and  he  appears 
in  Acts  xx,  4,  as  one  of  Paul’s  compan¬ 
ions  from  Corinth  into  Asia.  He  is 
now  his  special  messenger  to  the  two 
Churches,  bearing  a  letter  to  each,  and 
also  is  charged  with  verbal  communica¬ 
tions  respecting  the  apostle’s  condition. 

8.  The  same  purpose — Better,  tnis 


CHAPTER  IY. 


357 


r\.  D.  63. 


know  your  estate,  and  comfort 
your  hearts ;  9  With  p  Onesimus, 
a  faithful  and  beloved  brother, 
who  is  one  of  you.  They  shall 
make  known  unto  you  all  things 
which  are  done  here. 

10  i Aristarchus  my  fellow-pris¬ 
oner  saluteth  you,  and  r  Marcus, 
sister’s  son  to  Barnabas,  (touching 
whom  ye  received  commandments : 
if  he  come  unto  you,  receive  him,) 

v  Philem.  10. - q  Acts  19.  29 ;  20.  4 ;  27.  2 ; 

Philem.  24. - rActs  15.  37;  2  Tim.  4.  11. - 

s  Acts  10,  45;  11.  2;  Rom.  4.  12;  Gal.  2.  7,  8. 

very  purpose,  applying  to  what  fol¬ 
lows,  especially  if  we  retain  the  next 
clause.  Whether  we  should  read  as  in 
the  text,  or,  that  ye  might  know  our  af¬ 
fairs ,  as  in  Eph.  vi,  22,  is  as  yet  doubt¬ 
ful.  Tregelles  adopts  the  latter,  which 
certainly  best  agrees  with  the  follow¬ 
ing  verse. 

9.  Onesimus — A  native  of  Colosse, 
and  runaway  slave  of  Philemon,  con¬ 
verted  at  Rome  through  the  labours  of 
the  apostle,  and  now  returning  in  com¬ 
pany  with  Tychicus  to  his  master.  He 
is  legally  a  slave,  but  nevertheless  a 
“  beloved  brother  ”  in  the  Church  of 
Christ,  and  joint-bearer  of  the  present 
epistle.  All  things .  .  .  here  —  Many 
things  respecting  matters  transacted  at 
Rome  could  now  be  properly  narrated 
which  might  not,  in  the  times  of  Nero, 
be  safely  committed  to  writing. 

10.  Aristarchus  —  A  Thessalonian, 
first  mentioned  in  Acts  xix,  29,  as  a 
companion  of  the  apostle  on  his  third 
missionary  tour,  and  seized  by  the  mob 
at  Ephesus.  He  seems  to  have  con¬ 
tinued  with  him  until  the  decision  of 
the  present  appeal  to  Nero.  Marcus 
— John  Mark,  the  author  of  the  second 
gospel,  who  had  been  the  occasion  of 
the  difference  between  Paul  and  Barna- 
bus.  and  their  separation.  (Acts  xii, 
12.)  He  afterward  recovered  the  good 
opinion  of  the  apostle,  and  is  now 
warmly  commended  by  him  to  the  kind 
hospitality  of  the  Colossian  brethren. 
Sister’s  son  —  ’A veipiog,  a  name  given 
to  the  sons  and  daughters  of  brothers 
and  sisters.  Barnabas  and  Mark  were, 
therefore,  cousins.  Commandments — 
What  these  were,  and  who  sent  them, 


11  And  Jesus,  which  is  called  Jus¬ 
tus,  who  are  s  of  the  circumcision. 
These  only  are  my  fellow-workers 
unto  the  kingdom  of  God,  which 
have  been  a  comfort  unto  me. 

12  ‘Epaphras,  who  is  one  of  you, 
a  servant  of  Christ,  saluteth  you, 
always  1  u  labouring  fervently  for 
you  in  prayers,  that  ye  may  stand 
T  perfect  and  2  complete  in  all  the 
will  of  God.  13  For  I  bear  him 

t  Chap.  1.  7;  Philem.  23. - 1  Or,  striving. 

- u  Rom.  15.  30. - v  Matt.  5.  48;  1  Cor.  2.  0 

14.  20;  Phil.  3.  15;  Heb.  5.  14. 2  Or,  Jilted. 

we  cannot  know,  though  presumably 
they  proceeded  from  St.  Paul. 

1 1.  Jesus  —  The  Greek  form  of  the 
Hebrew  Joshua.  Note,  Matt,  i,  21.  It 
was  not  an  uncommon  name  among  the 
Jews,  but  Christians  at  an  early  day 
came  to  disuse  it  through  reverence  for 
it  as  the  name  of  the  Redeemer.  The 
surname  Justus,  given  to  the  person 
here  mentioned,  was  also  frequent  with 
the  Jews.  Nothing  is  known  of  him 
except  as  stated  in  the  text,  unless  we 
receive  the  tradition  that  he  was  after¬ 
ward  bishop  of  Eleutheropolis.  Of  the 
circumcision  —  Born  Jews,  or  pros¬ 
elytes,  but  now  Christian  preachers. 
There  were  doubtless  other  Jewish 
Christians  at  Rome,  but  only  the  three 
named,  Aristarchus,  Mark,  and  Jesus 
Justus,  assisted  the  apostle  in  his  work. 
The  rest  opposed  and  thwarted  him, 
becoming  a  sorrow  rather  than  a  com¬ 
fort  to  him.  The  persons  named  be¬ 
low,  who  laboured  in  full  sympathy 
with  him,  were  Gentiles. 

12.  Epaphras — See  on  chap,  i,  1. 
He  bore  them  in  his  heart,  not  only  at 
home,  but  in  distant  Rome,  as  is  attest¬ 
ed  by  his  anxious  prayers  in  their  be¬ 
half.  He  agonized  in  prayer.  Stand — 
They  were  in  a  warfare  with  the  hea¬ 
thenism  around  them,  and  especially  in 
danger  from  the  errors  which  called 
out  this  epistle.  While  Paul  argued, 
Epaphras  prayed ;  the  aim  of  both  was 
that  the  Colossians  might  stand  firm 
in  the  gospel  which  they  had  received, 
rejecting  every  admixture  of  error. 
Perfect  —  In  knowledge  of  the  truth. 
Complete — We  ought  unquestionably 
to  read  nETrTirjpocpoprj/iEvoL,  fidly  assured. 


358 


COLOSSI  ANS. 


A.  D.  63. 


record,  that  he  hath  a  great  zeal 
for  you,  and  them  that  are  in  La- 
odicea,  and  them  in  Hierapolis. 
14  wLuke,  the  beloved  physician, 
and  x  Demas,  greet  you.  B5  Sa¬ 
lute  the  brethren  which  are  in  La- 


v:2  Tim.  4. 11. - x2  Tim.  4.  10;  Philemon  24. 

13.  Record — This  testimony  of  the 
apostle  was  calculated  to  tenderly 
touch  their  hearts  and  move  them  to 
fidelity.  Laodicea — See  on  chap,  ii,  1. 
Hierapolis  —  Sacred  city  —  so  called 
from  the  multitude  of  its  temples.  It 
is  a  city  of  Phrygia,  about  six  miles 
north  of  Laodicea,  and  about  twenty 
northwest  of  Colosse.  The  three  were 
all  in  the  basin  of  the  Maeander.  The 
Church  there  was  probably  founded 
by  Epaphras,  and  exposed  to  about  the 
same  influences  with  that  at  Colosse. 
The  place  was  destroyed  by  an  earth¬ 
quake  A.  D.  62,  at  the  same  time  with 
Laodicea,  and  afterward  restored.  Its 
modern  name  is  Pambouk-Kalessi ,  “Cot¬ 
ton  Castle,”  so  called  from  its  beautiful 
calcareous  deposits,  that  have  the  ap¬ 
pearance  of  frozen  cascades.  Mr.  Riggs, 
an  American  missionary,  describes  them 
as  consisting  of  a  “  deposit  of  carbonate 
of  lime,  white  as  the  driven  snow,  as¬ 
suming,  when  closely  examined,  various 
forms,  and  covering  nearly  the  whole 
southern  and  western  declivities  of  the 
elevation  on  which  Pambouk-Kalessi 
is  built.” 

14.  Luke — Undoubtedly  the  author 
of  the  third  Gospel  and  The  Acts.  The 
honourable  mention  of  his  profession 
may  have  been  necessary  for  accurate 
identification,  though  it  accords  with 
the  apostle’s  delight  in  bestowing  epi¬ 
thets  of  affection  and  praise.  It  has 
been  conjectured  that  his  first  acquaint¬ 
ance  with  St.  Paul  was  in  a  profes¬ 
sional  capacity.  Demas — No  word  of 
commendation  for  him.  Was  he  even 
then  betraying  tokens  of  the  worldly 
spirit  which  at  a  later  day  became  his 
master?  See  2  Tim.  iv,  1*0. 

2.  Salutations  and  closing  words, 
15-18. 

15.  Salute .  .  .  Nymphas  —  To  the 

general  salutation  to  the  body  of  Christ¬ 
ians  in  the  neighbouring  city  is  added 

O  O  * 


odicea,  and  Nymphas,  and  y  the 
church  which  is  in  his  house. 
I<>  And  when  2  this  epistle  is  read 
among  you,  cause  that  it  be  read 
also  in  the  church  of  the  Laodi- 
ceans;  and  that  ye  likewise  read 

V  Rom.  1G.  5;  1  Cor.  16.  19. - z  1  Thess.  5.  27. 

a  special  one  to  Nymphas,  one  of  its 
members,  together  with  those  Christ¬ 
ians  whose  place  of  assembly  was  at 
his  house.  There  seem  to  have  been 
several  of  these  smaller  Churches  in  the 
city.  The  era  of  separate  houses  of 
worship  had  not  then  come.  See  on 
Rom.  xvi,  5. 

16.  Cause  that  it  be  read — This 

public  reading  of  an  epistle  is  also  en¬ 
joined  in  1  Thess.  v,  27.  The  exchange 
of  epistles,  as  in  the  present  case,  would 
require  a  copy  to  be  made,  and  gives 
us  a  glimpse  of  the  multiplication  of 
copies  of  the  gospels  and  epistles 
whereby  they  rapidly  spread  through 
the  entire  early  Church.  This  epistle 
having  been  read  to  the  brethren  at 
Colosse,  a  copy  was  to  be  sent  to  Lao¬ 
dicea,  but  what  was  to  be  received  in 
return  is  not  so  clear.  It  has  been 
supposed  to  be,  (1)  An  epistle  written 
by  the  Laodiceans  to  St.  Paul ;  (2)  An 
epistle  written  at  Laodicea  by  St.  Paul, 
possibly  the  first  to  Timothy ;  (3)  An 
epistle  by  Paul  to  the  Laodiceans,  as  a 
circular  letter,  which  we  now  have  in 
our  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians ;  and  (4) 
An  epistle  of  Paul  to  the  Laodiceans, 
which  is  now  lost.  The  first  and  sec¬ 
ond  suppositions  need  only  be  men¬ 
tioned.  The  third,  which  originated 
with  Grotius,  and  has  a  considerable 
basis  of  argument,  is  considered  in  the 
Introduction  to  Ephesians.  We  agree 
with  those  who  hold  that  a  letter  is 
meant,  no  copy  of  which  is  now  known 
to  exist.  It  would  be  hazardous  to  say 
what  treasures  some  future  explorer, 
like  Tischendorf,  in  Oriental  monas¬ 
teries  may  discover.  There  is  extant  in 
Latin  an  “Epistle  of  Paul  the  Apostle 
to  the  Laodiceans ;  ”  but  it  is  a  mere 
rhapsodical  collection  of  passages  from 
the  apostle’s  other  epistles,  and  is  on 
all  hands  admitted  to  be  a  clumsy  for¬ 
gery. 


A.  D.  63. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


359 


the  epistle  from  Laodicea.  17  And 
say  to  a  Archippus,  Take  heed  to 
bthe  ministry  which  thou  hast  re¬ 
ceived  in  the  Lord,  that  thou  ful- 

a  Philem.  2. - b  1  Tim.  4.  6. - cl  Cor.  16.  21 ; 

17.  Say  to  Archippus — An  office¬ 
bearer  in  the  Colossian  Church,  whose 
duties  are  not  easy  to  be  defined,  be¬ 
cause  of  the  wide  scope  of  the  word 
ministry.  Quite  likely  he  was  a  dea¬ 
con.  From  the  association  of  him  with 
Philemon  and  Appliia  in  the  inscrip¬ 
tion  to  the  Epistle  to  Philemon,  we 
very  naturally  infer  that  Archippus 
was  a  member  of  their  family.  It 
has  been  suggested  that  he  may  have 
been  their  son.  The  apostle  there 
calls  him  his  “fellow-soldier.”  The 
two  epistles  being  written  at  the  same 
time,  the  epithet  there  given  is  incon¬ 
sistent  with  the  reprehension  for  neg¬ 
ligence,  which  some  suppose  intended 
in  the  present  passage.  It  seems  rather 
a  hearty  word  of  encouragement  and 


fil  it.  18  cThe  salutation  by  the 
hand  of  me  Paul.  d  Remember 
my  bonds.  e  Grace  le  with  you. 
Amen. 

2  Thess.  3.  17. - d  Heb.  13.  3. - e  Heb.  13.  25. 

stimulation  from  a  soul  full  of  fire  to  a 
young  minister  to  do  his  best. 

18.  The  hand  of  me  Paul — Thus 
far  an  amanuensis  had  written  at  his 
dictation.  The  apostle  undertakes  to 
affix  his  own  autograph,  and  as  the 
chain  on  his  right  hand  moves  over  the 
parchment  as  he  writes,  the  thought 
seems  to  occur  that  his  chain  and  his 
imprisonment  are  for  the  sake  of  that 
precious  gospel  which  is  so  grandly 
set  forth  in  the  epistle.  A  sentence 
more  pregnant  with  meaning  than  re¬ 
member  my  bonds,  he  could  hardly 
have  found.  It  is  a  touching  appeal  to 
the  deepest  sympathy  of  his  brethren 
for  himself,  and  to  their  undying  fidel¬ 
ity  to  the  gospel  for  which  he  was  joy¬ 
fully  suffering  so  much. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  FIRST  THESSALONIANS. 


First  written  of  St.  Paul’s  thirteen  apostolical  epistles,  it  stands 
first  in  those  editions  of  the  Greek  Testament,  like  Wetstein’s  and 
Wordsworth’s,  which  give  the  epistles  in  chronological  order.  It 
exhibits  the  freshness  of  the  apostle’s  manhood  in  its  style.  It  deals 
with  the  earlier  foes  of  his  preaching,  the  pagans  and  the  hostile  Jews, 
not  with  the  later,  the  Judaizers  and  the  Gnostics.  It  states  glow¬ 
ingly  the  first  principles  of  the  blessed  gospel;  it  teaches  by  vivid 
picture  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection,  the  advent,  and  the  retribu¬ 
tion  ;  but  enters  into  no  full  elaborations,  like  the  epistles  to  the  Ro- 
mans,  Galatians,  and  Corinthians.  It  is  not  only  in  time  Paul’s  ear¬ 
liest  epistle,  but  it  is  in  freshness,  simplicity,  and  vigour,  his  youngest 
epistle. 

Thessalonica  was  St.  Paul’s  second  European  Church.  Of  his  first 
entrance  there,  after  Ins  shameful  inflictions  at  Philippi;  his  holy  life, 
arduous  manual  labour,  and  impressive  preaching;  his  descriptions  of 
Christ’s  second  advent,  so  vivid  as  to  create  its  “ideal  presence”  in 
the  imagination  of  his  hearers;  his  exaltation  of  Christ  on  the  throne 
of  the  world  so  lofty  as  to  provoke  the  mobocrats  to  arraign  him  be¬ 
fore  the  Demos  on  charge  of  treason  against  Cesar;  and  of  his  final 
discharge  on  bail  by  Jason,  obliging  his  exile  from  the  city,  the  brief 
history  is  given  in  Acts  xvii,  4-9,  where  see  our  Notes. 

The  time  of  the  writing  of  the  epistle  (as  noted  Acts  xviii,  5)  was 
but  a  few  months  after  this  banishment.  His  Thessalonian  converts 
were  inscribed  upon  his  memory.  He  left  Silas  to  sustain  them,  and 
sent  Timothy  to  examine,  and  report  to  him,  their  state.  He  passed  by 
sea  to  Athens,  thence  to  Corinth,  and  there  waited  the  coming  of  Tim¬ 
othy  to  learn  the  fate  of  his  young  Church.  The  joyful  report  brought 
by  this  son  in  the  gospel,”  narrating  persecutions  indeed,  yet  perse¬ 
cutions  heroically  endured,  inspired  the  apostle  to  take  up  his  pen. 
Hence  his  whole  letter  consists,  first,  of  an  exulting  retrospective  his¬ 
tory  of  their  Christian  birth,  life,  and  triumphs;  and,  second,  of  a  pro¬ 
spective  encouragement  and  confirmation  of  their  Christian  future. 

And  this  city  and  Church  were  destined  to  a  great  liistorv  in  thefu- 
ture.  It  was  a  great  metropolis  under  the  power  of  Rome,  in  the  age 


INTRODUCTION  TO  FIRST  TIIESSALONIANS.  331 

of  St.  Paul.  Looking  down  upon  the  Thermaic  Gulf  from  her  central 
position,  Thessalonica  commanded  a  large  share  of  the  commerce  of 
Western  Asia  and  Eastern  Europe.  Her  Christianity  was  adorned  with 
learning,  doctrine,  and  wide-swaying  power.  She  was  for  ages  the 
eastern  bulwark  of  the  faith.  Long  and  bravely  did  she  maintain 
the  contest  against  the  invasions  of  Mohammedan  conquest;  and  Chris¬ 
tian  Europe  was  dismayed  to  the  center  when,  in  1430,  it  was  an¬ 
nounced:  u Thessalonica  has  fallen!”  Under  the  diminished  name 
of  Saloniki  she  is  the  second  city  of  European  Turkey,  containing 
70,000  inhabitants.  Even  at  this  day  the  majority  of  her  population 
is  said  to  be  Christians  of  the  Greek  Church. 

Both  of  the  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians  are  to  be  numbered,  as 
Eusebius  rightly  affirms,  and  even  Renan  confesses,  among  Paul’s  un¬ 
doubted  productions.  They  are  found  in  the  eailicst  translations,  the 
Peshito  and  the  Itala,  and  in  the  earliest  catalogue,  Muratori’s.  Though 
not  very  certainly  quoted  by  the  earliest  fathers,  they  are  quoted  with 
great  clearness  in  the  earliest  golden  age  of  Christian  literature  by 
Irenseus,  Tertullian,  and  Clement  of  Alexandria.  The  internal  evi¬ 
dence,  arising  from  the  true  Pauline  mind  and  style  pervading  the 
epistles,  the  vivid  picture  they  afford  of  this  early  Church,  and  the 
clear  yet  occult  coincidences  with  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  aie  con¬ 
clusive.  Their  genuineness  is  decisively  maintained  against  the 
captious  objections  of  one  or  two  extreme  assailants  by  Lunemann, 

Alford  and  Gloag. 


PLAN  OF  THE  EPISTLE. 


»  ■■  - 

PART  FIRST. 

Retrospective  and  Historical .  i,  3-iii,  13 

1.  Recollections  of  the  Thessalonians’ Christian  faithfulness  i,  3-10 

2.  Retrospect  of  the  Apostle’s  first  incoming  to  Thessalonica  ii,  1-12 

3.  Thessalonica’s  reception  and  faithful  retention  of  St. 

Paul’s  gospel .  ii,  13-16 

4.  St.  Paul’s  anxiety  to  revisit  the  Thessalonians,  but  fail¬ 

ure  hitherto . . .  ii,  17-20 

5.  St.  Paul  sending  Timothy  (from  Athens  ?)  to  visit  and 

confirm  his  Thessalonians .  iii,  1-5 

6.  Timothy’s  return  and  report ;  and  St.  Paul’s  consequent 

feeling  and  present  prayer  for  them .  iii,  6-13 

PART  SECOND. 

Prospective  and  Hortatory . iv,  l-v,  28 

1.  Exhortation  to  sanctification .  iv,  1-8 

2.  Exhortation  to  brotherly  love  and  quietness .  iv,  9-12 

3.  Exhortation  to  composure  in  regard  to  lately- deceased 

brethren,  since  they  will  not  be  overlooked  at  Christ’s 
coming,  now  vividly  described .  iv,  13-18 

4.  The  second  advent,  though  not  at  hand,  will  be  a  sud¬ 

den  surprise  to  those  upon  whom  it  does  come .  v,  1-11 

5.  Closing  charges  and  admonitions,  and  farewell .  v,  12-28 

a.  Fulfilment  of  churchly  duties .  v,  12-15 

b.  Duty  of  Christian  joy . . .  v,  16-18 

c.  Precepts  touching  supernaturalisms .  v,  19-  22 


THE 


FIRST  EPISTLE  TO  THE  THESSALONIANS. 

- ♦♦♦ - 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAUL,  and  aSilvanus,  and  Ti- 
motheus,  unto  the  church  of 

a  2  Cor.  1. 19;  2  Thess.  1.  1; 

CHAPTER  I. 

1.  Paul — Notes  Rom.  i,  1,  and  Acts 
xiii,  9.  For  the  first  time  this  memo¬ 
rable  name  heads  an  apostolic  epistle  to 
a  Church,  and  omitting  his  title  of  apos¬ 
tle.  This  omission  arose  from  the  fact, 
that  no  opposition  to  his  claim  existed, 
as  at  Galatia;  for  the  stronger  ever  the 
denial  of  his  claim,  the  stronger  his  as¬ 
sertion.  And  as  but  a  few  months  ago 
he  had  bidden  farewell  reluctantly  to 
his  dear  Thessalonians,  and  had  longed 
to  revisit  them,  so  this  epistle,  his  only 
substitute  for  that  visit,  needed  not  dis¬ 
play  his  official  rank.  Modesty  is  the 
rule  where  no  necessity  requires  self- 
assertion.  The  triad  of  names,  Paul, 
Sylvanus,  and  Timothy,  are  here 
associated  because  the  apostolic  trio 
that  bore  them  had  together  proclaimed 
the  gospel  to  the  Thessalonians,  and 
were  together  preaching  the  gospel  now 
in  Corinth.  Paul  adds  their  names  cour¬ 
teously  as  being  his  aids ;  and  their 
names,  like  the  names  of  two  witnesses 
signed  to  a  legal  document,  were  a 
voucher  of  the  authenticity  of  the  epis¬ 
tle.  Yet  the  authorship  of  the  epistle 
is  wholly  his ;  it  was  in  no  way  the 
epistle  of  Sylvanus,  but  of  Paul  alone  ; 
and  his  we,  which  may  indicate  that 
they  were  his  penmen,  inferentially 
includes  or  excludes  them,  or  signi¬ 
fies  himself  alone,  as  in  chapter  iii,  1. 
Sylvanus — Called  by  Luke  Silas,  but 
by  both  Paul  and  Peter  by  the  full 
name.  Silas  was  an  abbreviation  of 
Sylvanus  (sylvan  or  woodland)  as  Lu¬ 
cas  was  of  Lucanus,  so  that  Luke  may 
have  used  the  briefer  form  from  fel- 


the  Thessalonians  which  is  in  God 
the  Father  and  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ:  b Grace  be  unto  you,  and 

1  Pet.  5.  12. - b  Eph.  1.  2. 

low  feeling.  See  note  on  Acts  xiii,  1. 
Silas  or  Sylvanus  appears  first  as 
delegate  from  Jerusalem  to  Antioch 
escorting  home  the  delegates  from 
Antioch.  There,  when,  after  a  sad 
separation  from  Barnabas,  Paul  started 
upon  his  second  missionary  tour,  he 
took  Silas  as  a  substitute  for  John 
Mark,  and  comrade  with  Timothy,  as 
his  attendants.  Thence  passing  through 
Asia  Minor  over  the  Hellespont  into 
Europe,  Paul  had  the  faithful  Silas  as 
his  aid.  Together  they  sung  at  mid¬ 
night  in  the  jail  at  Philippi.  Together 
they  laboured  at  Thessalonica,  and  were 
driven  thence  by  the  mob  to  Berea. 
There  Paul  left  them,  departed  to 
Athens  and  thence  to  Corinth,  where 
Silas  and  Timothy  joined  him,  and 
whence  they  now  join  him  in  this  epis¬ 
tle  to  Thessalonica.  As  elder,  and 
more  prominent  as  yet,  (see  note  Acts 
xvii,  10,)  Silas  is  mentioned  before 
Timothy.  Timotheus — See  introduc¬ 
tion  to  1  Tim.  Church  of. .  .Thessa¬ 
lonians.  The  the  is  not  in  the  orig¬ 
inal.  Wordsworth  ingeniously  conjec¬ 
tures  that  St.  Paul  does  not  say  the 
Church  in  Thessalonica ,  because  Paul, 
having  preached  there  but  three  weeks, 
and  not  having  been  able  to  return,  it 
was  not  so  much  an  organized  Church  in 
that  city  as  a  congregation  consisting  of 
Thessalonians.  But  Silas  and  Timo¬ 
thy  remained  some  time,  and  there  is 
every  appearance  that  it  was  a  formed 
and  established  Church.  The  Bourbons 
were  kings  of  France;  the  Bonapartes 
were  emperors  of  the  French.  The  dif¬ 
ference  is  a  matter  of  taste.  In  God  — 


364 


I.  THESSALONIANS. 


A.  D.  53. 


peace,  from  God  our  Father  and 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  2  c  We 
give  thanks  to  God  always  for 
you  all,  making  mention  of  you 
in  our  prayers;  3  d Remembering 

c  Romans  1.  8;  Ephesians  1.  1G;  Philemon  4. 
- d  Chapter  2.  13. - e  John  6.  29  ;  Galatians 

Within  whom  all  things,  including  the 
Church,  are  ;  the  living  all-pervading 
Omnipotence.  But  the  Church  is  in 
God  as  nothing  else  is,  namely,  as  our 
Father.  It  is  in  the  bosom  of  his  pa¬ 
rental  love.  Grace — Note,  Eph.  i,  2. 

As  regards  the  omission  of  St.  Paul’s 
apostolic  title,  Wordsworth  says :  (1)  He 
begins  all  his  epistles  with  his  own  name 
“  Paul,”  except  the  epistle  to  the  He¬ 
brews.  See  Ileb.  i,  1.  (2)  He  adds  to 

his  own  name  the  official  title  of  ajios- 
tle  in  all  his  epistles,  except  the  two  ear¬ 
liest,  and  in  the  epistles  to  Philemon, 
the  Philippians,  and  the  Hebrews,  where 
it  is  omitted  for  special  reasons.  (3)  In 
his  Jive  earliest  epistles  he  addresses 
himself  “to  the  Church,”  etc.,  but  in  no 
others.  (4)  In  his  two  earliest  epistles  he 
addresses  himself  to  the  Church  of  per¬ 
sons  in  the  city,  and  not  “to  the  Church  ” 
in  the  city,  and  in  no  others.  (5)  In  all 
the  other  epistles  he  commences  with  the 
salutation  “to  the  saints,”  etc.  (6)  In 
all  his  epistles  he  commences  with  the 
salutation,  “  Grace  and  peace"  In  all 
his  pastoral  epistles,  “  Grace,  mercy ,  and 
peace."  (7)  In  his  earliest  epistles  he 
uses  the  first  person  plural ,  “we;"  in 
his  later  epistles  the  first  person  singu¬ 
lar,  “I.”  (8)  As  to  his  usage  at  the  close 
of  his  epistles,  see  on  1  Thess.  v,  28. 
(9)  All  these  minute  incidents  indicate 
a  well-prepared  and  well-digested  plan 
in  the  composition  of  his  epistles,  even 
in  the  details  of  diction,  and  much  more 
in  the  delivery  of  doctrine. 

2.  We  give  thanks  to  God — For 
whatever  conditions  man  performs  in 
order  to  salvation,  yet  the  author  of 
that  salvation,  the  bringer  of  it  within 
our  reach,  and  the  empowerer  of  our 
souls  to  accept  it,  is  God.  Upon  these 
thanks  depend  the  three  co-ordinate 
participles,  making  mention,  remem¬ 
bering,  and  knowing.  Making  men¬ 
tion  shows  that  the  thanks  for  them 
were  done  vocally  and  specifically,  in 


without  ceasing  e  your  work  of 
faith,  fand  labour  of  love,  and  pa 
tience  of  hope  in  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  in  the  sight  of  God  and 
our  Father;  4  Knowing,  breth- 

5.  G  ;  chapter  3.  6 ;  2  Thessalonians  1.  3, 11 ;  James 
2.  17.- — -./'Romans  16.  6;  Hebrews  6.  10. _ 

trust  that  the  distinct  act  of  faith  in  their 
behalf  would  bring  on  them  the  divine 
answers.  Always — That  is,  whenever 
our  prayers  are  offered.  Never  were 
his  Thessalonians  forgotten  when  he 
bowed  before  God.  All — Not  that  each 
was  named ;  but  his  comprehensive 
prayer  took  in  every  soul  of  the  church. 

- - 

PART  FIRST. 

RETROSPECTIVE  AND  HIS¬ 
TORICAL,  i,  3-iii,  13. 

1 .  Recollections  of  their  Christian 
faithfulness,  3-10. 

3.  Remembering — The  following 

blessed  facts  as  gifts  to  be  richly  thank¬ 
ful  for,  namely,  your  rich  displays  of 
Christian  character.  Without  ceas¬ 
ing —  The  fulness  of  Paul’s  ardour  for 
them  appears  in  the  fulness  of  his  ex¬ 
pressions,  always,  you  all,  without 
ceasing.  The  objects  of  this  remem¬ 
bering  are  now  mentioned ;  namely, 
the  three  Christian  graces  upon  which 
he  expatiates  in  2  Cor.  xiii.  Faith, 
love,  hope — The  words  work,  labour, 
and  patience  are  in  a  climax  of  increas¬ 
ing  intensity.  Work  of  faith — That 
life-work  of  Christian  activity  which 
faith  inspires,  and  to  which  the  profes¬ 
sion  of  faith  pledges  the  man.  It  was 
by  this  life  of  duty-doing  that  the  pa¬ 
gan  Thessalonians  were  taught  what 
Christianity  is.  Labour  of  love — That 
self-sacrifice  to  which  love  alone  can 
prompt  a  man,  and  which  love  alone 
makes  easy.  Patience  of  hope  — 
Hope-inspired  patience  or  endurance 
The  trials  of  life  and  the  persecutions 
from  pagans  were  endured  with  pa¬ 
tience,  because  of  the  hope  in  (Greek 
of)  Christ,  and  of  that  mighty  advent 
so  vividly  described  in  Paul’s  preaching. 
See  notes  on  Acts  xxiv,  25,  and  2  Thess. 
i,  6-11. 


A  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  I. 


365 


ren  1 * * * * 6 7  beloved,  s  your  election  of 
God.  5  For  hour  gospel  came  not 
unto  you  in  word  only,  but  also  in 
power,  and  1  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 
r  and  in  much  assurance ;  as  1  ye 
know  what  manner  of  men  we 
were  among  you  for  your  sake. 

1  Or,  beloved  of  God-,  your  election. g  Col. 

8.  12 ;  2  Thess.  2. 13. - h  Mark  16.  20 ;  1  Cor.  2.  4 ; 

4.  20. i  2  Cor.  6.  6. fcCol.  2.  2;  Heb.  2.  3. 

4.  Election  of,  or  by,  God — Liine- 
mann  says,  concisely  and  peremptorily  : 
“Election  signifies  the  action  of  God 
by  which  he  predestines  from  eternity 
the  individual  to  faith  in  Christ.  ”  But 
we  have  shown,  in  the  first  chapter  of 
Ephesians,  that  this  election  must  have 
a  definite  and  conditioned  object ,  name¬ 
ly,  the  actual  believer.  God  chooses 
him,  however,  not  only  from  his  faith, 
but  also  unto  still  further  faith,  to  a  holy 
life,  and  to  a  blessed  eternity.  The  apos¬ 
tle  was  knowing  this,  not  from  any 
special  revelation  or  inspiration  in  the 
case,  but  from  the  evidence  they  fur¬ 
nish  both  of  having  met  the  condition 
of  faith,  and  having  carried  out  in  life 
the  blessed,  results  of  faith.  In  verse  5, 
he  shows  how  the  gospel  came  to  them 
in  power,  offering  them  that  election, 
and  in  verse  6  he  shows  how.  they  ac¬ 
cepted  it. 

5.  For  —  Furnishing  evidence  of 
their  election.  Our  gospel — Our  good 
news,  our  blessed  announcement  of 
God’s  eternal  electing  love.  In  word, 
but  not  in  word  only.  Salvation  is 
shaped  into  human  syllables,  but  there 
are  wonders  of  meaning  in  those  sylla¬ 
bles,  a  power,  both  in  themselves,  and 
in  the  ideas  they  present.  The  very 
words  God,  Christ,  heaven,  hell,  have 
intrinsic  power  enough  to  fill  a  man’s 
whole  soul.  Did  he  see  their  stupen¬ 
dous  import  he  would  be  knocked 
down  by  the  conception,  as  Saul  was 
by  the  sight  of  the  risen  Jesus.  The 
poorest  gospel  sermon  ever  heard, 
by  the  drowsiest  preacher  that  ever 
preached,  has  import  enough  in  it  to 
smite  the  congregation  from  their  seats 
to  the  floor.  In  the  Holy  Ghost — 
When  the  divine  Spirit  establishes  the 
words,  then  how  does  the  power 
melt  or  smite  and  break  the  heart! 


6  And  m  ye  became  followers  of 
us,  and  of  the  Lord,  having  re¬ 
ceived  the  word  in  much  afflic¬ 
tion,  n with  joy  of  the  Holy  Ghost: 

7  So  that  ye  were  ensamples  to 
all  that  believe  in  Macedonia  and 
Achaia.  8  For  from  you 0  sounded 

£Chap.  2.  1,  5,  10;  2  Thess.  3.  7. - ml  Cor. 

4.  16;  11.  1 ;  Phil.  3.  17;  chap.  2.  14;  2  Thess.  3.9. 
— -n  Acts  5.  41;  Heb.  10.  34. oRom.  10.  18. 

And  then,  too,  is  the  preacher’s  heart 

filled  with  assurance  and  divine  au¬ 

thority,  so  that  he  carries  all  before 

him.  Paul  is  here  describing,  from  viv¬ 

id  memory,  the  powerful  revival  which 
brought  the  Thessalonian  Church  into 
existence.  Manner  of  men  —  Our 
conduct  and  character  filled  out  the 
programme  of  our  preaching.  We  lived 
the  gospel  as  well  as  spoke  it.  For 
your  sake  and  for  no  success  or  in¬ 
terest  of  our  own. 

6.  And  ye  gave  due  evidence  of 
your  election.  Became  followers 
. . .  received  the  word — The  example 
of  the  preachers  was  followed  after 
their  message  had  been  accepted.  The 
people  took  as  models  those  whom 
they  had  received  as  instructors. 
Happy  the  Church  which  has  an  ex¬ 
emplar  in  its  pastor.  Much  affliction 
— The  persecution  by  which  Paul  and 
his  fellow  preachers  were  expelled 
from  Thessalonica.  By  this  much  af¬ 
fliction  was  the  power  of  that  received 
gospel  demonstrated  and  the  reality  of 
their  election  attested.  Affliction 
•  •  •  j°y — Jason  and  his  fellow  Thessa- 
lonians  rejoiced  in  their  affliction  for 
the  gospel’s  sake. 

7.  Ensamples — This  neither  court¬ 
ing  persecution  nor  shrinking  from  it, 
but  rejoicing  in  it,  was  a  new  thing  in 
Europe.  These  men  who  first  so  did, 
seemed  to  have  invented  a  new  moral 
method,  and  they  became  models,  en¬ 
samples  to  others.  When  by  the 
Spirit’s  power  it  was  once  done,  then 
other  Christians  knew  how  to  do  it 
likewise.  Macedonia  —  Northern 
Greece,  where  you  live.  Achaia — 
Southern  Greece,  whence  we  write. 
As  up  to  the  time  of  the  return  of 
Timothy  from  Thessalonica  to  Paul  at 
Corinth,  Paul  had  learned  nothing  of 


8G6 


I.  TIIESS  ALON  IANS. 


A.  D.  53. 


out  the  word  of  the  Lord  not  on¬ 
ly  in  Macedonia  and  Achaia,  1  >ut 
also  p  in  every  place  your  faith 
to  God-ward  is  spread  abroad ;  so 
that  we  need  not  to  speak  any 
thing.  9  For  they  themselves 
show  of  us  ^  what  manner  of  enter¬ 
ing  in  we  had  unto  you,  rand  how 
ye  turned  to  God  from  idols  to 
serve  the  living  and  true  God ; 

2?  Rom.  1.  8;  2  Thess.  1.  4. - q  Chap.  2. 1. - 

r  1  Cor.  12.  2;  Gal.  4.  8. - 8  Rom.  2.  7;  Phil. 

3  20 ;  Titus  2.  13;  2  Pet.  3.  12;  Ilev.  1.  7. _ 

the  state  of  that  Church,  the  jubilant 
view  of  matters  in  this  and  the  follow¬ 
ing  verse  must  have  been  created  by 
Timothy’s  report,  and  by  concurrent 
news  from  other  sources  about  the 
same  time. 

8.  Sounded  out — As  the  voice  of  a 
trumpet.  Word  of  the  Lord — The 
doctrine  of  the  gospel  to  which  you 
were  reported  to  be  converted.  Men 
learned  what  the  gospel  is  in  being  in¬ 
formed  that  you  had  embraced  it.  In 
every  place — By  Jewish  synagogues 
reporting  how  Jews  had  apostatized 
from  their  unbelief,  and  by  Christian 
Churches  rejoicing  over  your  conver¬ 
sion.  Spread  abroad  —  As  remark¬ 
able  news.  Need  not  to  speak — All 
our  boasts  of  your  conversion  are  an¬ 
ticipated  by  the  statements  of  others 
on  every  hand. 

9.  They  themselves — The  above 
anticipators,  implied  but  not  expressed. 
Manner  of  entering — More  fully  de¬ 
picted  in  ii,  1,  2.  From  idols — From 
the  fabled  Jove  to  the  divine  Jehovah. 
Living  and  true — In  contrast  to  the 
idols,  which  were  lifeless  and  false. 

10.  Wait  —  Christian  life  rests  not 
in  the  present,  but  looks  forward  and 
upward.  It  expects,  hopes,  and  waits. 
Forward,  for  it  has  an  endless  future ; 
upward,  for  its  great  future  event  is  the 
coming  of  Christ  through  the  parting 
skies.  That  is  the  most  solemn  of  all 
events ,  for  it  is  the  day  of  retributive 
doom;  and  the  most  glorious  of  all 
events ,  for  it  is  the  commencement  day 
of  the  Christian’s  everlasting  joy.  Paul's 
preaching  of  this  great  event  thrilled 
the  Thessalonians  through  and  through. 
Christians  of  this  age  have,  necessarily, 


10  And  ’to  wait  for  bis  Son *  1 2  from 
heaven,  u  whom  he  raised  from  the 
dead,  even  Jesus,  which  delivered 
us  v  from  the  wrath  to  come. 

CHAPTER  II. 

FOR  “yourselves,  brethren,  know 
our  entrance  in  unto  you,  that 
it  was  not  in  vain :  2  But  even 

after  that  we  had  suffered  before, 

t  Acts  1.  11;  chap.  4.  16;  2  Thess.  1.  7. - 

u  Acts  2.  24. - v  Matt.  3.  7 ;  Rom.  5.  9;  chap.  5.  9. 

- a  Chap.  1.  5,  9. 

through  lapse  of  time,  a  less  sensuous 
and  nervous  impression  of  the  “  ideal 
presence”  of  the  judgment  throne;  but 
should  possess  a  no  less  vivid  realiza¬ 
tion  of  a  fact  which,  in  its  own  time, 
will  be  present. 

CHAPTER  II. 

2.  Retrospect  of  the  apostle’s  first 
incoming  to  Thessalonica,  1-12. 

Having  already  alluded  (chap,  i,  9)  to 
his  first  entering,  Paul  now,  in  bold 
appeal  to  their  own  memories,  retraces 
the  style  of  that  memorable  entrance. 
He  describes  the  pure  heroic  apostolic 
spirit  in  which  they  knew  he  came. 
Commentators  here  discover  allusions 
to,  and  defences  against,  slanders  of  op¬ 
ponents.  But  we  rather  understand, 
first,  that  the  picture  is  intended  to 
contrast  the  ideal  of  Christianity  with 
the  grossness  of  paganism  ;  but,  second, 
Paul  does  refute  by  the  way  the  hea¬ 
then  imputations  upon  the  Christian 
cause. 

1.  For — Reverting  back  to  the  en¬ 
tering  in  of  i,  9.  of  which  this  section 
1-12  is  a  real  unfolding.  Yourselves 
— No  empty  boast  of  his  own  is  this 
description,  but  a  statement  which 
their  memories  attest.  Entrance — 
When  he  came,  wounded  and  forlorn, 
from  the  jail  and  stripes  of  Philippi 
into  the  synagogue  of  Thessalonica  to 
preach  the  come  Messiah  to  the  Jews, 
the  devout  Greeks,  and  the  eminent 
ladies,  not  a  few,  there.  In  vain — 
Rather,  empty ,  or  inconsequential  in  its 
intrinsic  character.  It  was  an  en¬ 
trance  of  a  momentous  nature. 

2.  But  v.  bold — In  spite  of  our 
wounds  and  dishonours,  brought  from 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  II. 


867 


and  were  shamefully  entreated,  as 
ye  know,  at  b  Philippi,  c  we  were 
hold  in  our  God  dto  speak  unto 
you  the  gospel  of  God  ewith  much 
contention.  3  fFor  our  exhorta¬ 
tion  was  not  of  deceit,  nor  of  un¬ 
cleanness,  nor  in  guile :  4  But  as 
swe  were  allowed  of  God  hto  be 
put  in  trust  with  the  gospel,  even 
so  we  speak;  Giot  as  pleasing  men, 
but  God,  k  which  trieth  our  hearts. 
5  For  Neither  at  any  time  used 


we  flattering  words,  as  ye  know, 
nor  a  cloak  of  covetousness ;  ,n  God 
is  witness :  6  n  Nor  of  men  sought 
we  glory,  neither  of  you,  nor  yet 
of  others,  when  °we  might  have 
1  been  p  burdensome,  Q  as  the  apos¬ 
tles  of  Christ.  7  But  r  we  were 
gentle  among  you,  even  as  a  nurse 
cherisheth  her  children:  8  So  be¬ 
ing  affectionately  desirous  of  you, 
we  were  willing * * * * * * 7  8  to  have  imparted 
unto  you,  not  the  gospel  of  God 


&  Acts  16.  22. - c  Chap.  1.  5. - d  Acts  17.  2. 


e  Phil.  1  30;  Col.  2.  1.— /2  Cor.  772;TPet.'i.  16. 

—~Q  1  Cor.  7.  25;  1  Tim.  1.  12. - hi  Cor.  9.  17; 

Gal.  2.  7‘  Titus  1.  3. - i  Gal.  1.  10. - k  Prov. 

17.  3;  Rom.  8.  27. - ZActs  20.  33  ;  2  Cor.  2.  17. 


wRom.  1.  9. - n  John  5.  41 ;  1  Tim.  5.  17. - 

o  1  Cor.  9.  4, 6 ;  2  Cor.  10.  2 ;  2  Thess.  3. 9 ;  Philem. 

8.  9. - lOr,  used  authority. - v  2  Cor.  11.  9; 

2  Thess.  3.  8. - q  1  Cor.  9.1. - r  1  Cor.2.  3 ;  2  Cor. 

13.  4 ;  2  Tim.  2.  24. - sRom.  1.  11 ;  15.  29. 


Philippi,  we  displayed  a  courage  worthy 
of  our  cause.  Our  God — Not  a  mere 
Jupiter,  sitting  on  Olympus,  but  the 
Infinite,  filling  the  universe.  Con¬ 
tention — As  of  an  athlete  in  severe 
combat.  Alluding,  no  doubt,  to  his 
battles  for  Christianity  with  pagans, 
but  more  especially  with  (Acts  xvii,  5) 
hostile  Jews  and  their  mobocrats. 

3.  How  pure,  as  yourselves  remem¬ 
ber,  was  our  exhortation ;  that  is,  the 
cheer  and  consolation  of  our  blessed 
gospel,  or  glad  announcement.  Of — 
Or  rather,  from  deceit,  as  our  motive. 
Our  preaching  flowed  forth  from  some 
pagan  myth,  or  some  Eastern  mysti¬ 
cism,  or  some  modern  religious  fabri¬ 
cation.  Of — From  uncleanness ;  from 
the  sexual  rites  and  abominations 
which  are  part  of  the  very  religion  of 
heathens.  In — Attended  with.  Guile 
— Crafty  purpose  to  deceive,  and  make 
gain  by  you.  He  was  thus,  as  they 
knew,  pure  from  fable,  lust,  and  guile. 

4.  God . .  .gospel  —  His  announce¬ 
ment  was  traceable  to  no  mythology, 
but  to  God  himself.  And  as  in  trust 
from  the  absolutely  pure,  we  were 
pure  above  all  mere  human  purity. 

5.  Flattering  words — This  solemn 
responsibility  to  God  alone  is  attested 
by  our  words.  Cloak,  or  pretext, 
covering  a  real  covetousness,  or  pur¬ 
pose  to  make  money  by  you.  God  is 
witness — And  the  sincerity  of  this  ap¬ 
peal  to  God  you  know  as  well  as  we, 

6.  Might  have  been  burdensome 
—Says  Renan,  in  his  “  Life  of  Paul:  ” 


“  Ten  times  he  returns  with  pride  to 

the  detail,  apparently  childish,  that  he 

cost  nothing  to  any  one  ;  that  he  has 

not  eaten  any  one’s  bread  gratis ;  that 

he  works  night  and  day,  like  an  artisan, 

although  he  might  have  done  like  other 
apostles,  and  lived  from  the  altar.” 
But  these  ten  repetitions  were  not  to 
the  same  audience.  They  were  state¬ 
ments  of  the  same  rule  applied  to 
various  cases,  the  importance  of  which 
to  his  mission  Paul  knew  better  than 
Renan. 

7.  A  nurse — An  image  of  tender¬ 
ness,  superior  knowledge,  and  care. 
“Paul,”  says  Renan,  “was  an  admi¬ 
rable  missionary.  .  .  .  Never  was  the 
problem  of  human  education  grasped 
in  a  livelier  and  more  intimate  manner. 
Do  not  imagine  that  his  ascendency 
was  won  by  flattery,  by  gentleness. (?) 
No;  Paul  was  churlish,  ugly,  at  times 
passionate.  .  .  .  He  commands ;  he 
blames  severely :  he  speaks  of  himself 
with  assurance,  and  proposes  himself 
as  a  model  without  hesitation.”  (But 
see  our  notes  on  Acts  xx,  17-38.)  “But 
what  loftiness !  What  purity  !  What 
disinterestedness!”  The  word  nurse 
means  nourisher ,  one  who  suckles,  and 
includes  the  mother  here,  as  indicated 
by  the  word  her  own  children.  It 
means  a  being  who  imparts  physio¬ 
logical  life  from  her  own  interior  life. 
And  this  thought  is  intensely  carried 
out  in  the  following  verse. 

8.  Desirous  of  you — Eager  to  get, 
not  yours,  but  you.  Not  the  gospel 


368 


I.  THESS ALONI AN  S. 


A.  D.  53. 


only,  but  also *  1  our  own  souls,  be¬ 
cause  ye  were  dear  unto  us.  9  For 
ye  remember,  brethren,  our  labour 
and  travail:  for  “labouring  night 
and  day,  v  because  we  would  not 
be  chargeable  unto  any  of  you,  we 
preached  unto  you  the  gospel  of 

1 2  Cor.  12.  15. - u  Acts  20.  34;  1  Cor.  4.  12; 

_ 2  Cor.  11.  9 ;  2  Thess.  3.  8. _ 

only  —  As  the  mother  imparts  her 
milk.  Our  own  souls — As  in  the 
milk  the  mother  imparts  her  own  life 
to  her  infant,  sometimes  at  the  expense 
of  life. 

9.  Ye  remember  —  Paul  is  solici¬ 
tous  still  to  ground  his  statements  in 
their  consciousness.  All  this  picture 
is  daguerreotyped  on  the  tablets  of 
their  memory,  and  he  does  but  retrace 
it.  Labour  and  travail — Two  Greek 
words  similarly  coupled  in  2  Cor.  xi,  27, 
(translated  “  weariness  and  painful¬ 
ness,”)  and  2  Thess.  iii,  8 ;  the  latter 
word  last,  climactically  as  the  stronger 
term.  Wordsworth  derives  the  former, 
in  Greek,  from  a  word  signifying  to 
hew,  and  the  latter  from  two  words  sig¬ 
nifying  to  carry  the  logs.  If  this  be  a 
true  etymology  the  words  form  a  pro¬ 
verbial  phrase,  hewing  and  lugging ,  bor¬ 
rowed  from  the  dialect  of  the  primitive 
fellers  of  forests.  Very  applicable,  for 
Paul  is  here  an  aboriginal  feller  of 
moral  forests.  Night  and  day — By 
night,  that  he  might  preach  and  visit 
by  day;  but  also  by  day,  that  he 
might  make  sure  of  his  three  sabbath 
days  of  synagogue  service,  Acts  xvii,  2. 
His  labouring  was  probably  at  his 
trade  of  tent-making,  on  which  see 
note,  Acts  xviii,  3.  From  Phil,  iv, 
15,  16,  it  appears  that  Paul  did  have 
Philippian  aid  in  his  travelling  ex¬ 
penses,  and  also  support  at  Thessaloni- 
ca.  He  was  aided  by  the  Macedoni¬ 
ans  at  Corinth.  Paul  was  a  large 
taxer  of  the  full  formed  and  powerful 
Churches  ;  but  mainly  on  other  objects 
than  himself.  Night  and  day — It  is 
a  striking  proof  how  deeply  the  Gen¬ 
esis  history  was  enshrined  in  the  He¬ 
brew  mind  of  all  ages,  that  night  was  al¬ 
ways  imaged  as  predecessor  of  day. 
And  this  is  philosophical ,  for  darkness, 
as  a  mere  absence,  must  exist  until 


God.  10  wYe  are  witnesses,  and 
God  also,  x  liow  holily  and  justly 
and.  unblamably  we  behaved  our¬ 
selves  among  you  that  believe: 
11  As  ye  know  how  we  exhorted 
and  comforted  and  charged  every 
one  of  you,  as  a  father  doth  his 

v  2  Cor.  12. 13, 14. - w  Chap.  1. 5. — —#2  Cor.  7.  2; 

_ 2  Thess.  3.  7. _ 

light ,  as  the  positive  entity,  comes  into 
being.  But,  though  philosophical,  it  is 
not  the  popularly  natural  impression ; 
for  the  obvious  daily  thought  is,  that 
night  is  the  closing  appendix  to  the 
day,  and  each  new  morning  is  the 
fresh  beginning.  Hence,  though  the 
"Greek  cosmogony,  borrowing  from  the 
primitive,  held  chaos  and  night  to 
precede  day,  yet  that  order  was  lost 
in  popular  phrase,  which  was  day  and m 
night ;  as  is  the  case,  in  spite  of  bibli¬ 
cal  history,  with  us  of  modern  Christian 
Europe  and  America. 

Wordsworth  suggestively  notes  the 
varied  New  Testament  usage.  St.  Paul 
always  puts  night  before  day ,  iii,  10; 

1  Tim.  v,  5  ;  2  Tim.  i,  3.  St.  Luke, 
puts  day  first,  Acts  ix,  24;  except 
where  he  gives,  in  Paul’s  two  speeches, 
the  reverse  order,  Acts  xx,  31,  and  (by 
the  true  reading)  xxvi,  7.  This  is  a 
wonderful  occult  proof,  first ,  that  Luke 
was  a  Gentile.;  and,  second ,  that  his 
record  is  a  true  verbal  report  of  St. 
Paul’s  language.  Luke  ii,  37  is  proba¬ 
bly  in  a  Hebrew  document.  In  xviii,  7, 
he  probably  gives  his  own  order. 

St.  John  gives,  in  the  Apocalypse,  the 
phrase  day  and  night  five  times,  iv,  8  ; 
vii,  15;  xii,  10;  xiv,  11,  {day  nor  night,) 
xx,  10.  This  has  an  important  bearing 
on  the  question  whether  John  means 
the  Hebrew  hours  in  John  xix,  14. 

10.  Holily — As  in  God’s  presence. 
Justly  —  With  strict  integrity  toward 
men.  Unblamably — Avoiding  evil 
constructions  by  others.  You  that 
believe  —  And  who  had  opportunity 
to  judge  us  most  truly. 

11.  Exhorted — By  presenting  ear¬ 
nest  motives;  comforted,  in  view  of 
persecutions  and  trials,  by  presenting 
heavenly  consolations;  charged,  or 
adjured ,  as  in  the  presence  of  an  all- 
seeing  God,  our  witness  and  judge. 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER.IL 


869 


children,  12  y  That  ye  would 
walk  worthy  of  God,  2  who  hath 
called  you  unto  his  kingdom  and 
glory. 

13  For  this  cause  also  thank  we 
God  *  without  ceasing,  because, 
when  ye  received  the  word  of  God 
which  ye  heard  of  us,  ye  received  it 
[’not  as  the  word  of  men,  but  as  it 
is  in  truth,  the  word  of  God,  which 


effectually  worketli  also  in  you  that 
believe.  14  For  ye,  brethren,  be¬ 
came  followers  cof  the  churches  of 
God  which  in  Judea  are  in  Christ 
Jesus:  for  dye  also  have  suffered 
like  things  of  your  own  country¬ 
men,  e  even  as  they  have  of  the 
Jews:  15  fWho  both  killed  the 
Lord  Jesus,  and  *  their  own  proph¬ 
ets,  and  have  2 persecuted  us;  and 


l/Eph.  4.  1;  Phil.  1.  27;  Col.  1.  10;  chap.  4.  1. 
—si  Cor.  1.  9;  chap.  5.  24;  2Thess.  2. 14;  2  Tim. 

9.-— -oChap.  1.  3. - b  Matt.  10.  40 ;  Gal.  4. 14; 

2  Pet.  3.  2. 


VrrrS  h 13- — eHeh  10- 

g3’3?-— ^Acts 2  23  ;  3. 15 ;  5.  30. - g  Matt.  5. 12 ; 

3.  34,  37;  Luke  13.  33,  34;  Acts  7.  52. - 2  Or 

chased  us  out. 


12.  Called  you — In  consequence  of 
your  faith  in  Christ.  Kingdom — After 
the  judgment-day.  And  glory — The 
resplendence  that  eternally  fills  that 

kingdom. 

_  So  closes  St.  Paul’s  description  of 

his  entrance,  labouring,  and  gospel 
in  Thessalonica,  for  which  Thessalonica 
is  his  witness.  How  they  received 
he  will  now  be  their  witness. 

3.  Thessalonica’s  reception  and 
faithful  retention  of  St.  Paul’s  gos¬ 
pel,  13-16. 

As  the  last  paragraph,  vv.  1-12,  is 
an  expansion  of  chap,  i,  5,  which  gives 
the  powerful  preaching  of  the  gospel 
as  proof  of  the  divine  election  (ver.  4) 
of  the  Thessalonians,  so  this  paragraph 
(vv.  13-16)  is  an  expansion  of  chap,  i, 
6,  giving  their  acceptapce  of  the  gospel 
as  the  complete  proof  of  their  divine 
election.  For  such  election  implies 
a  true  offer  of  the  gospel  and  a  true 
acceptance. 

13.  Thank  we  God— From  whom 
the  power  of  accepting  comes.  Re¬ 
ceived —  By  the  ear.  Received — 
Different  Greek  word  from  the  former 
received,  signifying  acceptance  by 
will.  Word  of  God — It  was  preached 
as  gospel  of  God,  and  was  corre- 
spondently  accepted  as  word  of  God. 
Effectually — But  not  resistlessly, 
worketh.  Yet  conviction  is  often  re¬ 
sistless,  though  conversion  be  free  and 
voluntary.  And  if  powerful  conver¬ 
sion  be  ever  resistless,  perseverance  is 
not.  St.  Paul  declares  that  their  ac¬ 
ceptance  was  by  divine  inworking 
spirit  and  grace,  just  as  the  preaching 
was  in  our  God.  There  was  a  double 

VoL.  IV.— 24 


correspondent  divine  work  in  the  offer 
and  in  the  acceptance,  which  in  neither 
case  excluded  the  freedom  of  man,  but 
in  both  cases  called  for  thanks  to  God, 
chap,  i,  2,  and  ii,  13. 

14.  Churches. .  .in  Judea— Paul’s 
memory  now  runs  from  his  European 
experience  back  to  his  Palestinean 
experience.  The  conversion  of  his 
Thessalonians,  and  their  perseverance 
against  persecution,  reminds  him  of 
the  earlier  conversion  of  Churches  in 
Judea,  and  the  terrible  contest  they 
suffered  from  their  Jewish  kindred. 
And  he  now  ranks  his  young  Church 
here  on  the  same  footing  with  those 
suffering  saints  of  the  early  day,  whose 
work  had  already  become  historical. 
These  young  converts  were  true  fol¬ 
lowers,  imitators  of  the  true  primi¬ 
tive  models.  Have  suffered  —  Your 
sufferings  for  Christ  are  the  true  badge 
of  your  identity  with  the  earlier  suf¬ 
ferers.  Own  countrymen  —  Kindred 
Gentiles.  They  ...  of  the  Jews  — 
Gentiles  were  persecuted  by  Gentiles, 
as  Jews  by  Jews.  Generally,  the  ear¬ 
liest  persecutions  were  by  Jews.  More 
slowly  did  the  Romans  pass  edicts 
against  Christianity. 

15.  Who — After  having  mentioned 
Jews,  Paul’s  mind  runs  up  the  line  of 
Hebrew  history  and  traces  the  persecu¬ 
tions  which  the  good  and  holy  have  re¬ 
ceived  at  Hebrew  hands.  They  killed 
Jesus,  their  own  prophets,  and  final¬ 
ly  Paul  includes  us  in  the  line  of  virtual 
martyrs.  And  so  even  his  Thessalo¬ 
nians  are  also  in  the  sacred  line  of  holy 
sufferers.  Thence  his  thought  runs 
down  the  line  of  Jewish  sin.  Please 


370 


I.  THESS ALONI AN S. 


A.  D  53. 


tlicy  please  not  God,  hand  are  con¬ 
trary  to  all  men:  10  'Forbidding 
us  to  speak  to  the  Gentiles  that 
they  might  be  saved,  kto  fill  up 
their  sins  always :  1  for  the  wrath  is 
come  upon  them  to  the  uttermost. 

17  But  we,  brethren,  being  tak- 

h  Esth.  3.  8. i  Luke  11. 52 ;  Acts  13.  50 ;  14. 19 ; 

17.  13;  18.  12;  19.  9;  22.  21,  22. - k  Gen.  15.  16; 


not  God  —  Though  hereditary  mono¬ 
theists,  worshipping  with  a  divinely 
appointed  ritual  in  the  Holy  Land,  and 
resorted  to  by  devout  pagans,  they 
nevertheless  please  not  God,  because 
they  receive  not  his  Messiah.  Con¬ 
trary  to  all  men — Almost  repeating 
the  words  of  Tacitus,  the  Roman  his¬ 
torian,  adversus  omnes  alios  hostile  odi¬ 
um ,  “  a  hatred  against  all  others.” 
The  exclusiveness  of  their  monotheism 
alone  would  not  justify,  though  it  prob¬ 
ably  occasioned,  this  charge.  But  to 
that  the  Jews  added  a  fanatical  con¬ 
tempt  of  others  instead  of  a  benevo¬ 
lence.  It  was  this  fanaticism  that  not 
only  prevented  their  accepting  Christ, 
but  inspired  them  to  persecute  Paul 
for  presenting  Christ  to  either  Jews  or 
Gentiles. 

16.  Forbidding.  .  .speak. .  .Gen¬ 
tiles  —  See  note  on  Acts  xxi,  40. 
Saved — Through  faith  in  Christ.  All 
this  they  do  to  this  sad  result,  namely, 
to  fill,'  etc.  Always — Persistently. 
The  wrath — Which  belongs  to  them 
as  a  race  fallen  by  apostasy.  The  ut¬ 
termost — Literally,  the  end ,  the  final¬ 
ity,  the  ultimate  downfall  inflicted  by 
the  wrath,  in  consequence  of  their 
apostasy.  Rom.  ix,  21,  22.  The  most 
conspicuous  manifestation  of  this  end 
was  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem. 

St.  Paul  here  speaks  severely  but  ju¬ 
dicially,  and  worthily  of  the  prophetic 
spirit.  No  mere  human  love  for  his 
people  ever  surpassed  his.  Rom.  ix, 
1-5.  Yet  from  his  first  conversion 
Judaism  pursued  him  with  reckless 
hate,  just  because  his  great  heart 
opened  wide  for  the  conversion  of 
mankind.  He  was  held  false  to  Juda¬ 
ism,  because  he  was  true  to  humanity. 
The  Jews  arrested  him  in  their  temple, 
arraigned  him  before  Lysias,  before 


en  from  you  for  a  short  time  min 
presence,  not  in  heart,  endeavoured 
the  more  abundantly  “to  see  your 
face  with  great  desire.  18  Where¬ 
fore  we  would  have  come  unto 
you,  even  I  Paul,  once  and  again ; 
but  “Satan  hindered  us.  19  For 


Matt.  23.  32. - 1  Matt.  24.  6, 14. - m  1  Cor.  5.  3  ; 

Col.  2.  5. - n  Chap.  3. 10. - o  Rom.  1. 13 ;  15.  22. 


Felix,  before  Festus,  and  finally  before 
Nero,  and  the  only  reason  why  the}' 
did  not  execute  him  was,  because  no 
pagan  court  would  sanction  their  hate. 

4.  St.  Paul’s  anxiety  to  revisit 
the  Thessalonians,  but  failure  hith¬ 
erto,  17-20. 

17.  In  the  whole  of  this  and  the  fol¬ 
lowing  paragraph,  St.  Paul’s  we  refers 
to  himself,  without  including  Silas  and 
Timothy.  Yet  it  is  not  quite  correct  to 
translate  it,  with  Conybeare,  by  I;  for 
the  apostle  has  a  right  to  call  himself 
we  in  English  if  he  prefers,  as  well  as 
in  Greek.  Note,  chap,  i,  1.  A  short 
time — Literally,  the  period  of  an  hour. 
The  first  hour  I  left  your  presence  I 
longed  to  see  you.  Your  face — The 
images  of  their  features,  fresh  in  mem¬ 
ory,  heightened  his  interest  for  their 
welfare. 

18.  Come  unto  you — He  was  driv¬ 
en  from  Thessalonica  to  Berea.  He 
would  have  gone  back  again  from  Be¬ 
rea  to  Thessalonica,  but  Satan  inspired 
the  Thessalonian  Jews  to  track  him  to 
Berea,  and  he  was  driven  from  Berea 
seaward  to  Athens.  Chap,  iii,  1.  I 
Paul — An  intimation  that  his  we  in 
this  connexion  means  I,  and  that  the 
language  represents  his  own  personal 
feeling.  Satan  —  The  personal  devil , 
(comp.  chap,  iii,  5,)  in  whose  existence, 
therefore,  Paid  not  merely  believes, 
but  refers  to  his  agenev  even  such 
comparatively  trifling  and  external  mat¬ 
ters,  because  therein  there  lies  prepared 
a  hinderance  to  the  kingdom  of  God, 
(compare  Eph.  vi,  1 2 ;  otherwise  Rom. 
i,  13 ;  xv,  22;  Acts  xvi,  6,  sq.)  The  apos¬ 
tle,  then,  does  not  every- where,  and  as 
a  matter  of  course,  speak  of  Satan,  but 
he  knows  how,  with  testing  insight,  to 
distinguish.  In  what  this  Satanic  hin¬ 
derance  consisted  we  know  not;  but  it 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTERS  II,  III. 


371 


p  wliat  is  our  hope,  or  joy,  or 
*  crown  of  3  rejoicing?  Are  not 
even  ye  in  the  presence  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  rat  his  coming? 
20  For  ye  are  our  glory  and  joy. 

V  2  Cor.  1. 14;  Phil.  2.  16 ;  4. 1. - q  Prov.  16.  31* 

* — 3 Or,  glorying? r  1  Cor.  15.  23;  chap. 3. 13; 

must  have  been  something  of  evil ,  ei¬ 
ther  on  the  side  of  the  Thessalonians,  or 
on  that  of  Paul.  In  the  first  case,  we 
should  have  to  think  of  the  enemies  of 
the  gospel  at  Tliessalonica,  whose  hatred 
had  been  a  source  of  danger  to  the 
apostle  on  his  arrival  at  Tliessalonica. 
In  the  other  case,  perhaps  of  trials  in 
the  Churches ,  where  Paul  had  since  been, 
which  rendered  a  removal  from  them 
impossible  for  him.  Or,  perhaps,  of 
some  sickness  of  the  apostle.  And  in 
connexion  with  this  we  might  think  of 
Satan’s  messenger,  (2  Cor.  xii,  7,)  a  top¬ 
ic,  it  is  true,  on  which  we  know  noth¬ 
ing  certain.  (Comp,  also  chap,  iii,  7.) 
It  is  even  very  possible  that  both  kinds 
of  reasons  concurred :  that  the  first 
time,  for  example,  (and  this  would  best 
agree  with  verse  17,)  Paul  desired  to 
turn  back  again  to  Tliessalonica  from 
Berea,  but  was  hindered  in  that  by  the 
Thessalonian  Jews.  Acts  xvii,  13. 

Wordsworth  notes  that  the  Hebrew 
name  Satan  is  remarkable  in  this  first 
of  St.  Paul’s  epistles. 

19.  For  —  Momentous  reason  for 
this  intense  anxiety.  His  young  con¬ 
verted  Church  was  his  all;  his  hope, 
joy,  crown  of  rejoicing.  He  asserts 
this  more  vividly  by  question  than 
could  be  done  by  affirmation.  For  his 
question  is  again  an  appeal  to  them, 
(note  verse  1,)  and  he  expects  and 
inwardly  hears  their  joyful  answer. 
Presence. .  .Christ.  .  .coming — The 
presence  of  that  coming  is  present 
to  his  and  their  thought.  If  they  are 
saved  in  that  glorious  presence,  it  will 
be  his  crown  to  have  instrumentally 
saved  them.  They  will  stand  as  glo¬ 
rious  witnesses  of  his  faithfulness  to 
the  divine  Master,  as  he  can  testify 
how  they  turned  from  dumb  idols  to 
his  glorious  service.  Such  is  the  apos¬ 
tle’s  joy  and  interest  in  his  converts ; 
type  of  the  interest  and  joy  of  every 
minister  of  Jesus  over  his  work.  Trials 


CHAPTER  III. 
HEREFORE  a  when  we 
could  no  longer  forbear,  bwe 
thought  it  good  to  be  left  at  Athens 
alone ;  2  And  sent c  Timotheus,  our 

Rev.  1.  7;  22.  12. - aVerse  5. - &Acts  17.  15. 

- c  Rom.  16.  21 ;  1  Cor.  16.  10;  2  Cor.  1.  19. 

and  privations  that  minister  may  suffer 
now  ;  too  great,  indeed,  for  endurance, 
but  that  he  may  count  his  results  as 
his  crown  in  the  day  of  Christ’s  pres¬ 
ence  and  coming. 

20.  For — In  the  response  which  his 
questions  are  assumed  by  his  heart  to 
have  drawn  from  them,  St.  Paul  joins 
with  a  hearty  affirmation . 

CHAPTER  III. 

5.  St.  Paul’s  sending  Timothy 
(from  Athens  ?)  to  visit  and  con¬ 
firm  his  Thessalonians,  iii,  1-5. 

1.  Forbear — The  old  Greek  word 
for  this  signified  first  to  cover,  after¬ 
ward  to  contain ,  and  finally  to  contain 
or  restrain  one’s  self.  Thought  it  good 
— Note  on  the  noun  of  this  verb ,  Eph. 
i,  5.  Alford  remarks  here  that  the 
word  does  not  carry  with  it  any  signi¬ 
fication  of  pleasure  except  so  far  as  we 
say  “it  was  our  pleasure,”  referring 
merely  to  the  resolution  of  the  will. 
But  “pleasure,”  in  the  ordinary  Eng¬ 
lish  sense  of  the  word,  signifying  mere¬ 
ly  emotional  agreeableness ,  never  be¬ 
longs  to  the  words.  The  Greek  term 
is  compounded  of  ev,  well,  or  right) 
and  donee),  to  seem  or  appear ,  or  to 
think.  Hence,  when  used  in  public 
decrees,  it  means,  such  is  the  right- 
seeming  unto  us,  the  authorities.  That 
right-seeming  claims  to  be  the  just 
ground  of  the  decree.  It  is  an  abso¬ 
lutely  just  right-seeming  when  the  au¬ 
thority  is  an  absolutely  just  one. 
When  such  an  authority  in  English 
uses  the  phrase,  it  is  our  pleasure ,  as 
equivalent  to  the  Greek  phrase,  the 
word  pleasure  has  not  its  sense  of  mere 
gratification ,  but  of  right- seeming ;  and 
of  decree  accordant  with  that  right- 
seeming.  Paul’s  right-seeming  was  the 
right-seeming  of  a  right-minded  think¬ 
er.  Left  at  Athens  alone — Bv  Timo- 
thy.  When  Paul  embarked  for  Athena 
from  Berea,  he  sent  back  command  for 


372 


I.  TIIESSALONIANS. 


A.  D.  53. 


brother,  and  minister  of  God,  and 
our  fellow  labourer  in  the  gospel 
of  Christ,  to  establish  you,  and  to 
comfort  you  concerning  your  faith  : 
3  dThat  no  man  should  be  moved 
by  these  afflictions:  for  yourselves 
know  that e  we  are  appointed  there¬ 
unto.  4  f  For  verily,  when  we 
were  with  you,  we  told  you  before 
that  we  should  suffer  tribulation; 
even  as  it  came  to  pass,  and  ye 
know.  5  For  this  cause,  ewlien  I 
could  no  longer  forbear,  I  sent  to 
know  your  faith,  h  lest  by  some 


means  the  tempter  have  tempted 
you,  and  'our  labour  be  in  vain. 

G  k  But  now  when  Timothe- 
us  came  from  you  unto  us,  and 
brought  us  good  tidings  of  your 
faith  and  charity,  and  that  ye  have 
good  remembrance  of  us  always, 
desiring  greatly  to  see  us,  1 * * * * 6 7 8 9  as  we 
also  to  see  you  :  7  Therefore, 

brethren,  mwe  were  comforted  over 
you  in  all  our  affliction  and  dis¬ 
tress  by  your  faith:  §  For  now 
we  live,  if  ye  "stand  fast  in  the 
Lord.  9  °For  what  thanks  can 


d  Eph.  3.  13. - e  Acts  9.  16;  14.  22;  20.  23; 

21.  11;  1  Cor.  4.  9;  2  Tim.  3.  12;  1  Pet.  2.  21. - 

/"Acts  20.  24. - q  Verse  1. - h  1  Cor.  7.  o ;  2  Cor. 


11.3. - i  Gal.  2.  2;  4.  11;  Phil.  2.  16. - *Acts 

18.  1,  5.^-1  Phil.  1.  8. - m  2  Cor.  1. 4 ;  7.  6,  7,  13. 

- n  Phil.  4.  1. - oChap.  1.  2. 


Silas  and  Timothy  to  follow  him  to 
Athens.  Acts  xvii,  15.  This  Timothy 
may  have  obeyed,  and  thus  St.  Paul 
and  Timothy  may  have  been  briefly  to¬ 
gether  in  Athens.  But  in  time,  as  here 
narrated,  Paul’s  anxiety  for  his  Thes- 
salonians  became  so  great  that  he  con¬ 
cluded  to  send  Timothy  back  again  to 
them,  though  he  would  be  thereby  left 
at  Athens  alone.  It  does  not  appear 
that  Silas  came  to  Athens.  But  both 
joined  St.  Paul  at  Corinth.  Acts  xviii,  5. 

2.  Brother  . . .  minister  . .  .  fellow 
labourer — Such  are  the  terms  in  which 
St.  Paul  commends  Timothy  to  Thessa- 
lonica.  While  at  Philippi  and  Thessa- 
lonica  Timothy  seems  to  have  been  a 
silent  servitor  to  the  apostle.  But  he 
was  every  day  growing.  In  spite  of 
youth  and  modesty,  St.  Paul  knew  that 
he  was  competent  to  be  not  only  a 
messenger,  but  a  gentle  confirmer  of 
the  waning  faith  of  the  tried  Tliessa- 
lonians. 

3.  These  afflictions — The  persecu¬ 
tions  encountered  from  their  country¬ 
men.  Chap,  ii,  14.  Appointed  there¬ 
unto  —  To  suffer  these  persecutions  is 
the  very  mission  to  which  we  as 
Christians  are  appointed.  They  are 
the  severe  yet  glorious  lot  of  our  sacred 
profession. 

4.  We  told  you  before — Of  that 
hard  but  holy  mission  you  were  fairly 
forewarned. 

5.  For  this  cause  —  Their  afflic¬ 
tions  :  an  earnest  repetition.  It  was 


not  for  cause  of  mere  homesick  long- 

ingforthem;  but  for  cause  of  their 

trials  and  the  persistence  of  their  faith, 

and  the  surety  of  their  eternal  salva¬ 

tion,  that  he  could  no  longer  forbear. 
The  tempter — Satan,  chap,  ii,  18,  by 
himself  or  his  human  agents. 

6.  Timothy’s  return  and  report ; 
and  St.  Paul’s  consequent  feeling 
and  present  prayer  for  them,  6-13. 

6.  From  Thessalonica  Timothy  re¬ 
turns  and  reports  to  St.  Paul  at  Corinth. 
See  note,  Acts  xviii,  4.  The  apostle,  who 
up  to  that  arrival  had  hardly  been  him¬ 
self  at  Corinth,  takes  new  life.  The 
rich  outburst  of  exultation  here  is  a  de¬ 
lightful  commentary  on  Luke’s  account 
of  his  then  revolution  of  feeling.  Good 
tidings — The  Greek  word  for  gospel. 
Timothy’s  report  was  a  very  evangel  to 
our  apostle.  Three  delightful  facts 
Timothy  reported :  their  faith,  or  firm 
persistence,  spite  of  persecution,  in 
Christian  truth;  their  love,  evincing 
the  beauty  of  Christian  goodness  ;  their 
remembrance  of  their  apostle,  to 
which  remembrance  his  mindful  love 
was  responsive. 

7.  Comforted.  .  .in  all  our  afflic¬ 
tion — Both  in  his  anxiety  for  them  and 
his  depression,  as  to  Corinth.  Note  on 
Acts  xvii,  4,  5. 

8.  We  live — We  were  lifeless ,  dead , 
until  your  life  and  love  revived  us. 

9.  Thanks ...  render — Our  apostle 
now  first  descril  es  his  thanks,  his  joy, 
his  nightly  and  daily  prayers  over  the 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  III. 


873 


we  render  to  God  again  for  you, 
for  all  the  joy  wherewith  we  joy 
for  your  sakes  before  our  God  ; 
10  p  Night  and  day  q  praying  ex¬ 
ceedingly  r  that  we  might  see  your 
face, 8 and  might  perfect  that  which 
is  lacking  in  your  faith  ?  11  Now 
God  himself  and  our  Father,  and 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,*  1 1  direct  our 
way  unto  you.  12  And  the  Lord 
u  make  you  to  increase  and  abound 

V  Acts  26.  7;  2  Tim.  1.  3. - </Rom.  1.  10, 11 ; 

15.  32. - r  Chap.  2.  17. - 8  2  Cor.  13.  9,  11 ; 

Col.  4.  12. - 1  Or,  guide. - 1  Mark  1.  3. - 

u  Chap.  4.  10. 

news  from  Thessalonica ;  and,  then , 
breaks  forth  into  one  of  those  same 
prayers  in  their  behalf. 

10.  See  your  face — Repeatedly  St. 
Paul  did  pass  through  Thessalonica  and 
confirm  and  make  powerful  that  future 
stronghold  of  Christian  faith.  Lack¬ 
ing —  Literally,  the  lackings ,  deficien¬ 
cies,  or  falterings  of  your  faith, 
whether  of  belief  in  Christian  truth  or 
firmness  of  Christian  profession. 

11.  Now — And  now  the  prayer 
flows  forth.  It  is  three  prayers  in  one  : 
first ,  for  a  divinely  directed  way  unto 
them  :  second ,  a  perfecting  of  love  ; 
and,  third,  an  unblameable  fitness 
for  the  coming  of  Christ.  The  first 
is  impliedly  in  order  to  the  second,  and 
both  expressly  in  order  to  the  third. 
May  God  himself  accomplish  what  I 
have  in  vain  attempted,  namely,  di¬ 
rect,  etc.  It  is  a  striking  fact  that  both 
here  and  in  2  Thess.  ii,  16,  17,  the  verb 
is  singular  in  the  Greek  with  God  and 
Christ  for  the  nominative;  a  striking 
proof  of  the  apostle’s  assumption  of 
their  oneness.  Unto  you — Not  sim¬ 
ply  in  order  to  gratify  our  affection,  but 
in  order  to  your  Christian  confirmation 
and  perfection. 

12.  Abound  in  love.  .  .toward  all 

— As  the  central  Christian  grace,  which 
includes  or  implies  all  others. 

13.  Unblameable  in  holiness  — 
Not,  as  Olshausen  interprets,  that  holi-  ’ 
ness  which  consists  in  Christ  in  us,  in¬ 
visible  here  but  made  visible  hereafter  ; 
nor  in  the  perfect  keeping  of  the  Christ- 
less  law;  but  in  a  personal  holiness 
wrought  in  us  by  Christ,  whereby  we 


in  love  vone  toward  another,  and 
toward  all  men ,  even  as  we  do  tow¬ 
ard  you:  13  To  the  end  he  may 
Establish  your  hearts  unblameable 
in  holiness  before  God,  even  our 
Father,  at  the  coming  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  x  with  all  his  saints. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

URTHERMORE  then  we  be¬ 
seech  you,  brethren,  and  2ex- 

v  Chap.  4.  9;  5.  15;  2  Pet.  1.  7. - w  1  Cor.  1.  8; 

Phil.  1.  10;  chap.  5.  23;  2  Thess.  2.  17;  1  John  3. 
20,  21. - a?  Zech.  14.  5;  Jude  14. - 1  Or,  re¬ 
quest. - 2  Or,  beseech. 

are  enabled  so  to  avoid  sin  and  so  to 
live  in  a  perfect  repentance  for  all  in¬ 
firmities  as  to  receive  the  ever  continu¬ 
ing,  forgiving  power  of  Christ’s  blood, 
and  a  continuous  uncondemning  ac¬ 
ceptance  with  God.  At  the  coming 
— And  this  personal  holiness,  wrought 
by  the  cross  of  Christ,  can  stand  scru¬ 
tiny  at  the  throne  of  Christ.  He  who 
is  in  perpetual  forgiveness  of  us  here, 
will  not  condemn  us  there.  Since  he 
will  see  that  all  our  blamelessness, 
though  attained  by  us,  is  wrought  by 
him.  With  all  his  saints — Bringing 
their  blessed  spirits  from  Paradise  to 
the  resurrection  scene.  But  in  the  Old 
Testament,  as  Olshausen  remarks,  the 
term  lor  saints,  holy  ones ,  “  undeniably 
means  angels ,  as  in  Psa.  lxxxix,  7 ;  Zech. 
xiv,  5;  Dan.  viii,  13;  ix,  20.  Besides, 
angels  are  named  as  accompanying 
Christ  in  his  advent.  Matt,  xvi,  27 ; 
xxv,  31 ;  2  Thess.  i,  7  ;  Jude  14.” 

- - 

PART  SECOND. 

THE  PROSPECTIVE  AND  HOR¬ 
TATORY  SECTION,  iv,  1-v,  28. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

1.  Exhortation  to  sanctification. 

1-8. 

1.  Furthermore — Aonrov  ovv.  Fi¬ 
nally,  then.  The  writer  has  finished 
;he  history,  and  proposes  to  conclude  ; 
Jut  his  conclusion ,  in  the  glow  of 
Fought,  becomes  nearly  as  long  as  his 
history.  The  then ,  or  therefore ,  indicates 
that  this  second,  or  hortatory  part,  is 


374 


I.  THESSALONIANS. 


A.  D  53. 


hort  you  l>y  the  Lord  Jesus,  *that 
as  ye  have  received  of  us  b  how 
ye  ought  to  walk  cand  to  please 
God,  so  ye  would  abound  more  and 
more.  2  For  ye  know  what  com¬ 
mandments  we  gave  you  by  the 

a  Philippians  1.  27 ;  Colossians  2.  6. - b  Chap¬ 
ter  2.  12. c  Colossians  1. 10. - cl  Romans  12.  2 ; 

Ephesians  5.  17. 

deduced  from  the  first  part,  and  spe¬ 
cially  from  chap,  iii,  13,  the  stablish 
...holiness.  Beseech  you... and 
exhort  —  Literally,  we  ask  you ,  as  a 
favour;  and  we  exhort  you  as  your 
duty.  By — Rather,  in.  It  is  not  ad- 
juratory,  but  states  the  exhortation  to 
be  in  Jesus.  How  —  Literally,  the 
how ;  the  method  and  type  of  the  new 
Christian  holiness,  unknown  to  the 
world  hitherto.  Abound — If  we  have 
the  true  type  of  holiness,  we  cannot  be 
too  holy,  although  we  may  make  too 
high  a  profession  ;  and  we  may  change 
the  type  by  giving  it  an  overdoing  spir¬ 
it.  The  true  type  recognises  the  prop¬ 
er  modifications. 

2.  For  ye  know — Again  appealing 
to  their  memories  as  to  the  how  en¬ 
joined  by  the  commandments  which 
he  gave  in  his  preaching  while  with 
them.  By  —  Rather,  through  Jesus; 
as  their  moral  commandments  were 
first  given  by  him. 

3.  For  this — To  sum  up  the  whole 
of  these  commandments.  Will  — 
Without  the  Greek  article ,  a  will.  So 
Bengel,  “  Many  are  God’s  wills  or  vo¬ 
litions.  Acts  xiii,  22.”  But  it  is  a 
very  dangerous  distinction  which  some 
theologians  make,  (as  Barnes  here,)  be¬ 
tween  God’s  decree  or  “  secret  will,” 
and  his  commandments  or  “  revealed 
will;  ”  as  if  God  decreed  one  thing  and 
commanded  its  opposite.  Sanctifica¬ 
tion — Holiness  ;  avoidance  of  evil  and 
practice  of  good,  through  the  blessed 
guidance  and  aid.  Abstain  from  for¬ 
nication — Which  abstain  is  a  partic¬ 
ular  branch  of  sanctification;  the 
negative ,  of  which  verse  4  gives  the 
positive. 

4.  Vessel — Some  ancient  and  most 
modern  commentators  (including  Wes¬ 
ley  and  Clarke)  understand  by  this 
word  wife;  our  translators,  the  Vul- 


Lord  Jesus.  JJ  For  this  is  dtlie 
will  of  God,  even  eyour  sanctifica¬ 
tion,  f  that  ye  should  abstain  from 
fornication:  4  *That  every  one 
of  you  should  know  how  to  pos¬ 
sess  his  vessel  in  sanctification  and 

^Ephesians  5.  27. — f\  Corinthians  6.  15,  18; 

Ephesians  5.3;  Colossians  3.  5. - g  Romans  6. 

19;  1  Corinthians  6.  15,  18. 

gate,  and  many  commentators,  under¬ 
stand  the  body.  If  the  meaning  be 
wife,  then  Paul’s  advice  is,  avoid  forni¬ 
cation  by  getting  a  wife  and  living  in 
chaste  matrimony.  The  authority  for 
this  import  of  the  term  vessel  is  not 
strong.  It  is  used  in  that  sense  by  the 
Itabbies,  but  not  by  St,  Paul  or  any 
sacred  writer.  Lunemann  argues  vig¬ 
orously  for  that  meaning  here,  quot¬ 
ing  the  usual  Rabbinical  passages. 
So  Megilla  on  Esther  i,  11,  thus  com¬ 
ments:  “At  Ahasuerus’  feast,  certain 
impious  persons  said  that  the  Medic 
ladies  were  the  more  beautiful :  others 
the  Persian.  Said  Ahasuerus  to  them. 
“  My  vessel ,  which  I  use,  is  neither  Me¬ 
dic  nor  Persic,  but  Chaldaic.’  ”  That 
Paul  ever  was  aware  of  this  import  is 
not  hereby  proved:  and  certain  it  is  he 
never  elsewhere  uses  the  word  vessel 
in  the  sense  of  wife,  or  of  exclusively 
the  female  sex.  When  with  him  vessel 
means  person ,  it  is  either  masculine  or 
belongs  to  either  sex.  Acts  ix,  15,  “a 
chosen  vessel;”  Rom.  ix,  21,  “vessel 
unto  honour ;  ”  22,  “  vessels  of  wrath ;  ” 
23,  “  vessels  of  mercy ;  ”  2  Cor.  iv,  7, 
“  earthen  vessels  ;  ”  2  Tim.  ii,  21,  “  ves¬ 
sel  unto  honour.”  The  words  of  1  Pet. 
iii,  7,  which  seem  to  limit  the  term  to 
the  female  sex,  really  do  the  reverse. 
That  passage  simply  affirms  that  of  the 
two  vessels,  male  and  female,  the  female 
is  “  the  weaker  ”  one.  The  biblical 
import  of  the  word,  therefore,  seems 
to  be  strongly  against  the  word  wife 
or  woman ,  and  in  favour  of  person  or 
body. 

But  the  Greek  of  the  word  possess 
does  signify  acquire ,  get  possession  of 
purchase ,  rather  than  simply  possess. 
It  not  only  suits  the  idea,  get  a  wife ,  but 
is,  in  fact,  used  in  Ruth  iv,  10  (Septua- 
gint)  to  signify  getting  a  wife  by' pur¬ 
chase.  The  word  might,  in  feed,  bo 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


375 


honour;  5  h  Not  in  the  lust  of  con¬ 
cupiscence,  1 *  even  as  the  Gentiles 
*  which  know  not  God  :  6  J  That 

no  man  go  beyond  and  3  defraud  his 
brother  4 5 6  in  any  matter:  because 

ARom.  1.  24.  26;  Col.  3.  5. - ■iEph.  4.  17. - 

k  1  Cor.  15,  34;  GaL  4.  8;  Eph.  2.  12;  4.  18; 
2  Thess.  1.  8. - ZLev.  19.  11  ;  1  Cor.  6.  8. 

used  to  signify  get  possession ,  morally, 

of  your  body,  and  hold  it  to  the  law  of 
chastity ;  but  no  so  striking  case  of  this 

ethical  sense  can  be  quoted  as  the  above 

marital  one  of  getting  a  wife.  So  far  as 
this  word  is  concerned,  the  argument  is 
favourable  to  the  latter  meaning.  The 
phrase  in  sanctification  and  honour 
is  most  suitable  to  the  mastery  of  the 
body,  and  the  application  to  which 
that  mastery  is  to  be  positively  direct¬ 
ed  :  just  as  the  next  phrase,  next  verse, 
describes  the  negative  application. 

5.  Master  your  body  and  use  it  not 
in  the  lust,  or  passion,  of  concupis¬ 
cence,  or  sensual  appetite.  This  seems 
to  give  the  balance  very  decisively  in 
the  sense  of  body.  Before  vessel, 
however,  the  Greek  has  the  word  own , 
omitted  by  our  translators.  From  this 
Liinemann  strongly  argues  from  the 
antithesis  between  having  a  wife  of 
your  own  and  meddling  with  other 
women.  But,  in  spite  of  his  logic,  the 
answer  of  Olshausen  is  valid.  Nothing 
material  is  more  a  man’s  own  than  his 
body ;  and  St.  Paul  might  well  empha¬ 
size  the  thought  that  every  man  should 
take  care  of  the  purity  of  his  own.  The 
strongest  argument  in  favour  of  the 
meaning  wife ,  is  1  Cor.  vii,  2.  Let  every 
man  have  his  own  wife;  which  looks 
very  strongly  like  a  parallel  passage, 
a  saying  the  same  thing  in  slightly 
different  words.  As  the  Gentiles — 
Who  not  only  were  licentious,  and  of¬ 
ten  made  a  boast  of  license,  but  even 
transformed  it  into  a  religious  rite. 
Know  not  God — They  know  Jupiter, 
Mars,  and  Venus,  the  impersonation  of 
their  own  ambition,  war,  and  lust ;  but 
God,  who  wills  your  sanctification, 
they  know  not. 

6.  The  verbs  go  and  beyond,  here, 
know,  verse  4,  and  abstain,  verse  3, 
are  three  co-ordinates,  all  unfolding  the 
branches  of  sanctification  of  verse  3. 


that  the  Lord  mis  the  avenger  of  all 
such,  as  we  also  have  forewarned 
you  and  testified.  7  For  God  hath 
not  called  us  unto  uncleanness, 
"but  unto  holiness.  8  °He  there- 

3  Or,  oppress,  or,  overreach. - 4  Or,  in  the 

matter. m  2  Thess.  1. 8. n  Lev.  11. 44 ;  Heb. 

12.  14;  1  Pet.  1.  14. - oLuke  10. 16. 

This  third  branch  implies  purity  from 
business  frauds.  Go  beyond — Over¬ 
run,  or  overreach  his  brother.  That 
is,  his  brother  Christian  ,*  but  Liine- 
mann  well  remarks,  that  St.  Paul  ap¬ 
plies  the  precept  to  the  treatment  of 
Christians,  not  because  he  would  not 
include  all  other  men,  but  the  Christ¬ 
ian  circle  is  what  he  has  in  his  pres¬ 
ent  view.  In  any — Rather,  the.  Mat¬ 
ter —  The  business  matter  at  any  time 
in  hand.  See  Winer’s  New  Testament 
Grammar  on  the  phrase.  We  pre¬ 
fer,  with  Lunemann,  against  Alford, 
to  interpret  this  verse  of  business 
fraud,  rather  than  overreaching,  etc., 
in  sexual  matters,  because  the  Greek 
words  lie  in  the  former  line  of  thought ; 
because  it  supposes  a  less  arbitrary 
complication  of  iniquity  than  the  other ; 
and  because,  in  a  community  so  full  of 
commercial  greed  as  well  as  license  as 
Thessalonica,  we  can  hardly  suppose 
that  St.  Paul’s  reproof  would  be  con¬ 
fined  to  the  last  alone.  Avenger — 
Punisher  of  all  such  as  are  guilty  of 
fornication  and  fraud.  Forewarned 
— The  fore,  says  Lunemann,  means  be¬ 
fore  the  execution  of  the  judgment ; 
the  past  tense  warned  places  the  ut¬ 
terance  of  the  warning  at  St.  Paul’s 
first  visit. 

7.  For — Ground  of  these  warnings. 
Not  called  us — Says  Erasmus,  (quot¬ 
ed  by  Liinemann,)  “  God  has  not  called 
us  under  the  law  that  we  should  be 
impure,  since,  indeed,  the  very  cause 
and  condition  of  our  calling  is,  that  we 
should  cease  to  be  what  we  once  were.” 
Uncleanness  —  Impurity  ;  primarily 
applicable  to  sexual  impurity,  but  capa¬ 
ble  of  including  any  moral  contamina¬ 
tion,  as  here  of  both  adultery  and  fraud. 
These  were  closely  allied  vices,  and,  to 
the  chaste  and  unselfish  mind  of  the 
apostle,  both  were  a  foul  stain  upon  the 
body  and  soul. 


0  7/’ 
O  (  () 


I.  TIIESSALONIAN S. 


A.  D.  53. 


fop}  that  Nlespiseth,  despise th  not 
man,  but  God,  p  who  hath  also  giv¬ 
en  unto  us  his  Holy  Spirit. 

9  But  as  touching  brotherly  love 
qye  need  not  that  I  write  unto  you: 
for  r  ye  yourselves  are  taught  of 
God  8  to  love  one  another.  10  1  And 


indeed  ye  do  it  toward  all  the 
brethren  which  are  in  all  Mace¬ 
donia:  but  we  beseech  you,  breth¬ 
ren,  u  that  ye  increase  more  and 
more;  0  fl  And  that  ye  study  to 
be  quiet,  and  '  to  do  your  own 
business,  and  w  to  work  with  your 


l ,  '  ohntl^^ip?e0rrl?thl!^  J°e’ 4.  8  i  J  John  1  H.  SB ;  4.  M. 

<>l  34;  John  b.  45;  Hebrews  8  11  •  1  Tnlm  9  on  i  *  Chap.  ]  —u  Chap.  3.  12. - v2  Thes* 

I  sgssassL^'fe 

Despiseth —  Tliese  warnings  of 
vengeance  upon  all  violations  of  the 
law  of  purity  in  sex  and  business.  Not 

m, an  -Though  I  am  but  a  man,  who 
declare  the  law.  But  God — Who  is 
real  author  of  the  law.  Holy  Spirit 

By  which  he  both  inspires  this  dec¬ 
laration  and  bears  it  home  upon  the 
conscience. 

2-  Exhortation  to  brotherly  love 

and  quietness,  9-12. 

9.  But.  .  .ye  need — How  was  there 
need  to  write  so  fully  and  severely 
in  regard  to  lust  and  fraud  as  in  the 
last  paragraph,  and  nothing  in  regard 
to  brotherly  love?  Hot,  we  may 
reply,  because  here,  as  in  the  Corinthian 
Church,  there  had  been  any  flagrant 
outbreak  of  lust  or  any  fornicator  to 
excommunicate.  So  far  as  public  no¬ 
toriety  was  concerned,  it  was  in  this  re¬ 
spect  a  blameless  Church.  But,  1.  The 
paragraph  upon  these  two  vices  is 
preventive  rather  than  corrective.  It 
seeks  by  the  most  solemn  warnings  to 
forestall  future  vice  rather  than  to  re¬ 
buke  the  past.  2.  The  law  of  chastity, 
according  to  the  new  life,  needed  to  be 
laid  down  with  the  awfulness  of  the 
penalty  on  transgression.  Heathenism 
had  made  the  crime  trivial,  jocular, 
rather  smart,  and  even  religious  and 
light.  All  this  must  Christianity  re¬ 
verse,  and  place  it  among  the  most 
heinous  sins,  and  subject  it  to. the  most 
featful  penalties.  But  as  to  brotherly 
love,  the  Christians  were  taught  of 
God,  or,  in  a  single  Greek  compound, 

God-taught .  The  first  inspiration  of 
spiritual  life  was  love  to  Christ  and  love 
to  the  image  of  Christ  in  the  Christian 
oi  other.  It  was  the  God-given  instinct 
ol  the  Christian  being,  and  they  needed 
no  formal  law  or  prescribed  penalty. 


10.  Ye  do  it — Timothy  had  seen  it 
and  reported.  More  and  more — What 

you  have  is  of  the  right  sort ;  let  it  rich¬ 
ly  abound. 

11.  Study  to  be  quiet — A  slight 

caution  against  what  has  perhaps  al¬ 
loyed  the  purity  or  endangered  the 
continuance  of  this  love.  Harmonious 
love  cannot  well  endure  and  abound 
unless  each  one  keeps  his  place  and 
performs  well  each  his  respective  part. 
Love  can  hardly  exist  among  a  com¬ 
munity  of  idlers,  and  pauper  parasites 
upon  others’  bounty.  Do  your  own 
business — It  would  seem  as  if  some 
of  the  Church  imposed  upon  the  lib¬ 
erality  of  others,  neglecting  industry, 
and  looking  in  some  degree  to  donations 
for  a  support.  Liinemann  objects  that 
this  supposes  the  Church  divided  into 
two  classes  of  givers  and  takers.  But 
it  only  implies  that  there  were  some 
known  to  Timothy  who  negligentlv 
depended  too  much  on  the  liberality 
of  their  brethren,  and  so  endangered 
the  harmony  and  love  of  the  Church. 
There  is  no  allusion,  either  here  or  in 
2  Ihess.  iii,  6—12,  to  any  influence  de¬ 
rived  from  the  expectation  of  the  im¬ 
mediate  advent  of  Christ  as  producing 
this  neglect  of  business.  At  the  time 
of  writing  this  first  epistle,  indeed,  it 
does  not  appear  that  Paul  understood 
that  there  was  any  commotion  about 
the  immediate  Coming.  Evidently 
Timothy  had  brought  him  no  such 
information.  On  the  contrary,  the 
excitement  therefrom  arose  after  this 
epistle,  and  not  from  St.  Paul’s  previ¬ 
ous  preaching,  but  from  causes  de¬ 
tailed  in  the  second  chapter  of  the 
second  epistle.  With  your  own 
hands — As  Auberlen  (in  Lange’s  Bi- 
bCi-Werk)  suggests,  the  Thessalonians 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


own  hands,  as  we  commanded  you  ; 
12  xThat  ye  may  walk  honestly 
toward  them  that  are  without, 

a?  Rom.  13.  13;  2  Cor.  8.  21;  Col.  4.  5. 


were  doubtless  mostly  handicraftsmen. 
And  we  may  add  the  idlers,  predis¬ 
posed  to  li'/e  upon  others,  were,  no 
doubt,  all  hand  workers.  Paul,  there¬ 
fore,  here  utters  no  rebuke  on  brain 
workers,  who  are  as  truly  workers  as 
mechanics  are.  As  we  commanded 
you — And  set  the  example.  2  Thess. 
iii,  8-10. 

12.  Honestly  —  Reputably;  secur¬ 
ing  the  respect  of  heathen  that  are 
without  the  Church.  Even  in  his 
first  preaching,  irrespective  of  any 
special  tendencies  to  idleness  in  the 
Church,  St.  Paul  had  made  effort  to 
form  the  new  Christians  into  models  of 
regular,  conscientious  industry,  in  the 
midst  of  Greek  idleness,  in  order  to 
impress  and  correct  the  outside  world. 
May  have  lack  of  nothing — So  that 
there  may  be  no  Christian  mendicants, 
and  no  pagans  to  taunt  the  Christians 
as  loungers  or  vagrants. 

3.  Exhortation  to  composure  in 
regard  to  lately  deceased  brethren 
— since  they  will  not  be  overlooked 
at  Christ’s  coming,  13-18. 

13.  But  —  This  is  the  earliest  writ¬ 
ten  part  of  St.  Paul’s  apocalypse.  See 
notes  on  1  Cor.  xv.  The  commentator 
needs  search  for  no  occult  connexion 
between  this  and  the  previous  para¬ 
graph,  for  St.  Paul  here  introduces  an 
entirely  new  topic.  It  was  suggested, 
we  suppose,  by  information  derived 
from  Timothy,  or  some  other  comer 
from  Tliessalonica,  of  the  state  of  feel¬ 
ing  among  some  mourning  Christians 
there  who  feared  that  their  lately  de¬ 
ceased  Christian  friends  would  lose 
their  blessed  share  in  the  glorious  ad¬ 
vent  of  Christ. 

One  is  tempted  to  ask  in  surprise, 
Could  it  be  that  the  apostle  preached 
there  more  than  three  weeks,  and  gave 
glowing  descriptions  of  the  coming 
of  Christ,  (Acts  xvii,  2-4,  and  notes,) 
and  never  described  the  resurrection? 
Were  these  Thessalonians  really  igno¬ 
rant  of  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrec- 


377 


and  that  ye  may  have  lack  6  of 
nothing. 

13  But  I  would  not  have  you  to 
6  Or,  of  no  man. 


tion  of  the  dead?  Olshausen  vainly 
supposes  that  they  understood  the  final 
resurrection  of  all  mankind,  but  feared 
that  none  but  living  Christians  would 
share  the  glorious  first  resurrection  one 
thousand  years  earlier  than  the  final. 
But,  first ,  There  is  no  mention  ever 
made  by  St.  Paul  of  two  bodily  resur¬ 
rections,  or  of  any  intervening  thou¬ 
sand-year  period,  nor  any  indication 
that  he  ever  held  any  such  doctrine. 
Second ,  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  how 
they  could  have  imagined  any  such 
first  resurrection  without  including, 
what  is  held  to  be  its  very  purpose 
and  essence,  the  glory  of  all  believers 
therein. 

But  it  is  not  so  easy  to  fix  in  the 
mind  and  memory  of  a  series  of  miscel¬ 
laneous  audiences  of  pagan  hearers  an 
entire  new  system  of  Christian  doctrine 
in  a  brief  time.  Some  will  hear  a  par¬ 
ticular  doctrine  explained,  others  not. 
Some  will  remember ;  others  not.  So 
that  important  blanks  will  remain. 
And  St.  Paul  preached  to  the  living ; 
and  many  would  forget  that  the  dead 
were  concerned.  And  it  is  remarkable 
that  some  of  the  most  vivid  and  ex¬ 
tended  descriptions  of  the  last  day  in 
the  New  Testament  omit  the  resurrec¬ 
tion.  Such  is  the  case  in  our  Lord’s 
great  discourse  in  Matt,  xxiv  and  xxv. 
Such  in  2  Thess.  i,  7-10.  The  resur¬ 
rection,  as  Auberlen  remarks,  was  a 
difficult  thought  for  the  Greek  mind  to 
take  in.  It  is  possible,  also,  that  these 
doubting  mourners  were  but  a  small 
part  of  the  Church,  and  many  of  them 
even  new  converts  from  heathendom 
who  had  never  heard  St.  Paul.  We  can 
easily  conceive,  therefore,  that  there 
should  be  those  who  feared  that  a 
scene  like  2  Thess.  i,  7-10,  might  con¬ 
cern  the  living  only,  and  not  the  dead. 
Have  .  .  .  ignorant  —  Paul’s  habitual 
formula  in  negative  or  positive  shape 
of  starting  a  new  topic.  “I  would  that 
ye  knew.”  Col.  ii,  1.  “  I  would  not 

that  ye  should  be  ignorant.”  1  Cor.  x,  1. 


I.  THES3ALONIANS. 


A.  D.  53. 


orn 
o  t  O 


be  ignorant,  brethren,  concerning 
them  which  are  asleep,  that  ye 
sorrow  not,  y  even  as  others  1  which 

V  Lev.  19.  28;  Deut.  14.  2;  2  Sam.  12.  20. - «Eph. 

So  1  Cor.  xi,  3,  and  Phil,  i,  12.  Are 
asleep — More  literally,  “  have  fallen 
asleep,”  as  if  alluding  to  the  lately  de¬ 
ceased.  The  idea  of  sleep  is  vividly 
impressed  upon  the  imaginations  of  all 
persons  who  gaze  upon  the  face  and 
form  of  one  lying  in  the  stillness  of 
death.  This  impression,  however, 
pertains  properly  only  to  the  body,  and 
the  word  in  Scripture,  authorizes  no 
belief  of  “  the  sleep  of  the  soul.”  In 
fact,  even  in  our  natural  sleep,  the 
soul  may  be  in  one  sense  unsleeping. 
While  the  body  is  lying  in  perfect 
stillness,  the  mind  may  be  roaming  the 
world  in  dreams.  And  that  striking 
fact  has  served  to  keep  alive  among 
barbarous  tribes  the  belief  in  the  sep¬ 
arateness  and  immortality  of  spirit. 
Sorrow  not . . .  as — He  does  not  forbid 
sorrow,  but  would  prevent  that  sor¬ 
row  of  despair  rising  from  no  hope  of 
immortality.  No  hope — In  the  most 
primitive  ages  the  Egyptians  retained, 
probably  from  original  tradition,  a  viv¬ 
id  belief  in  a  resurrection  of  the  body. 
It  was  this  belief  that  largely  inspired 
the  practice  of  embalming  the  body, 
as  if  thereby  the  resurrection  would 
be  facilitated.  The  mission  of  Moses 
seemed  to  be  to  draw  out  the  doctrine 
of  God  and  reconciliation  with  him  by 
atonement  for  sin,  and  even  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  immortality  was  left  in  the 
background.  The  earlier  classic  ages 
believed  in  Elysium  and  Tartarus. 
But  as  speculation  grew  powerful, 
tradition  grew  dim,  and  faith  declined 
and  left  no  hope.  See  notes,  1  Cor.  xv. 
Nothing  in  all  poetry  is  more  pathetic 
than  the  lines  of  the  Greek  Moschus, 
ending  with  “  we  shall  sleep  the 
long,  limitless,  unawakable  slumber.” 
Theocritus  says,  “  There  are  hopes  in 
the  living,  but  hopeless  are  the  dead.” 
Aeschylus,  “  Of  the  once  dead  there  is 
no  resurrection.”  And  the  pagan  epi¬ 
taphs  are  often  sentences  of  everlasting 
extinction.  Says  Mr.  Withrow  in  his 
work  on  the  Catacombs :  “  Domus 


have  no  hope.  14  For  aif  we  be¬ 
lieve  that  Jesus  died  and  rose  a<rain. 
even  so  bthem  also  which  sleep  in 

2. 12. a  1  Cor.  15. 13. b  1  Cor.  15. 18 ;  ch.  3. 13. 


( nterna ,  an  eternal  home,  and  Soinno 
ceternali,  in  eternal  sleep,  are  written 
on  their  tombs,  frequently  accompanied 
by  an  inverted  torch,  the  emblem  of 
despair.”  So  also  “  Inf  anti  duLcissimo 
quern  Dii  irati  oeterno  somno  dederunt — 
To  a  very  sweet  child,  whom  the  an¬ 
gry  gods  gave  to  eternal  sleep.”  And 
so,  with  a  sad  gayety,  “  While  I  lived, 
I  lived  well.  My  play  is  now  ended, 
soon  yours  will  be.  Farewell  and  ap¬ 
plaud  me.” — Catacombs ,  pp.  435,  438. 

14.  Jesus  died — Both  here  and  in 
1  Cor.  xv,  3,  Paul  says  died  of  Christ ; 
but  sleep  of  the  saints.  An  indica¬ 
tion  that  in  accordance  with  the  spirit 
of  Christianity  he  sees  in  sleep  a 
thought  of  the  waking.  Even  with 
hopeful  pagans  this  emblem  was  used. 
A  Greek  epitaph  says,  “  He  sleeps ; 
say  not  the  good  can  die.”  Our  Lord 
in  John  xi,  11,  and  other  places,  nat¬ 
uralized  this  language  in  Christianity. 
The  Catacombs,  those  cities  of  the 
dead  saints  of  the  first  centuries,  cut 
beneath  the  surface  of  the  earth  in 
the  soft  rock,  are  made  morally  lumi¬ 
nous  by  the  spirit  of  purity  and  hope¬ 
fulness  pervading  the  epitaphs.  The 
image  of  hopeful  sleep  is  predominant. 

“  Zoticus  hie  ad  dormiendum  —  Zoticus 
here  laid  to  sleep  ;  Dormitio  Elpidis — 
The  sleeping  place  of  Elpis ;  Dormivil 
et  Requiescit —  He  has  slept  and  is  at 
rest.” — Catacombs,  p.  430.  The  true 
life  and  glory  of  the  spirit  above,  as 
contrasted  with  the  corpse  and  sepul¬ 
chre,  are  thus  indicated :  “  She  depart¬ 
ed,  desiring  to  ascend  to  the  ethereal 
light  of  heaven.”  “  Here  sleeps  in  the 
sleep  of  peace  the  sweet  and  innocent 
Severianus,  whose  spirit  is  received  into 
the  light  of  the  Lord.”  “Here  rests  in 
the  sleep  of  peace  Mala.  .  . .  Received 
into  the  presence  of  God.” — Catacombs , 
pp.  427,  8.  These  passages  record  the 
testimony  of  the  early  Church,  1.  To 
the  essential  distinction  of  body  and 
soul;  the  duality  of  man’s  constituted 
nature :  2.  To  the  supernal  existence 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


379 


Jesus  will  God  bring  with  him. 
15  For  this  we  say  unto  you  cby 
the  word  of  the  Lord,  that  dwe 
which  are  alive  and  remain  unto 
the  coming  of  the  Lord  shall  not 

c  1  Kings  13.  17,  18;  20.  35. - d  1  Corinthians 

15.  51. 

of  the  soul  above,  while  the  body  lies 
in  the  tomb  below ;  a  denial  of  the 
sleep  of  the  soul :  3.  To  the  resurrec¬ 
tion  of  the  same  body ;  as  the  body 
that  wakes  is  the  same  body  that 
sleeps.  Sleep  in — Or  rather,  through 
J esus.  But  how  can  the  saints  be  said 
to  be  dead  through  Christ.  Most  com¬ 
mentators  seem  to  think  it  to  be  too  re¬ 
fined  to  make  Paul  say  that  their  death 
is  made  to  be  a  sleep  through  Jesus. 
They,  therefore,  connect  through  with 
bring,  and  read,  God  will,  through  Je¬ 
sus,  bring  them  with  him ;  bring  them, 
that  is,  from  the  grave  into  resurrec¬ 
tion.  But  Alford  argues,  that  inasmuch 
as  sleep  is  spoken  of  Christian  death 
alone,  Paul  truly  means  that  so  blessed 
a  distinction  is  through  Christ.  Words¬ 
worth  plausibly  renders  it,  “those  who 
have  been  laid  asleep,  somno  compositos , 
through  Jesus.”  Will.  .  .bring — That 
is,  from  their  graves,  back  to  us,  which 
axe  alive. 

15.  Word  of  the  Lord — Some  un¬ 
derstand  the  words  of  Christ  in  Matt, 
xxiv,  31.  Others  refer  the  phrase  to 
the  meeting  of  the  bridegroom  by  the 
sleeping  virgins.  Others,  to  a  tradition 
of  Christ’s  declaration.  Liinemann 
parallels  it  to  “the  word  of  the  Lord” 
in  1  Kings  xx,  35,  and  interprets  it, 
correctly,  of  a  special  revelation  to  St. 
Paul.  So  Gal.  i,  12  ;  ii,  2  ;  Eph.  iii,  3  ; 
2  Cor.  xii,  1.  We  —  Liinemann  and 
Alford  utter  more  forcible  protest  than 
argument  in  behalf  of  the  supposition 
that  this  word  demonstrates  St.  Paul’s 
expectation  to  be  one  of  the  alive  at 
the  Parousia.  Note  on  1  Cor.  xv,  51. 
Shall  not  prevent — Shall  not  go  be¬ 
fore.  The  old  English  meaning  of  the 
word ;  which  comes  from  pre,  before, 
and  venire ,  to  go.  One  may  go  before 
another,  either  to  stop  him,  or  to  lead 
him.  The  latter  sense  of  the  word  has 
been  lost  in  modern  times ;  so  that 
preventing  grace  would  now  mean  the 


prevent  them  which  are  asleep. 
16  For  e  the  Lord  himself  shall 
descend  from  heaven  with  a  shout, 
with  the  voice  of  the  archangel, 
and  with  f  the  trump  of  God  :  *  and 

eMatt.  24.  30;  Acts  1. 11 ;  2Thess.  1.  7. - fl  Cor. 

15.  52. - g  1  Cor.  15.  23. 

grace  that  stops  a  man,  and  not,  as 
properly,  the  grace  that  leads  him  for¬ 
ward.  St.  Paul  means  that  the  living 
shall  take  no  precedence  of  the  raised 
dead;  the  latter  shall  have  an  equal 
entrance ;  in  fact,  their  resurrection 
shall  be  first;  that  is,  shall  precede 
the  resurrectional  change  of  the  liv¬ 
ing. 

16.  Lord  himself — Not  by  messen¬ 
ger  or  representative,  but  his  own  per¬ 
sonal  self.  Then  shall  our  eyes  be¬ 
hold  Him.  The  Himself  is  emphatic 
with  divine  dignity.  From  heaven — 
From  God’s  right  hand  in  the  highest 
heavens.  See  note  on.  2  Cor.  xii,  1-4. 
With  —  No  commotions  of  nature  are 
here  described,  though  other  passages 
assure  us  of  their  existence.  2  Peter 
iii,  10;  Rev.  xx,  11.  Only  the  three 
vocalities  of  the  descending  powers 
are  given,  the  shout  of  the  mighty 
host ;  the  voice  of  the  archangel, 
their  leader  and  the  Lord’s  herald; 
and  the  trump  of  God,  a  strain  of 
celestial  music.  These  announce  the 
Incarnate  Person  in  the  rear ;  to  whom 
the  whole  host  is  as  an  advance  procession. 
Shout — Generally  signifies  the  cry  of 
an  onward  movement.  An  archangel 
rather  than  the.  To  inquire  which 
archangel,  Michael  or  Gabriel,  is  use¬ 
less,  though  popular  fancy  generally 
designates  the  latter.  The  word  sig¬ 
nifies  chief-angel,  and  is  used  here  to 
designate  him  as  present  captain  of  the 
lord’s  host.  Trump  of  God — Vocal 
symbol  of  the  divine  Presence  and  Per¬ 
son;  as  the  glory  is  the  visible  symbol. 
Its  tones  are  heard,  but  no  instrument 
is  seen.  It  was,  probably,  never  heard 
but  once  by  human  ears,  and  that  was 
at  Sinai.  Exod.  xix,  16-19.  Then,  as 
here,  it  was  the  announcing  strain  of 
the  celestial  hosts  forming  the  advance 
procession  of  the  approaching  divine 
One.  Then  there  were  “thunders  and 
lightnings,  and  a  thick  cloud  upon  the 


380 


I.  TIIESS^LONIANS. 


A.  T).  53. 


the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first: 
17  h  Then  we  which  are  alive 
and  remain  shall  be  caught  up  to- 

h  \  Cor.  15.  51. - i  Acts  1.  9;  Rev.  11.  12. 

mount,  and  the  voice  of  the  trumpet 
exceeding  loud ;  so  that  all  the  people 
that  was  in  the  camp  trembled  ...  to 
meet  with  God . . .  And  when  the  voice 
of  the  trumpet  sounded  long,  [as  if 
the  Jehovah  were  slowly  coming,]  and 
waxed  louder  and  louder,  [as  he  drew 
nearer  and  nearer,]  Moses  spake,  [as  if 
lie  had  now  arrived,]  and  God  an¬ 
swered  him  with  a  voice  ”  [as  being 
now  present.]  And  so  these  present 
peals,  sounding  to  human  souls  like  the 
piercing  and  ever-increasing  tones  of  a 
trumpet,  are  the  signal  of  the  approach¬ 
ing  Christ.  Rise  first— This  does  not 
mean  the  first  of  two  resurrections ; 
but  first  and  before  we  which  are 
alive  are  changed.  First  and  then 
in  the  next  verse  are  correlatives. 

17.  Then  we— After  the  dead  have 
first  risen.  Caught  up — This  upward 
movement  is  preceded  by  the  change  by 
which  this  mortal  puts  on  immortality. 
By  that  change  the  glorified  body  is 
able  to  neutralize  gravitation  by  volition. 
But  in  this  case  they  are  caught  up 
by  divine  power,  the  phrase  implying 
great  suddenness.  With  them— The 
dead  in  Christ.  In  the  clouds — The 
passage  quoted  by  Alford  from  Theo- 
doret,  comparing  this  to  our  Lord’s  as¬ 
cent  upon  a  cloud,  misses  the  mark. 
The  true  parallels  are  Dan.  vii,  13,  and 
Rev.  i,  7  ;  “  Behold,  he  cometh  with 
clouds an  image  of  altitude  and  misty 
grandeur.  In  the  air— Simply  a  desig¬ 
nation  of  locality  or  region ;  aerial  space. 
Kph.  i,  3,  and  ii,  2.  The  grand  congre¬ 
gation  of  the  judgment  may  be  in  pure 
space ;  for  these  resurrection  bodies,  ab¬ 
solved  from  the  power  of  gravitation, 
and  of  power  by  pure  volition,  can  tread 
upon  a  plane  of  pure  space  as  easily  as 
Jesus  trod  upon  the  sea,  or  as  we  tread 
upon  a  pavement.  Of  a  burning  world, 
a  resurrection  and  condemnation  of  the 
wicked,  and  a  new  earth,  no  account  is 
here  given ;  for,  as  Liinemann  well 
notes,  St.  Paul  does  not  here  profess  to 
give  a  full  picture  of  the  last  things,  but 
simply  such  a  glimpse  as  shall  meet 


gether  with  them  'in  the  clouds, 
to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air:  and 
so  kslmll  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord. 

_ k  John  14.  3;  17.  24. 

the  doubt  and  grief  in  regard  to  the 
late  deceased  Christians.  Ever  be 
with  the  Lord  —  Not  as  limited  to 
this  one  mid-space  region,  though  it 
and  the  new  earth  may  be  within  their 
future  range ;  but  in  the  highest  heav¬ 
en,  the  capital  of  the  great  system  cen¬ 
tred  by  the  throne.  And  now  science 
demands,  Where  is  the  final  heaven 
of  the  glorious  resurrection,  as  distin¬ 
guished  from  the  intermediate  paradise 
of  the  blessed  disembodied  spirit  ?  And 
where  is  the  final  hell,  gehenna ,  as  dis¬ 
tinguished  from  the  hades  or  Tartarus 
of  the  intermediate  state  of  the  impen¬ 
itent-?  See  note  on  2  Cor.  xii,  1-4; 
Eph.  i,  2,  and  iv,  8-10. 

Astronomers  of  the  present  day  as¬ 
sure  us  that  all  planets  are  destined, 
in  time,  to  narrow  their  orbits,  lose 
their  heat,  and  fall  into  the  sun.  The 
sun,  as  satellite  to  a  greater  sun,  is  to 
fall  into  and  be  swallowed  by  its  cen¬ 
tral  sun  ;  and  finally,  the  utmost  central 
sun  will  swallow  the  whole  system  of 
stars  and  suns,  from  which  all  heat 
will  have  departed  and  form  a  final  life¬ 
less,  frozen  char.  It  may  be,  then,  that 
our  whole  material  system  of  worlds, 
as  well  as  our  earth,  is  under  the 
doom  of  sin,  sin  older  than  the  fall  of 
Adam,  and  so  may  be  destined  to  be¬ 
come  the  eternal  abode  and  monument 
of  sin  and  wrath.  The  “  everlasting 
fire”  of  Matt,  xxv,  41,  was  prepared 
for  sinners  older  than  man,  namely, 
the  devil  and  his  angels.  This  may 
be  the  final  Gehenna.  But  whither 
goes  the  energy ,  which  scientists  tell 
us  is  departing  with  the  heat  from  the 
present  entire  material  system,  and 
pouring  into  immensity?  The  ingeni¬ 
ous  authors  of  the  “  Unseen  Universe  ” 
suggest  that  it  goes  to  crystallize  into 
a  future  universe,  including  that  Future 
State,  that  Heaven  of  the  resurrection, 
to  which  our  faith  is  looking.  So  he 
who  is  Lord  of  all  said  to  his  disciples, 
‘•I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you.” 
That  place  may  be  in  the  present  high¬ 
est  heavens ;  the  circumambient  zone 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  V. 


8osl 


1 8 *  1 * * * * *  Wherefore,  7  comfort  one  an¬ 
other  with  these  words. 

CHAPTER  Y. 

UT  of  *the  times  and  the  sea- 

JChap.  5.  11. - 7  Or,  exhort. - aMatt.  24.  3; 

Acts  1.  7. 

that  girds  our  starry  universe,  sepa¬ 
rating  it,  perhaps,  from  other  universes, 
with  which  our  history  does  not  connect. 
That  future  state,  formed  of  the  pure 
forces  that  gave  life  and  power  to  this 
dark  system,  may  be  the  new  heavens 
and  earth  “wherein  dwelleth  righteous¬ 
ness.”  It  may  gradually  supplant  our 
present  stellar  system. 

The  terms  distinguishing  the  regions 
of  the  invisible  world  are  so  irregularly 
translated  that  the  English  reader  may 
be  aided  by  the  following  summary: — 

Hades  (which  should  never  be  ren¬ 
dered  hell,  but  be  used  in  English  with¬ 
out  change  as  the  generic  name  of  the 
intermediate  abode)  occurs  in  the  fol¬ 
lowing  passages :  Matt,  xi,  29;  xvi,  18; 
Luke  xii,  15;  xvi,  23;  Acts  ii,  27,  31; 

1  Cor.  xv,  55  ;  Rev.  i,  18  ;  vi,  8  ;  xx,  13. 

Paradise ,  (the  blessed  phase  of  hades,) 
Luke  xxiii,  43 ;  2  Cor.  xii,  4;  Rev.  ii,  7. 

A  comparison  of  Rev.  ii,  7,  with  xxii,  2 
suggests,  that  as  in  the  eternal  state 
beyond  the  judgment  hades  is  merged 
in  gehenna ,  (Rev.  xx,  14,)  so  paradise  is 
merged  in  the  eternal  heaven.  Tarta¬ 
rus,  in  verb  form,  (the  adverse  phase  of 
hades,)  2  Pet.  ii,  4.  Gehenna ,  (hell,) 
the  final  opposite  of  heaven.  Matt,  v, 
22,  29;  x,  28;  xviii,  9;  xxiii,  15,  33; 
Mark  ix,  43,  47  ;  Luke  xii,  5  ;  James  3,  6. 

18.  Comfort. .  .words — After  they 
had  been  read  unto  all,  (chap,  v,  27,) 
record  them  in  your  memories ;  and  be 
ready  to  remind  one  another  of  their 
consoling  import. 

CHAPTER  V. 

4.  The  second  advent,  though 
not  at  hand,  will  be  a  sudden  sur¬ 
prise  to  those  upon  whom  it  does 
come,  1-11. 

1.  But — This  very  distinct  outline  of 
the  event  of  Christ’s  coming  I  can 
reveal,  but  the  when  is  in  the  dark 
background.  Times  and  the  seasons 
—  Of  the  great  closing  events  of  the 


sons,  brethren,  Lye  have  no  need 
that  I  write  unto  you.  2  For 
yourselves  know  perfectly  that  cthe 
day  of  the  Lord  so  cometh  as  a 
thief  in  the  night.  3  For  when 

b  Chap.  4.  9. - c  Matt.  24.  43 ;  Luke  12.  39 ; 

2  Pet.  3.  10 ;  Itev.  3.  3. 

world.  The  plural  is  used,  as  in  Dan. 
ii,  21,  Acts  i,  7,  to  denote  the  general 
principle  that  prophecies  of  the  mun¬ 
dane  future,  though  indicated  by  mys¬ 
tic  chronological  measures,  are  essen¬ 
tially  timeless.  Times  are  the  great 
time-flows  of  thousands  of  years ;  sea¬ 
sons,  the  special  time-points ,  or  epochs, 
that  divide  oft  the  flow.  It  was  on  this 
very  point  that  2  Peter  iii,  8  declares 
that  “  one  day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a 
thousand  years,  and  a  thousand  years  as 
one  day.”  Prophetic  time  is  measured 
by  the  arithmetic  of  God.  No  need 
— For  they  had  already  been  warned  by 
St.  Paul  of  the  entire  unrevealedness 
of  times ,  and  were  in  the  Christian 
state  of  preparedness. 

2.  Yourselves  —  Emphatic;  as  also 
iv,  9.  Day  of  the  Lord — An  Old 
Testament  phrase  to  designate  any 
period  of  God’s  terrible  visitation.  Joel 
i,  15;  ii,  11;  Ezek.  xiii,  5;  Isa.  ii,  12. 
Here  specifically  applied  to  the  day 
of  the  event  just  described,  iv,  15-18, 
the  Parousia.  A  thief  in  the  night — 
This  remarkable  comparison  of  the  Lord 
to  a  thief  was  first  used  by  our  Lord 
himself  in  Matt,  xxiv,  43,  44 ;  and  Luke 
xii,  39,  40.  And  thence  it  became  a 
standard  simile.  2  Pet.  iii,  10.  Words¬ 
worth  acutely  argues  that  none  but 
J esus  would  have  invented  such  a  com¬ 
parison,  and  that,  therefore,  the  Thes- 
salonians  must  have  had  a  gospel  of 
either  Matthew  or  Luke,  to  have  learned 
it  from.  That  Matthew,  in  its  Hebrew 
form,  was  early  written,  we  have  indi¬ 
cated  in  our  Introduction  to  that  gos¬ 
pel.  And  we  are  inclined  to  believe 
that  Luke  was  now  extant.  But  had 
the  Thessalonians  a  copy  of  either  in 
possession,  how  could  they  be  so  igno¬ 
rant  of  the  resurrection  as  iv,  13-18 
implies  ?  There  are  striking  coinci¬ 
dents  of  Greek  words,  however,  be 
tween  St.  Paul’s  language  and  out 
Lord’s  in  Luke. 


382 


I.  TIIESSALONIANS. 


tlicy  shall  say,  Peace  and  safety; 
then  d  sudden  destruction  cometh 
upon  them,  e  as  travail  upon  a 
woman  with  child  ;  and  they  shall 
not  escape.  4  fBut  ye,  brethren, 
are  not  in  darkness,  that  that 
day  should  overtake  you  as  a  thief. 
5  Ye  are  all  *  the  children  of  light, 

O  7 

d  Isa.  13.  6-9 ;  Luke  17.  27  ;  21.  34 :  2  Thess.  1.  9. 

- e  Jer.  13.  21;  Hos.  13.  13. - -/Rom.  13.  12; 

1  John  2.  8. - Luke  16.  8;  John  12.  36;  Acts 

Liinemann  calls  to  mind  the  impres¬ 
sion  made  by  this  phrase  in  the  night 
on  the  mind  of  the  early  Church.  The 
so-called  vigils,  or  watch-nights,  were 
held,  especially  on  Easter-night,  in  ex¬ 
pectation  that  the  sign  of  the  coming 
Son  of  man  would  streak  the  darkness 
of  the  midnight  sky.  They  awaited 
that  solemn  token  with  watching,  and 
fasting,  and  prayer.  A  beautiful  error, 
solemnizing  the  soul  and  reforming  the 
character!  So  Lactantius,  in  the  fourth 
century,  says:  “This  is  the  night  which 
by  us  is  celebrated;  of  which  night, 
twofold  is  the  reason,  because  in  it  He 
received  life  when  he  suffered,  and  be¬ 
cause  in  it  He  will  soon  receive  the 
dominion  of  the  earth.’’  And  Jerome 
says,  on  Matt,  xxv,  6,  “  It  is  a  tradition 
of  the  Jews,  that  the  Messiah  is  to 
come  at  midnight ,  as  in  the  time  of 
Egypt ;  when  the  Passover  was  cele¬ 
brated,  and  the  destroyer  came,  and  the 
Lord  passed  over  their  tents.  Whence 

1  recognise  the  permanent  apostolic 
tradition,  that  in  the  paschal  vigils  it 
is  not  permissible  to  dismiss  the  peo¬ 
ple  in  the  earlier  half  of  the  night, 
while  they  are  waiting  the  advent  of 
Christ.”  Cometh — Not  future;  for  it 
is  an  ever-pending  lit  cometh! 

3.  They  shall  say — A  sudden  and 
significant  change  from  ye  to  they ; 
the  they  of  the  age  of  the  advent, 
who  will  be  in  no  state  of  faith  and 
preparation.  Comp.  Matt,  xxiv,  38,  and 
Luke  xvii,  26.  Then — At  whatever 
age  of  the  world  this  event  takes 
place,  its  then  shall  be  a  sudden  one, 
and  the  result  shall  be  destruction, 
that  is,  not  annihilation,  but  min  to  the 
unbelieving  rioters.  Travail — Liine- 
mann  unhappily  sanctions  the  false  in¬ 
ference  of  De  Wette,  that  as  the  woman 


A.  D.  53. 


and  the  children  of  the  day:  we  are 
not  of  the  night,  nor  of  darkness. 
O  b  Therefore  let  us  not  sleep,  as 
do  others;  but  'let  us  watch  and 
be  sober.  7  For  kthey  that  sleep 
sleep  in  the  night;  and  they  that 
lie  drunken *  1 * * * 4 5 6 7  are  drunken  in  the 
night.  H  But  let  us,  who  are  of 


26. 18 ;  Eph.  5.  8. - h  Matt. 23.5. - i  Matt.  24.  42 ; 

Rom.  13.  11;  1  Pet.  5.  8. - k  Luke  21.  34;  Rom 

13.  13;  1  Cor.  15.  34;  Eph.  5.  14. - 1  Acts  2.  15. 


knows  the  near  approach  though  not 

the  hour ,  so  the  apostle  claimed  the  un¬ 
known  hour  to  be  within  his  own  day. 
But  the  only  point  of  comparison  is  be¬ 
tween  the  suddenness  of  the  birth-pang 
and  that  of  the  advent ;  nothing  of  the 

woman’s  earlier  knowledge  is  adduced 

4.  From  the  physical  darkness  of 
the  advent  night  St.  Paul  passes  allu¬ 
sively  to  the  deeper  mental  darkness 
wrapping  the  souls  of  the  careless  in 
regard  to  that  event.  Ye  are  not  in 
that  deeper  darkness  of  spirit,  and  so, 
however  dark  the  physical  night  of  the 
advent,  it  is  all  clear  to  your  mind’s  eye. 
That — Greek,  in  ordh'r  that;  for  infidel 
unbelief  is  by  God’s  purpose  predes¬ 
tined  to  this  sudden  destruction. 

5.  Children — Rather,  sons  of  light 
...  of  the  day — That  is,  of  a  true  spir¬ 
itual  light  and  day.  Night. . . dark¬ 
ness —  The  darkness  of  the  advent 
night  would  be  destructive  to  none 
were  they  not  sons  of  a  deeper  dark¬ 
ness  of  soul.  But  of  that  deeper  dark¬ 
ness  you  are  not  sons,  and  so  will  not 
be  overtaken  or  destroyed. 

6.  Let  us  not  sleep — That  deeper 
than  bodily  sleep,  which  is  slept  in 
that  deeper  than  natural  darkness  and 
night  which  render  the  advent  a  de¬ 
struction.  Others — Oi  XoltzoL  The 
rest;  the  unbelievers.  Note,  Eph.  ii,  3. 
Watch — Of  which  word  wake  is  an¬ 
other  form,  the  opposite  of  sleep. 
Sober — The  opposite  of  drunken  in 
the  next  verse. 

7.  Sleep. .  .night  —  Doubly  true. 
The  body  sleeps-  in  natural  night,  the 
soul  sleeps  in  the  night  of  the  soul. 
But  in  these  words  it  is  the  physical 
that  is  adduced  in  illustration  of  the 
mental.  Drunken  in  the  night — • 
Among  the  Greeks  and  Remans  revel- 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  V. 


383 


the  day,  be  sober,  m  putting  on  the 
breastplate  of  faith  and  love;  and 
for  a  helmet,  the  hope  of  salva¬ 
tion.  9  For  nGod  hath  not  ap¬ 
pointed  us  to  wrath,  °but  to  ob¬ 
tain  salvation  by  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  10  p  Who  died  for  us, 
that,  whether  we  wake  or  sleep, 

m Isa.  59.  17;  Eph.  6.  14. - n  Romans  9.  22; 

chapter  1.  10;  1  Peter  2.  8;  Jude  4. - o2  Thess. 

2.  13. 

ry  and  drunkenness  were  the  order  by 
night,  but  to  be  drunken  by  day  is 
mentioned  as  the  height  of  profligacy. 
The  historian  Polybius  records  it  as  a 
signal  dishonour  of  one  that  he  became 
so  given  to  inebriation  that  “even  by 
day  he  was  often  conspicuous  to  his 
friends,  drunk.”  And  so  2  Pet.  ii,  13, 
furnishes  the  trait,  “  They  that  count  it 
pleasure  to  riot  in  the  daytime .” 

8.  Day. .  .sober.  .  .breastplate  — 
Not  only  must  the  sons  of  the  day  be 
wakeful  and  sober,  but  as  soldiers  or 
sentinels  they  must  be  clad  in  armour. 
St.  Paul  gives  an  armour  in  full,  a  pan¬ 
oply,  in  Eph.  vi,  11,  etc.  The  armour 
here  is  simply  defensive.  Breastplate 
of  faith  and  love  —  Since  faith  in 
Christ,  working  love  in  the  breast,  is 
truly  the  best  defence  against  tempting 
or  menacing  sin  and  evil.  A  helmet, 
the  hope  of  salvation — That  hope 
lifts  up  the  head  toward  heaven,  and 
wards  off  all  the  power  of  the  blows 
inflicted  by  Satan  and  this  world.  Sor¬ 
row  loses  its  power  to  weigh  down ; 
anticipations  of  coming  evil  are  neu¬ 
tralized;  infidel  despair  of  immortality 
is  dispersed,  when  the  hope  of  salva¬ 
tion  makes  strong  our  head,  as  faith 
and  love  have  confirmed  our  heart. 

9.  For  —  Giving  a  reason  for  this 
hope  of  salvation.  Not  appointed 
us  — Who  wait,  and  watch,  and  war, 
in  hope  of  his  glorious  coming.  To 
wrath — Which  waits  the  unwatching 
unbeliever.  .  Salvation  —  Prom  de¬ 
struction  at  the  advent. 

10.  Wake  or  sleep  .  .  .  live  —The 
question  is  raised  whether  wake  or 
sleep  is  to  be  taken  in  a  physical  or 
spiritual  sense.  Sleep  at  the  advent 
is  the  spiritual  emblem  of  unbelief,  and, 
therefore,  excludes  the  life  with  Christ. 


we  should  live  together  with  him. 
11  q  Wherefore  1  comfort  your¬ 
selves  together,  and  edify  one  an¬ 
other,  even  as  also  ye  do; 

12  And  we  beseech  you,  breth¬ 
ren,  rto  know  them  which  labour 
among  you,  and  are  over  you  in 
the  Lord,  and  admonish  you  ; 

V  Rom.  14.  8;  2  Cor.  5.  15. - q  Chap.  4.  18. - 

1  Or,  exhort. r  1  Cor.  16. 18 ;  Phil.  2.  29 ;  1  Tim 

5.  17 ;  II  eb.  13.  17. 

Whitby’s  sense,  “  whether  the  advent  be 
by  day  or  night,"  is  weak.  As  the  live 
.  .  .  with  him  must  be  the  glorious 
life  at  the  advent,  the  true  meaning 
must  be,  whether  we  are  living  or  dead 
at  the  advent. 

11.  Wherefore  comfort — As  a  close 
of  this  afterpiece  St.  Paul  reverts  to 
verse  18,  the  close  of  the  main  picture 
of  the  advent,  and  advises  the  same 
consolatory  uses.  Y e  do — Their  prac¬ 
tice  has  anticipated  his  precepts,  and 
he  delights  to  so  commend  them. 

5.  Closing  charges  and  admoni¬ 
tions,  and  farewell,  12-28. 

a.  Fulfilment  of  churchly  duties,  1 2-1 5. 

12.  Know  them — Appreciate,  right¬ 
ly  estimate  them.  Labour. .  .over 
. .  .admonish — Three  classes  of  func¬ 
tions,  but,  as  the  Greek  shows,  not 
three  classes  of  men.  The  three  terms 
thus  translated  are  participles,  and  may 
be  rendered  those  labouring ,  presiding 
over,  and  admonishing.  Like  a  very  high 
churchman,  Dr.  Wordsworth  (though 
then  but  an  archdeacon)  finds  in  these 
three  participles  (where  the  working 
stands  first  and  highest)  “a  body  of 
clergy  already  established.”  A  Wes¬ 
leyan  commentator  might  as  well  find 
in  the  three  words  stewards ,  class  lead¬ 
ers,  and  exhorters.  It  is  not  probable 
that  the  Thessalonian  Church,  but  a 
year  or  so  old,  was  numerous  enough 
to  support  or  need  a  “  body  of  clergy.” 
But  the  absence  of  the  repeated  Greek 
articles  shows  that  all  three  functions 
were  performed  by  the  same  class  of 
men.  Dr.  Wordsworth,  in  his  note 
on  chapter  i,  1,  (where  see  our  note.) 
doubts,  in  fact,  whether  the  Church 
was  as  yet  organized.  A  higher  digni¬ 
tary  than  Wordsworth,  Bishop  Benson, 
as  quoted  by  Bloomfield,  gives  the  fol- 


384 


I.  THESSALONIANS. 


A.  D.  53. 


13  And  to  esteem  them  very  high¬ 
ly  in  love  for  their  work’s  sake. 
8  And  be  at  peace  among  your¬ 
selves.  14  Now  we  2  exhort  you, 
brethren, 1  warn  them  that  are  3  un¬ 
ruly,  u  comfort  the  feebleminded, 

a  Mark  9.  50. 2  Or, beseech. 1 2  Thess.  3. 11. 

—  3  Or,  disorderly. - u  Heb.12. 12. v  Rom. 

14.  1 ;  15. 1 ;  Gal.  6. 1, 2. - w  Gal.  5.  22 ;  Eph.  4.  2; 

lowing  more  moderate  and  probable 
view:  “It  was  common  with  St.  Paul 
to  collect  a  Church,  and  impart  some 
spiritual  and  miraculous  powers  unto 
them,  and  then  leave  them  for  some 
time,  without  ordaining  bishops  and 
deacons  among  them.  Acts  xiv,  1 ;  xxi, 
23  ;  1  Tim.  v,  22  ;  Tit.  i,  5  ;  and  many 
other  places.  But  whenever  things 
were  found  to  be  in  a  proper  situation, 
then  the  apostle,  or  some  of  the  evan¬ 
gelists,  his  assistants,  went  and  or¬ 
dained  some  of  the  elders,  or  first  con¬ 
verts,  to  be  bishops ,  and  others  to  be 
deacons .”  It  would  certainly  seem, 
from  the  fact  that  St.  Paul  has  no  name 
or  title  to  give  to  these  functionaries, 
that  this  Church  was  in  the  inchoate 
shite  described  by  Benson,  spontane¬ 
ously  controlled  by  men  of  natural  or 
spiritual  ascendency,  by  the  spontane¬ 
ous  assent  of  the  people,  yet  waiting 
for  the  appointment,  by  regular  ordina¬ 
tion,  of  regular  officials. 

13.  Esteem.  .  .in  love  —  There 
should  be  an  official  esteem  for  them, 
but  that  esteem  should  be  grounded 
in  Christian  love.  Love  should  lie 
as  the  basis  of  the  whole  structure  of 
their  Christian  republic.  For  their 
work’s  sake  —  They  have  not,  like 
magistrates,  a  power  of  physical  com¬ 
pulsion  to  secure  respect ;  but  in  Christ¬ 
ian  love  and  duty  they  have  a  deeper 
claim.  For  the  sake  of  the  work  they 
perform,  as  necessary  ana  beneficial  to 
the  cause  of  Christ,  you  are  bound  to 
cultivate  a  voluntary  esteem  for  them. 
At  peace  among  yourselves— Which 
can  be  attained  only  by  cultivating  this 
harmony  with  your  rulers. 

14.  Exhort  you — Conybeare  heads 
this  with  a  title  indicating  that  it  is 
addressed  “  to  the  presbyters.”  And 
undoubtedly  the  functionaries  implied 
in  verse  12  would  be  the  proper  persons 


*  support  the  weak,  w  be  patient 
toward  all  men.  15  *  See  that 
none  render  evil  for  evil  unto 
any  man;  but  ever  i  follow  that 
which  is  good,  both  among  your¬ 
selves,  and  to  all  men.  16  zRe- 

Col.  3.  12. - x  Prov.  20.  22;  24.  29;  Matt,  5.  39; 

Rom.  12.  17;  1  Cor.  6.  7 ;  1  Pet.  3.  9. - t/GaL 

6.  10;  chap.  3.  12, - g 2  Cor.  6,  10;  Phil,  4.  4. 

to  take  these  words  especially  to  them¬ 
selves.  Yet  we  lack  any  word  to  au¬ 
thorize  any  limitation  of  the  words  to 
them.  They  are  addressed  to  all  per¬ 
sons  in  the  Church  able  to  receive  and 
perform  the  duties  aright.  Unruly — 
Dr.  Clarke,  with  some  plausibility,  treats 
the  terms  of  this  verse  as  being  mili¬ 
tary.  This  word  primarily  designates 
a  soldier  who  does  not  stand  in  rank 
or  order ;  hence,  disorderly.  Feeble¬ 
minded — Literally,  small-souled.  The 
pusillanimous,  the  narrow-minded,  peo¬ 
ple  of  little  culture  and  small  intellect, 
need  the  culture,  the  tender  considera¬ 
tion,  of  our  sweet  gospel.  Support 
the  weak — The  world  in  its  pride  is 
ready  to  crush  them.  It  calls  the  fee¬ 
ble-minded  man  a  fool ,  the  timid  a  cow¬ 
ard,  and  the  weak  a  nuisance ,  and  hus¬ 
tles  them  out.  .  In  “the  struggle  for 
existence  ”  they  have  a  poor  chance. 
The  law  of  “  the  survival  of  the  fittest  ” 
has  no  mercy  for  them.  “  Natural  Se¬ 
lection  ”  rejects  them  and  sends  them 
off  to  perish.  But  our  Christianity  is 
a  higher  law  than  the  law  of  death  to 
the  weakest.  It  sees  an  immortalitv, 

w  • 

a  redemption  by  Christ,  a  value  above 
all  physical  worlds,  in  the  humblest 
form  of  humanity.  It  stands  before 
the  weak  and  says,  Do  not  crush ,  but 
support.  Toward  all — Not  merely 
of  the  Church,  but  as  in  next  verse,  all 
others. 

15.  The  negative  cautions,  necessary 
to  the  above  positive  duties,  are  now 
added.  Avoid  the  law  of  retaliation  in 
order  to  the  above  peace.  It  may  be 
necessary  to  seek  justice,  to  aim  at 
correction,  to  rebuke  wrong ;  but  never 
necessary  to  act  in  the  spirit  of  re¬ 
venge,  or  mi  any  other  spirit  than  that 
of  love  and  fairness.  Good — Not 
merely  profitable;  but  morally  right, 
and  spiritually  excellent.  Yourselves 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  Y. 


385 


cEph.  4.  30;  1  Tim.  4.  14;  2  Tim.  1.  6;  1  Cor. 
14.30. - dl  Cor.  14.  1. 


joice  evermore.  17  aPray  with- 1  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  concern- 
oat  ceasing.  18  bIn  every  thing  ing  you.  19  c  Quench  not  the 
give  thanks:  for  this  is  the  will  j  Spirit.  29  d  Despise  not  prooh- 

a  Luke  18.  1;  21.  36;  Rom.  12.  12;  Eph.  6.  18; 

Col.  4.  2 ;  1  Pet.  4.  7. - b  Eph.  5.  20  ;  Col.  3.  17. 

—  The  Church.  All  —  The  outside 
world. 

b.  Duty  of  Christian  joy,  16-18. 

The  central  purpose  of  this  epistle 
was  to  dismiss  all  spiritual  desponden¬ 
cy  over  their  lately  deceased.  The 
writer  now  adds  a  few  thrilling  words 
to  awaken  their  hearts  to  the  right, 
nay,  duty,  for  Christians  to  rejoice! 

16.  Rejoice — Why  not?  Are  not 
Christ  and  all  heaven  yours  ?  The  wick¬ 
ed,  the  proud,  the  laughers,  the  revel¬ 
lers,  the  bloody  rulers  of  this  world, 
amid  all  their  boisterous  mirth  and 
drunken  hilarity,  have  just  reason  for 
despondency  and  despair.  And  under¬ 
neath  all  their  rollick  and  riot  are  a  true 
despondency  and  hopelessness.  They 
stand  on  a  thin  crust  over  the  ab}rss  of 
hell,  and  are  dropping  down  and  in  by 
successive  thousands.  But  beneath 
you  is  the  basis  of  the  everlasting 
atonement,  above  you  is  a  smiling  God, 
and  before  you  an  eterndy  of  heaven. 

For  you  to  despond  or  to'  not  rejoice 
is  an  insult  to  the  grace  of  God  through 
Christ.  Evermore — Always.  For 
Christ,  and  God,  and  heaven  are  eter¬ 
nal.  There  is  no  time,  then,  in  which 
you  have  a  right  to  be  despondent  and 
miserable.  No  worldly  adverse  affairs, 
no  menacing  enemy,  no  bodily  pain, 
excuses  a  refusal  to  rejoice  evermore. 

If  you  ask  to  know  how  you  can  es¬ 
cape  this  foul  sin  of  despondency,  the 
next  short  verse  shall  tell  you. 

17.  Pray  without  ceasing — This 
recipe  of  St.  Paul’s  for  a  perpetual  re¬ 
joice  is  in  two  Greek  words,  Pray  in¬ 
cessantly.  It  means,  not  the  being  in¬ 
cessantly  upon  our  knees,  provided 
there  be  a  perpetual  submission  of  soul. 

It  requires  not  perpetual  utterance  of 
words,  provided  there  be  a  permanent 
communion  of  the  heart  with  God. 

\  et  will  that  submission  and  that  com¬ 
munion  often  frame  themselves  in  defi¬ 
nite  thought  and  positive  words,  and  go 
out  in  vocal  prayer  for  our  own  well¬ 
being  and  the  highest  srood  of  others. 

•  Vol.  IV. — 25 


And  when  the  heart  is  in  communion 
with  God,  and  the  soul  has  an  interest 
in  his  unchanging  favour,  despondency, 
gloom,  glowering  over  earthly  pros¬ 
pects  and  discomforts,  are  out  of  place. 

18.  In  every  thing — In  every  con¬ 
dition,  fact,  and  act.  Let  your  rejoice, 
pray,  and  thanks,  be  simultaneous 
and  ever  instantaneous.  Just  because 
your  loving  God  is  always  and  every¬ 
where. 

Pessimism ,  the  doctrine  that  we  live 
in  a  scene  of  chance,  where  unintelli¬ 
gent  causation  rules,  and  remediless 
misery  is  predominant,  teaches  a  differ¬ 
ent  doctrine.  This  pessimism  is  the 
child  of  atheism  and  the  mother  of  de¬ 
spair.  The  mental  philosophy  of  Scho¬ 
penhauer,  and  the  physical  philosophy 
of  Tyndall,  lead  to  the  same  sad  deduc¬ 
tion.  So  the  founder  of  Buddhism  was 
the  preacher  of  misery  and  hopeless¬ 
ness,  teaching  that  death  was  but  a 
change  and  no  relief,  and  that  the  only 
aim  of  man  is  to  find  the  shortest  route 
back  to  annihilation.  But  from  Christ 
St.  Paul  learned  and  taught  a  differ¬ 
ent  doctrine.  lie  lays  the  foundation 
in  God  through  Christ ;  he  builds  his 
structure  of  faith,  hope,  love ;  and  its 
crowning  minaret  is  pray,  thanks,  and 
rejoice  evermore. 

c.  Precepts  touching  super  naturalisms, 
19-22. 

19.  Quench. .  .Spirit — The  gift  of 
the  Spirit  was  then  existing,  deep  and 
powerful,  in  the  young  Thessalonian 
Church.  It  varied  in  form  according 
to  its  own  divine  will.  It  operated  in 
utterances,  inspirations,  and  convicting 
influences.  It  was  a  divine  fire,  and 
must  not  be  quenched.  It  could  be 
quenched  by  sceptical  neglect,  disobe¬ 
dience,  depreciation,  or  by  sin. 

20.  Prophesyings — Held  by  Paul 
to  be  the  best,  because  the  most  profit¬ 
able  and  edifying,  gift  of  the  Spirit. 

1  Cor.  xiv,  1.  It  was  inspired  utter¬ 
ance,  whether  predictive,  doctrinal,  hor 
tatorv,  or  admonitory 


386 


I.  THESSALONIANS. 


A.  T).  &s. 


esyings.  iS  1  “Prove  all  tilings; 
1  hold  fast  that  which  is  good. 

e\  Cor.  2.  15;  1  John  4. 1. - /’Phil.  4.  8. 


21.  Prove — That  is,  probe,  try,  test, 
put  to  the  test.  The  word  is  specially 
used  of  testing  counterfeit  coin  by  ring¬ 
ing,  weighing,  lire,  or  touchstone.  And 
so  a  precept  was  traditionally  ascribed 
to  our  Lord,  “  Be  ye  skilful  testers  of 
coin.”  All — Not  things,  but  charisms, 
or  professed  supernatural  gifts  of  the 
Spirit,  as  well  as  the  doctrines  they  pro¬ 
pound.  And  this  is  equivalent  to  1  John 
iv,  1 :  “  Believe  not  every  spirit,  but  try 
the  spirits  whether  they  are  of  God.” 
This  duty  is  enjoined  upon  private 
Christians,  and  so,  is  an  assertion  of  the 
right  of  private  judgment.  It  admits 
of  no  pope,  to  impose  a  spirit  or  a  doc¬ 
trine  upon  us  without  any  of  our  own 
trying  or  testing.  The  tests  for  a  doc¬ 
trine  are  pre-eminently  Scripture,  the 
consent  and  harmony  of  holy  men,  our 
own  conscience,  our  own  sense  of  de¬ 
cency  and  propriety,  and  our  sober  com¬ 
mon  sense.  It  is  possible  that  even 
these  Thessalonians  had  one  or  two 
written  gospels.  They  had  the  counsel 
of  those  apostles  whose  spirit  they  had 
tried  and  found  not  wanting.  They 
were,  doubtless,  much  endowed  with 
the  gift  of  discerning  spirits.  As,  then, 
they  had  the  tests  in  their  hands,  they 
must  not  despise  or  quench  indis¬ 
criminately,  but  test,  criticise  calmly, 
select  wisely,  and  form  a  permanent 
conclusion.  Hold  fast .  . .  good  — 
When  the  good  (spirit  or  doctrine)  was 
critically  and  fairly  found,  they  should 
grasp  and  hold  it  fast  as  a  divine  ac¬ 
quisition.  It  is  more  precious  than 
rubies.  It  is  a  coin  of  the  sanctuary 
that  will  open  the  gates  of  heaven. 

22.  But  while  ye  grasp  the  good, 
abstain,  that  is,  hold  yourself  away 
from  evil.  When  your  test ,  your  prove, 
has  proved  the  spirit  or  doctrine  not 
good,  but  evil,  then  avaunt !  away ! 
abstain  !  All  appearance  —  Rath¬ 
er,  every  form  or  kind  of  evil.  It  is 
wide  of  the  mark  to  interpret  this, 
Avoid  exhibiting  to  others  any  appear¬ 
ance  of  wrong  in  your  own  conduct. 
That  may  be,  if  sensibly  and  cautiously 


22  *  Abstain  from  all  appearance 
of  evil.  2*i  And  11  the  verv  God 

tfChap.  4.  12. - A  Phil.  4.  8. 


applied,  a  very  good  precept.  Hence 
a  saying  of  the  Babbies,  Keep  far 
from  baseness,  and  from  every  thing 
that  has  the  appearance  of  it.”  Yet 
often  the  apparent  evil  may  be  a  real 
good,  or  evil  only  in  a  narrow  and  fool¬ 
ish  judgment,  which  should  not  be  en¬ 
couraged  but  corrected.  But  such  a 
rendering  of  this  verse  breaks  the  con¬ 
nexion.  The  evil  is  the  antithesis  of 
the  good  in  the  last  verse,  which  sig¬ 
nifies  the  good  spirit  or  doctrine  we 
hold  fast.  Appearance  —  Rather, 
form ,  or  species.  The  meaning  is :  With¬ 
draw  yourself  from  every  form  or  kind 
of  evil  of  doctrine  or  spirit  detected  by 
your  prove  in  verse  21.  The  reader 
should  be  careful  to  combine  the  whole 
of  vv.  19-22  into  one  paragraph. 

23.  And  the  very  God — The  sole 
One  who  can  perform  this  great  work. 
Of  peace — This  prayer  for  their  entire 
sanctification  closes  upon  the  whole 
paragraph,  vv.  12—22.  the  sum  and  aim 
of  which  is  their  churchly  peace. 
This  peace  is  the  aim  of  both  the  gov¬ 
ernmental  cautions  of  vv.  12-15,  and  of 
the  words  of  harmony  touching  super¬ 
naturalism  in  vv.  1G-22.  From  that 
quarter  of  peace  he  would  have  the 
Spirit  of  the  God  of  peace  visit,  en¬ 
ter,  pervade,  and  sanctify  their  nature, 
whole  and  every  part.  Sanctify  — 
Bloomfield  remarks  that  this  term,  like 
the  Hebrew  CHp,  properly  signifies  to 
set  apart,  to  remove  from  common  use, 
and  is  often  in  the  Old  Testament  used 
of  the  Levitical  offerings.  From  this 
meaning  of  apartness  from  the  gross 
and  common  comes  the  idea  of  con¬ 
secration,  purity,  holiness.  Hence,  to 
sanctify  is  to  separate  from  sin  ;  to  be¬ 
stow,  by  the  Spirit’s  aid,  the  power  of 
avoiding  sin  and  living  without  con¬ 
demnation  oefore  God.  This  can  never 
be  in  this  our  mortal  life,  if  we  are  tried 
by  the  law  of  absolute  purity.  A  nd  yet 
we  are  accepted  by  the  law  of  faith  in 
Christ,  and  pardoned  and  justified  even 
in  this  life.  Scripture  and  experience 
teach  that  there  may  be,  and  often  is, 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  Y. 


387 


of  peace  *  sanctify  you  wholly  ; 
and  I  pray  God  your  whole  spir¬ 
it  and  soul  and  body  k  be  pre¬ 
served  blameless  unto  the  com¬ 


ing  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


i  Chap.  3.  13. - k\  Cor.  1.  8.- 

2  Thess.  3.  3. 


-l  \  Cor.  1.  9 ; 


such  a  measure  of  the  Spirit  bestowed 
in  answer  to  the  prayer  of  faith,  that 
such  uncondemning  state  may,  even 
after  being  defaulted  by  sin,  be  re-en¬ 
tered  and  more  or  less  permanently  re¬ 
tained.  There  may  be  a  state  of  con¬ 
tinuous  justification,  noncondemnation, 
undiminished  divine  approbation,  from 
day  to  day,  and  of  indefinite  length. 
This  spiritual  power  is  seldom,  if  ever, 
in  such  measure  conferred  at  justifica 
tion,  but  is  the  result  of  a  more  pow¬ 
erful  faith  in  a  maturer  Christian  life. 
Though  there  be  a  continuous  flow  of 
infirmities  and  short  comings,  which 
the  absolute  would  condemn,  yet  is 
there  also  a  flow  of  continuous  repent 
ant  faith,  and  a  continuous  flow  of  jus 
tifying  grace  and  merciful  acceptance 
through  the  atonement.  This  is  that 
higher  plane  of  Christian  Life,  that 
evangelical  blamelessness ,  for  which  St 
Paul  here  prays  in  behalf  of  his  Thes- 
salonians.  Barnes,  in  his  Commentary, 
objects,  indeed,  that  prayer  for  such 
sanctification  does  not  prove  “  that  it  is 
attained  in  this  life ;  ”  but  the  apostle 
in  the  next  verse  assures  us  that  God 
“  will  do  it.”  That  it  is  to  be  done  be¬ 
fore  death  is  plain  from  the  word  pre- 
serv ed,  which  means  a  continuous  proc¬ 
ess  previous  to  the  coming  of  Christ. 
Wholly — Not  the  whole  Church ;  but, 
as  Lunemann  and  all  the  best  commen 
tutors  agree,  the  whole  personality  of 
the  individual.  He  thus  prays  thus  for 
the  whole  being  as  a  unit,  and  then  dis- 
tributively  for  the  different  parts  of  our 
nature.  Spirit . . .  soul. . .  body — While 
man  is  properly  divided  as  twofold  into 
body  and  soul,  in  which  the  soul  in 
eludes  the  whole  incorporeal  nature, 
the  Platonic  subdivision  of  the  incor¬ 
poreal  into  soul  and  spirit  produces  a 
threefoldness,  or  (trichotomy)  trinality. 
This  Platonic  triplicity  is  so  consistent 
with  apparent  facts,  that  it  passed  into 
popular  language  and  was  adopted  by 


24  1  Faithful  is  he  that  calleth  you, 
who  also  will  do  it.  25  Breth¬ 
ren,  m pray  for  us.  26  "Greet  all 
the  brethren  with  a  holy  kiss. 
27  I  4  charge  you  by  the  Lord, 

m  Col.  4.  3;  2  Thess.  3.  1. - nRom.  16.  16. 

4  Or,  adjure. 


the  Babbies.  It  is  an  unsupposable 
coincidence  that  St.  Paul  should  fall 
upon  it  here  accidentally  without  ever 
having  heard  of  this  trinality  from  oth¬ 
ers.  It  could  not  have  been  unknown 
to  philosophical  Tarsus.  Notes  on  Matt, 
v.  3  ;  1  Cor.  ii,  14;  xiv,  14;  xv,  44. 
Unto  -Bather,  in.  The  idea  of  con¬ 
tinuity  is  not  contained  in  the  prepo¬ 
sition,  but  is  implied  in  preserved. 
The  prayer  is,  that  they  may  be  so 
preserved  in  holiness  as  to  be  found 
blameless  in  the  parousia  of  Christ. 

24.  Will  do  it — is  ot  that  the  prayer 
would  be  surely  accomplished  in  every 
individual ;  but  that  its  non-fulfilment 
will  be  no  fault  of  our  faithful  God. 

God  will  do  it,  if  we  will  allow  it  to 
be  done. 

25.  Pray  for  us— The  literal  Greek 
is,  remarkably,  pray  concerning,  about 
us.  Let  us  and  our  affairs  be  the  sub¬ 
ject  you  pray  about. 

26.  Greet— This  and  the  following 
verse,  it  is  conjectured,  are  addressed 
to  the  Church  officers.  Holy  kiss  — 
See  note  on  Bom.  xvi,  16. 

27.  I  charge  you  —  Literallv,  I 
put  you  upon  oath  by  the  Lord. 
Bloomfield  quotes  from  Bishop  Benson 
as  follows:  “There  were  two  ways  of 
taking  an  oath,  both  of  which,  by  the 
Jewish  canons,  were  binding:  1.  When 
a  man  swore  by  his  own  mouth,  or  pro¬ 
nounced  the  oath  himself.  2.  Wlieu 
he  was  adjured  by  the  mouth  of  anoth¬ 
er,  and  that  other  pronounced  the  oath, 
and  thereby  laid  him  under  the  obliga¬ 
tion  of  it.  In  all  cases,  an  execration 
or  curse  is  supposed  to  attend  an  oath ; 
to  which  execration  the  person  who 
takes  it  is  exposed  if  he  swear  falsely. 
See  Joshua  vi,  26;  1  Samuel  xiv,  24; 

1  Kings  ii,  23.  When  a  person  was  ad¬ 
jured,  he  was  bound  by  an  oath,  and  it 
is  lawful  to  answer  to  such  an  oath,  as 
appears  by  our  Saviour’s  answering  to 
the  high-priest  when  he  was  adjured  by 


388 


I.  TIIESSALON  IANS. 


A.  D.  53. 


that  0 tliis  epistle  be  read  unto  all 
the  holy  brethren.  28  pThe  grace 

o  Col.  4.  16;  2  Thess.  3. 14. 

the  living  God;  and  that  other  solemn 
oaths  are  lawful,  see  note  on  Jas.  v,  12. 
Why  so  solemn  an  adjuration  that  tliis 
epistle  be  read  unto  all?  The  oath 
and  the  express  all  suggest  to  some  the 
thought  that  St.  Paul  suspected  that 
official  self-importance  might  desire  to 
monopolize  so  important  a  document  as 
an  apostolic  letter,  containing  extraor¬ 
dinary  revelations,  among  a  few.  The 
popish  withholding  of  the  Scriptures 
may,  in  type,  have  already  begun.  But 
the  all  probably  means  simply  the  pub¬ 
lic  congregation ;  and  the  read  means 
the  public  reading  in  its  presence.  It 
is  then,  perhaps,  sufficiently  explained, 
particularly  the  all,  on  Alford’s  suppo¬ 
sition  of  its  being  simply  an  earnest¬ 
ness  of  expression  characterizing  this 


of  cur  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with 
you.  Amen. 

V  Rom.  16.  20 ;  2  Thess.  3. 18. 

solemn  close  of  the  epistle.  At  any 
rate,  this  is  a  significant  text  against 
withholding  the  holy  Scriptures  from 
the  people. 

28.  Grace. .  .you — Wordsworth  re¬ 
marks,  that  of  the  thirteen  epistles  to 
which  the  name  of  Paul  is  prefixed,  all 
contain  near  the  close  the  formula  “  The 
grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with 
you.”  During  St.  Paul’s  life  no  one  else, 
he  says,  “ever  used  this  formula ;  but 
after  his  death  it  was  appropriated  by 
St.  John  in  the  Apocalypse,  and  by  St. 
Clement  at  the  close  of  his  epistle  to 
the  Corinthians.”  Hence  he  infers  that 
this  formula  was  that  “  salutation  of 
Paul  with  mine  own  hand,”  of  which 
the  apostle  speaks,  and  was  always 
autographic. 


THE68ALONICA. 


INTRODUCTION  SECOND  THESSALONIANS. 


- - 

St.  Paul’s  vivid  description,  both  in  his  early  preaching  and  in  his 
first  epistle,  of  the  glorious  appearing  of  Christ  to  the  judgment  of  the 
world,  so  deeply  impressed  the  Thessalonians  that  ultraism  and  fanat¬ 
icism  seized  the  occasion  to  disturb  the  Church.  A  rumour  was  started 
that  an  epistle  had  been  received  from  him  declaring  that  the  advent 
was  at  hand.  To  correct  this  evil  the  apostle  writes  this  letter,  in 
which  he  is  moved  by  the  Spirit,  not  only  to  negative  the  immediate¬ 
ness  of  the  advent,  but  to  open  a  glimpse  of  the  process  of  events  which 
were  to  precede  the  advent.  This  passage  forms  an  important  part  of 
what  we  may  call  the  Apocalypse  of  Paul. 

In  regard  to  authenticity,  all  the  remarks  made  of  the  first  epistle 
are  equally  true  of  the  second.  It  has  all  the  external  proofs,  and  all 
the  internal  marks,  which  show  an  epistle  genuine.  As  to  the  time 
and  place  of  its  writing,  it  evidently  closely  followed  after  the  former 
epistle ;  and,  as  both  bear  the  names  of  Sylvanus  and  Timothy,  both 
were  obviously  written  from  Corinth  whilst  the  three  were  there 
preaching.  See  notes,  Acts  xviii,  5. 


- 4*+ - 

PLAN  OF  THE  EPISTLE. 


1.  Thanks  for  their  firmness  in  persecution — a  token  of  divine 


justice  at  the  advent .  i,  3-6 

2-  Vivid  description  of  the  infliction  of  justice  at  the  advent. .  i,  7-10 

3.  Prayer  for  their  safety  in  that  day .  i,  11,  12 

4.  The  advent  not  at  hand .  ii,  1-17 

5.  Hopeful  prayer  for  their  continued  firmness .  iii,  1-5 

6.  Charge  to  idlers  to  become  industrious .  iii,  6-15 

7.  Benedictory  and  salutatory  conclusion . .  .iii,  16-18 


THE 


SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  THE  THESSALONIANS. 

- HI - 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAUL,  aand  Silvanus,  and  Ti- 
motheus,  unto  the  church  of 
the  Thessalonians  b  in  God  our 
Father  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ: 
2  c  Grace  unto  you,  and  peace, 
from  God  our  Father  and  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

3  dWe  are  bound  to  thank  God 
always  for  you,  brethren,  as  it  is 
meet,  because  that  e  your  faith 
groweth  exceedingly,  and  the  char¬ 
ity  of  every  one  of  you  all  toward 

a  2  Cor.  1. 19. - b  1  Thess.  1. 1. - c  1  Cor.  1. 3. 

■ - d  1  Thess.  1. 2,  3 ;  3.  6, 9 ;  chap.  2. 13. - e  Job 

17.  9;  Psa.  84.  7 ;  92.  13;  Prov.  4.  18;  Isa.  40.  29. 

.  CHAPTER  I. 

1.  Paul  —  Introducing  the  same 
apostolic  triad  as  1  Thess.  i,  1,  (where 
see  notes,)  with  the  same  omission  of 
apostolic  title.  In  God  our  Father 
and  the  (no  article  in  Greek)  Lord 
Jesus  Christ — Hot  from  God  our  Fa¬ 
ther  and  from  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ; 
but  from  God ,  Father  of  us  and  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

1.  Thanks  for  their  progress  and 
firmness  in  persecutions  —  which 
firmness  is  a  premonition  of  divine 
justice  at  Christ’s  coming,  3-6. 

3.  Bound  to  thank — For  abundant 
graces  and  progresses  impose  a  weight 
of  obligation  to  thank.  Because — 
Depends  upon  meet.  Faith — Firm 
conviction  of  the  truth,  and  self¬ 
committal  to  the  cause  of  Christianity. 
Groweth  —  Trial  did  but  confirm 
faith,  and  unite  them  in  closer  charity 
(more  truly  love)  to  each  other. 

5.  Which  —  Refers  to  their  firm 
faith  in  the  face  of  persecutions.  It 
was  a  divine  token,  a  premonition  of 
the  righteous  judgment  of  God  to 


each  other  aboundeth ;  4  So  that 
fwe  ourselves  glory  in  you  in  the 
churches  of  God,  sfor  your  pa¬ 
tience  and  faith  bin  all  your  per¬ 
secutions  and  tribulations  that  ye 
endure:  5  Which  is  'a  manifest 
token  of  the  righteous  judgment 
of  God,  that  ye  may  be  counted 
worthy  of  the  kingdom  of  God, 
kfor  which  ye  also  suffer:  6  1  See¬ 
ing  it  is  a  righteous  thing  with 
God  to  recompense  tribulation  to 
them  that  trouble  you;  7  And  to 

f  2  Cor.  7.  14;  9.  2;  1  Thess.  2.  19,  20. - 

0  1  Thess.  1.  3. - h  \  Thess.  2. 14. - iPhil.  1.  28. 

- k  1  Thess.  2.  14. 1  Kev.  6.  10. 


be  executed  at  the  advent.  That — To 
the  end,  or  with  the  result  that,  so 
far  as  you  are  concerned,  ye  may  be 

counted  worthy  of  the  kingdom  of 

glory. 

6.  A  more  complete  explication  of 
its  being  a  token  of  righteous  judg¬ 
ment.  A  righteous  thing — A  just 

retribution.  The  doom  of  sinners,  aw¬ 
ful  as  it  may  be,  at  the  judgment-day, 
is  not  beyond  the  measure  of  their 
desert.  A  false  humanitarianism.  culti¬ 
vating  an  exaggerated  and  morbid  style 
of  benevolence,  and  silencing  the  sol¬ 
emn  voice  of  the  stern  moral  monitor 
within,  may  reject  the  divine  attribute 
of  justice.  But  the  proofs  of  that  attri¬ 
bute  reign  throughout  nature  and  his¬ 
tory,  as  well  as  in  the  pages  of  rev¬ 
elation. 

6.  Recompense  —  Repay,  like  for 
like.  For  the  individual,  retaliation  is 
no  law.  But  for  government,  divine 
or  human,  it  is  a  measure  of  righteous¬ 
ness.  Tribulation.  .  .trouble  —  The 
same  word  in  Greek  for  both;  God 
repays  trouble  for  trouble.  The  sin- 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  I. 


391 


you  who  are  troubled  mrest  with 
us,  when  "the  Lord  Jesus  shall  be 
•revealed  from  heaven  with * 2 * * * * * 8 *  1  his 
mighty  angels,  8  °In  flaming  fire 
2  taking  vengeance  on  them  Pthat 

m  Rev.  14.  13. - nl  Thess.  4. 16;  Jude  14— 

1  Greek,  the  angel s  of  his  power. - o  Heb. 

10.  27;  12.  29;  2  Pet.  3.  7 ;  Rev.  21.  8. 

ner  is  paid  in  kind,  to  teach  the  uni¬ 
verse  that  sin  and  misery  are  insepara¬ 
bly  one. 

2.  Vivid  description  of  the  in¬ 
fliction  of  justice  at  the  parousia, 

7-10. 

7.  And — It  is  rightful  for  G-od  to  re¬ 
pay  to  you  who  are  troubled  by  per¬ 
secutors,  a  rest,  repose,  a  relaxation 
from  an  overstrain.  The  Greek  word 
for  rest  is  literally  applied  to  the  re¬ 
mission  of  a  musical  chord  after  it  has 
been  strained.  Here  it  is  applied  to  the 
repose  of  paradise  after  the  overstrain, 
that  is,  the  toils,  the  persecutions,  the 
martyrdoms  of  Christian  earthly  life. 
It  is  the  reposeful  side  of  future  blessed¬ 
ness,  the  active  side  of  which  is  glory. 
Compare  2  Cor.  ii,  13 ;  vii,  5  ;  viii,  13  ; 
and  the  analogous  expression,  Acts 
iii,  19.  With  us — Your  apostolic  fel¬ 
low-sufferers.  When. .  .from  heav¬ 
en  —  Literal  Greek,  at  the  revelation 
(apocalypse)  of  the  Lord  Jesus  from 
heaven.  The  picture  is,  of  the  per¬ 
son  of  Christ  as  revealing  itself  through 
the  opening  sky  to  human  eyes.  It  is 
vividly  given  by  John,  Rev.  i,  7.  Com¬ 
pare  1  Cor.  i,  7.  Mighty  angels — 

Greek,  angels  of  his  power.  The  might 
belongs  not  to  the  angels,  but  to  him. 
They  are  the  offspring  and  instruments 
of  his  power.  Their  glorious  proces¬ 

sion,  as  his  advance  hosts,  is  a  display 

of  his  power.  Note  on  iv,  16. 

8.  In  flaming  fire — Greek,  in  a  fire 
(consisting)  of  flame ;  in  a  pure  fiery 
flame.  Not  the  penal  fire  of  ge- 
henna,  but  the  resplendent  and  con¬ 
suming  blaze  of  his  glorious  epiphany. 
Compare  ii,  8.  Taking  vengeance — 
More  literally,  administering  retribution. 
Them — The  troublers ,  who  are  divided 
(as  the  repeated  Greek  article  shows) 
into  two  classes,  the  pagans  who  ig¬ 
nore  God,  and  the  Jews  who  reject 
his  Son — Messiah.  Know  not  God  — 


know  not  God,  and  9  that  obey 
not  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ:  9  r  Who  shall  be  pun¬ 
ished  with  everlasting  destruction 
from  the  presence  of  the  Lord, 

2  Or,  yielding. - v  Psalm  79.  6;  1  Thessalo- 

nians  4.  5. - q  Romans  2.  8. - r  Philippians 

3.  19;  2  Peter  3.  7. 

Specifically  applied  to  the  Gentiles  in 

1  Thess.  iv,  5.  They  once  in  former 
ages  knew  God;  they  then  began  to 
bow  in  reverence  to  finite  material  or 
animal  representatives  of  God ;  and 
they  then  lost  sight  of  the  Infinite  in 
the  finite,  first  forming  finite  living 
gods,  as  in  classic  mythology,  and  last, 
holding  the  worshipped  object  or  idol 
as  a  god,  as  in  fetichism.  Obey  not 
the  gospel — Messiah’s  glad  announce¬ 
ment.  Descriptive,  especially,  of  the 
Jews  rejecting  their  own  Christ.  Rom. 
x,  3,  16,  21.  Lord  Jesus  Christ — 
Repeated  from  verse  7.  The  rejected 
one  is  the  avenging  one. 

9.  Who  shall  be  punished — Shall 
satisfy  justice.  The  verb  tloovolv  is  in 
the  active  voice.  It  signifies :  1.  To 
honour,  to  reverence.  2.  To  honour 
by  making  atoning,  satisfying  compen¬ 
sation.  3.  To  satisfy  judicially,  by  un¬ 
dergoing  ( diurjv ,  the  noun  here)  justice. 
Who  shall  undergo  justice,  namely, 
everlasting  destruction  ;  standing  in 
opposition  with,  as  explanatory  of,  the 
suffered  justice  or  punishment.  De¬ 
struction  is  not  annihilation,  that  is,  of 
the  ultimate  particles  or  essence  of  an 
object.  Its  normal  meaning,  however, 
is  such  a  separation  of  the  parts  or 
constituents  of  the  individual  as  to  re¬ 
sult  in  the  cessation  of  his  organic,  in¬ 
dividual  existence.  From  the  pres¬ 
ence — Beware  of  understanding  the 
destruction  as  issuing  from  his  per¬ 
son,  or  produced  by  its  blazing  splen¬ 
dour,  or  executed  by  his  hand.  This 
is  not  that  mystical  descent  to  the 
earth,  as  warrior  and  destroyer,  in  Rev. 
xix,  11-21,  but  the  judicial  coming  of 
Matt,  xxv,  31-46,  and  Rev.  xx,  11. 
The  from,  therefore,  is  identical  with 
that  of  “  depart  from  me,  ye  cursed,” 
etc.,  Matt,  xxv,  41.  Banishment  from 
the  gracious  face  of  the  Redeemer  is 
the  doom  of  the  reprobate.  From  the 


392 


IT.  THESS  ALONI  AN S. 


A.  D.  53. 


and  8 from  the  glory  of  liis  power; 
BO  1  When  lie  shall  come  to  he 
glorified  in  his  saints,  "and  to  be 
admired  in  all  them  that  believe 
(because  our  testimony  among  you 
was  believed)  in  that  day. 

1 1  Wherefore  also  we  pray  al¬ 
ways  for  you,  that  our  God  would 

ft  Deut.  33.  2 ;  Isa.  2.  19 ;  chap.  2.  8. 1  Psa.  89.  7. 

u  Psa.  G8.  35. 


glory  of  his  power  —  That  glory 
which  is  manifested  in  the  exertion  and 
exhibition  of  his  power  in  raising  the 
dead,  judging  the  world,  and  bestowing 
eternal  life  on  all  his  saints.  Far  re¬ 
moved  Alike  from  his  smiling  face  and 
his  glorious  manifestation  of  power, 
the  reprobate’s  doom  is  in  distance  and 
darkness. 

10.  Shall  come  to  be — This  is  the 
primary  purpose  of  his  coming,  salva¬ 
tion  to  the  saints;  the  previous  execu¬ 
tion  of  wrath  is  in  their  and  his  own 
vindication.  Glorified  in  his  saints 
— In  and  for  the  glory  with  which  he 
invests  them.  The  glory  he  sheds 
upon  them  reflects  back  in  his  being 
glorified  in  them.  To  be  admired 
— To  be  gazed  upon  with  enraptured 
wonder  as  the  most  glorious  object  in 
the  universe.  In  ail  them  that  be¬ 
lieve — Not  among  those  that  believe, 
nor  in  the  hearts  of  those  that  believe  ; 
but  in  the  glory  he  confers  on  them 
that  believe.  Because — Explaining 
his  special  allusion  to  them  that  be¬ 
lieve,  and  thus  bringing  the  whole 
scene  home  to  the  Thessalonians. 
Our  testimony — To  the  Messiahship, 
the  gospel,  and  final  advent  of  Jesus. 
Was  believed — When  first  we  brought 
it  to  Thessalonica,  it  was  rejected  by 
many,  but  accepted  by  you.  In  that 
day — When  these  great  events  shall 
be  transacted. 

3.  Prayer  for  their  salvation, 
11,  12-. 

11.  Wherefore — Rather,  To  which 
end ;  that  is,  the  end  of  Christ’s  being 

finally  admired  in  you.  Also  we 
pray .  .  .for  you — As  well  as  glory  in 
you,  ver.  4.  This  calling— The  call¬ 
ing  to  be  glorified  in,  and  to  glorify, 
Christ  at  his  coming.  This  calling 


n'  count  you  worthy  of  this  calling, 
and  fulfil  all  the  good  pleasure  of 
his  goodness,  and  "the  work  of 
faith  with  power:  12  xThatthe 
name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
may  be  glorified  in  you,  and  ye  in 
him,  according  to  the  grace  of  our 
God  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


3  Or,  vouchsafe.  — v  Verse  5. - w  1  Thess.  1. 3. 

xl  Pet.  1.7;  4.  14. 


was  first  a  call  to  repentance  ;  next,  in 
consequence  of  their  obedience  to  the 
call,  it  was  a  calling  to  holiness  and 
heaven.  Good  pleasure  —  Right- 
seeming.  His  goodness — From  which 
your  calling,  election,  and  glorification 
result.  Work  of  faith — In  which 
both  God  and  you  co-work.  With 
power — To  produce  holiness  here,  and 
holiness  and  glory  hereafter. 

12.  Rame. .  .glorified  in  you — By 
your  examples  inducing  thousands  to 
turn  to  Christ.  Ye  in  him  —  By  the 
beauty  of  holiness  conferred  on  you 
here,  and  glory  hereafter. 

CHAPTER  II. 

4.  The  coming  of  Christ  not  at 

hand,  1-17. 

This  chapter  discusses  the  main  top¬ 
ic  of  the  epistle,  the  time  of  the  Sec¬ 
ond  Advent.  The  passage  has  been 
the  subject  of  discussion  and  varied 
opinion  from  its  first  publication  to  the 
present  hour.  Good  histories  of  the 
phases  of  interpretation  may  be  found 
in  Alford,  (derived  mainly  from  Liine- 
mann,)  M’Clintock  and  Strong's  Cy¬ 
clopaedia,  and  Dr.  Gloag  on  St.  Paul’s 
Epistles. 

The  Fathers  of  the  primitive  Church 
agreed  largely,  but  not  unanimously, 
in  four  propositions.  1.  The  man  of 
sin  is  identical  with  St.  John’s  anti¬ 
christ,  1  John  ii,  18,  “ye  have  heard 
that  antichrist  shall  come.”  Hence, 
Who  or  what  is  antichrist?  and,  When 
shall  be  his  coming?  were  questions  of 
great  interest.  2.  Antichrist  is  a  pei'- 
sonal  being ;  the  incarnation  of  sin,  who 
at  some  future  day  will  come  and  work 
in  powerful  opposition  to  God.  3.  The 
what  withholdeth,  and  the  he  who 
now  letteth,  (impedetli,  preventeth,) 


CHAPTER  II. 


393 


A.  D.  53. 


were  the  Roman  government  and  the 
Roman  emperor.  Hence  antichrist  was 
to  rise  when  the  Roman  empire  fell. 
4.  Antichrist  will  be  destroyed  by  the 
Lord  at  his  second  advent. 

Such  being  the  views  of  the  earlier 
Church  writers,  the  thinkers  of  the 
Middle  Ages  were  struck  with  the  num¬ 
ber  of  the  traits  ascribed  by  St.  Paul 
to  antichrist  appearing  in  the  pope¬ 
dom.  Hence,  in  the  disputes  between 
the  emperor  and  the  pope  the  doc¬ 
trine  came  out  that  the  pope  was  anti¬ 
christ.  The  Waldenses,  and  Albigenses, 
and  followers  of  Wiclif  and  Huss,  held 
this  same  view.  The  reformers,  Luther, 
Melanchthon,  Zuinglius,  and  the  oreed- 
boolcs  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  adopted 
it.  The  same  view  pervades  the  English 
Protestant  authors,  as  Hooker,  Bishop 
Newton,  Macknight,  Benson,  Words¬ 
worth,  Doddridge,  and  many  others. 

In  our  modern  times  three  classes  of 
opinions  besides  this  last  have  pre¬ 
vailed.  1.  Writers  rationalisticallv  in- 
dined,  as  De  Wette,  Liinemann,  David¬ 
son,  and  Jowett,  deny  the  prophetic 
character  of  the  passage,  and  explain 
away  its  predictive  phrases.  2.  Others, 
Grotius,  Wetstein,  Hammond,  and 
Whitby,  hold  its  predictions  to  be  ful¬ 
filled  in  past  times,  and  find  its  verifi¬ 
cation  in  various  events  or  characters. 
The  inventor  of  each  particular  verifi¬ 
cation  finds  Hew  followers  in  his  indi¬ 
vidual  views.  3.  Another  class,  as  Ols- 
hausen  and  Alford,  holds  the  fulfilment 
in  the  far  future,  and  so  have  no  spe¬ 
cial  events  or  characters  to  identify. 

Our  own  view,  by  the  adoption  of  a 
single  special  element ,  harmonizes,  as  we 
think,  and  brings  into  one,  the  interpre¬ 
tation  of  the  early  Fathers  and  the  Re¬ 
formers.  That  element  is  this  :  Anti¬ 
christ  (anti,  opposed  to,  and  Christos , 
Christ)  is  the  great  opponent  and  an- 
•  ti thesis  to  Christ  in  the  moral  govern¬ 
ment  of  this  world,  the  personal  Satan 
himself;  Satan  under  various  successive 
historical  guises,  but  Satan  himself; 
and  Satan  truly  at  last  incarnate,  prob¬ 
ably  in  human  form,  to  be  destroyed, 
Rev.  xx,  9,  10,  as  St.  Paul  here  predicts 
he  will  be,  before  the  final  judgment 
throne.  Verse  8. 

The  antithetic  traits  in  St.  Paul’s  de¬ 


scription  between  Christ  and  antichrist 
are  thus  happily  traced  by  Dr.  Gloag : 
“  The  apostle  evidently  represents  ‘  the 
man  of  sin  ’  as  the  counterpart  of 
Christ.  It  is  antichrist  (6  avrixpiorog, 
1  John  ii,  18)  who  is  here  described. 
He  is  ‘the  man  of  sin,’  the  personifica¬ 
tion  or  incarnation  of  iniquity ;  whereas 
Christ  is  the  righteous  One,  the  per¬ 
sonification  of  righteousness.  He  is 
the  mystery  of  lawlessness ;  whereas 
Christ  is  the  mystery  of  godliness. 
His  coming,  parousia ,  is  described  by 
the  same  word  as  the  coming  of  Christ. 
He  is  represented  as  sitting  in  the 
temple  of  God,  which  is  the  proper 
seat  of  Christ.  He  shows  or  exhibits 
himself  as  God ;  whereas  Christ  is  the 
true  manifestation  of  the  Godhead.  His 
coming  is  after  the  working  of  Satan  ; 
whereas  Christ’s  coming  is  in  the  pow¬ 
er  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  He,  under  the 
influence  of  Satan,  performs  signs  and 
wonders,  but  they  are  miracles  of  false¬ 
hood,  the  counterpart  of  the  real  mir¬ 
acles  which  Christ  performed.  In  short 
the  kingdom  of  light,  which  Christ  has 
established,  has  its  counterpart  in  the 
kingdom  of  darkness.” — Pp.  1,  211. 

We  may  then  trace  some  of  the 
phases  of  this  historic  antithesis  be¬ 
tween  Christ  and  antichrist  afforded  by 
Scripture  as  follows :  1 .  In  the  garden 
of  Eden,  Satan,  incarnated  in,  or  in  dia¬ 
bolical  possession  of,  the  serpent,  is  op¬ 
posed  to  the  Jehovah-Messiah,  walking 
in  the  garden  at  the  cool  of  the  day — an¬ 
tichrist  versus  Christ.  2.  At  the  tempta¬ 
tion,  Satan,  in  some  fair  guise,  encoun¬ 
ters  Christ  and  offers  him  the  secular 
kingdoms  of  the  world — antichrist  fac¬ 
ing  Christ  again.  3.  In  the  Apocalypse, 
next,  incarnated  in  the  great  red  drag¬ 
on,  the  pagan-Roman  empire  personi¬ 
fied,  Satan  stands  in  battle  with  the  man- 
child — antichrist  with  Christ.  4.  When 
that  guise  is  demolished,  infused  into 
the  beast,  he  becomes  the  power  and 
soul  of  the  papal  Roman  world  and 
encounters  the  conquering  Christ  in 
Rev.  xix,  1 1-2 1  —  Christ  versus  anti¬ 
christ.  5.  Stripped  of  this  guise  he 
comes  out  the  naked  Satan,  and  is  cast 
into  prison  a  thousand  years.  Rev.  xx, 
1-G.  6.  At  the  close  of  the  thousand 

years  he  emerges,  probably  incarnate  in 


394 


II.  TIIESS  ALON  IANS. 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  II. 

"jVT OW  we  beseech  you,  brethren, 
±y  a by  the  coming  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  lj and  by  our  gather¬ 
ing  together  unto  him,  2  cThat 

al  Thess.  4.  16. - 5  Matt.  24.  31;  Mark  13  27* 

1  Tliess.  4.  17. 


human  form,  leads  the  final  apostasy 
and  is  destroyed.  Rev.  xx,  7-10.  It 
will  be  seen,  perhaps,  that  this  survey 
takes  in  and  harmonizes  nearly  all  the 
ancient  patristic  points  with  the  mod¬ 
ern  Protestant. 

^  e  think  that  a  true  interpretation  of 
both  St.  Paul’s  brief  Apocalypse  and 
the  fuller  Apocalypse  of  St.  John,  will 
sustain  this  survey.  The  latter  is  a 
full  supplement  to  the  former.  To  St. 
Paul,  the  future  presents  but  a  few  clear 
points  from  a  dark  background,  just  as 
in  Acts  xxvii,  22,  where  see  note.  He 
professedly  penetrates  the  future  with 
a  little  knowledge  in  the  midst  of  a  great 
ignorance.  He  sees  that  the  advent 
of  Christ  cannot  fully  come  until  after 
the  advent  of  antichrist  has  come  and 
gone ;  but  how  far  in  the  future  both 
are,  or  how  far  Christ’s  advent  is  be¬ 
yond  antichrist’s,  he  does  not  see.  He 
sees  that  antichrist  cannot  come,  that 
is,  ike  antichrist  future  to  him ,  until  the 
Roman  empire  ceases  ;  but  he  does  not 
see  that  the  Roman  empire  is  itself  a 
previous  objective  antichrist,  to  whom 
his  antichrist  is  successor,  waiting  his 
predecessor’s  departure.  This  St.  John’s 
Apocalypse  will  disclose.  He  sees  the 
elements  of  his  antichrist  already  work¬ 
ing.  but  does  not  see  that  the  antichrist 
to  be  destroyed  by  Christ’s  advent  is  a 
succeeding  and  far-distant  phase  of  his 
antichrist;  and  this  development,  too. 
St.  John’s  Apocalypse  well  unfolds. 

I.  Now — Rather,  hut  Paul  has  just 
vividly  pictured  the  awful  yet  glorious 
advent ;  but  their  imagination  must 
not  bring  that  event  into  the  present 
time.  B,y  — A  preposition  of  adjura¬ 
tion.  It  is  so  rendered  by  the  Vulgate 
and  many  eminent  critics,  as  in  "our 
translation.  It  may,  then,  mean,  I  pray 
you  by  that  so  stupendous  event  that 
you  do  not  be  discomposed  by  expec¬ 
tation  of  its  immediateness.  The  ordi- 


\e  be  not  soon  shaken  in  mind, 
oi  be  troubled,  neither  bv  spir¬ 
it,  nor  by  word,  nor  by‘  letter 
as  from  us,  as  that  the  day  of 
Christ  is  at  hand,  ^  Let  no  man 

cMatt.  24.  4;  Eph  5  6;  1  John  4.  1. - Matt. 

24.  4 ;  Eph.  5.  6. 

nary  meaning,  however,  of  the  Greek 
vrrtf)  is,  in  behalf  of.  The  true  sense, 
then,  is  neither  by  nor  exactly  concern- 
ing ;  but  in  behalf  of  that  event,  that  it 
may  not  be  covered  with  misreprese.v 
tations  and  false  alarms.  Our  gath¬ 
ering— Described  in  1  Thess.  iv,  ]  7. 

2.  That  Depends  upon  beseech. 
Soon  Hastily ;  as  soon  as  the  rumour 
reaches  your  ear.  Shaken— Tossed  to 
and  fro,  as  by  billows  of  the  sea.  In 
mind  Rather,  from  your  intellect ,  in 
the  higher  sense  ;  wise  judgment,  and 
so  self-possession  and  composure.  By 
spirit — Neither  a  false  understanding 
of  the  ancient  prophecies,  nor  any  sign 
by  dreams  is  meant ;  but  the  declara¬ 
tion  through  the  Spirit  of  some  inspired 
Church  member.  Note  on  1  Thess.  v,  19. 
Nor  by  word — Intelligence  of  some 
word  or  statement  of  ours.  Letter 
as  from  us — The  as  implies  that  the 
reference  is  not  to  his  first  epistle, 
but  to  some  letter  falsely  rumoured 
as  from  him.  St.  Paul  herein  denies 
the  having  sent  any  such  letter. 
Why,  however,  any  one  should  forge 
a  letter,  or  what  motive  there  could 
be  for  the  Church  dishonestly  to  spread 
those  false  impressions,  it  is  impossible 
to  conceive.  Rut  it  is  plain  that  the 
Church  was  in  high  excitement  under 
false  iiimours.  The  charismatic  persons 
were  led,  by  excitement,  to  imagine  rev¬ 
elations, ,  which  it  required  the  higher 
inspiration  of  the  apostle  to  overmas¬ 
ter;  and  probably  misinterpretation  of 
his  first  epistle  was  shaped  by  rumour 
into  the  statement  that  an  epistle  had 
been  i  eceived  announcing  the  immediate 
ad\  ent.  Day  of  Christ — Better  read- 
ing,  of  our  Lord — The  parousia,  or 
second  advent.  Note  on  1  Cor.  xv.  23. 
The  notion  of  any  allusion  to  the  de¬ 
struction  of  Jerusalem,  or  of  anv  double 
neaning  in  this  prophecy,  (as  counte¬ 
nanced  by  Dr.  Clarke,)  is  to  be  promptly 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  II. 


395 


deceive  you  by  any  means  :  for 
that  day  shall  not  come ,  e  except 
there  come  a  falling  away  first, 
and  fthat  man  of  sin  be  revealed, 

el  Tim.  4.  1. — /Dan.  7.  25;  1  John  2.  18;  Rev. 

13.  11,  &c. - 0  John  17.  12. 

rejected.  See  our  notes  on  Matt,  xxiv 
and  xxv.  At  hand — The  Greek  is  very 
strong  :  is  present ,  is  here.  Probably  a 
somewhat  reproving  hyperbole,  as  im¬ 
plying  that  their  excited  fancies  made 
them  feel  and  act  as  if  the  judgment 
throne  were  visible  and  already  set ! 
The  true  height  of  Christian  calmness 
should  prevent  such  billowy  commo¬ 
tion,  even  if  it  were  so  ;  but  the  old 
man  will  often  surge  up  and  disturb 
the  new  man  in  us. 

3.  No  man  deceive  you — Words 
very  similar  to  those  of  our  Lord. 
Matt,  xxiv,  4.  Deceive  does  not  nec¬ 
essarily  imply  a  deceptive  purpose  in  the 
man.  By  any  means  —  The  three 
above  enumerated  means,  or  any  other. 
That  day  shall  not  come  —  Critics 
agree  that  the  italicised  words,  though 
not  in  the  Greek,  are  properly  supplied 
by  our  translators.  A  (or  rather,  the 
definite  article  the)  falling  away — The 
apostasy  —  the  well-known  apostasy. 
Not  a  political  rebellion  or  revolt.  The 
whole  passage  indicates  that  it  is  a  re¬ 
ligious  apostasy  from  Christ,  led  by  an¬ 
tichrist,  the  man  of  sin ,  leading  to  the 
most  blasphemous  opposition  to  God. 
Man  of  sin — Not  merely  sinful  man, 
but  man  made  up  of  sin.  He  is  con¬ 
crete  wickedness.  A  deep  allusion  to 
the  Satanic  character  lying  at  the  base 
of  antichrist.  Son  of  perdition — Ap¬ 
plied  by  Christ  to  the  antichrist  among 
his  apostles,  Judas.  John  xvii,  12. 

4.  Who  opposeth — 'O  a vTUielyevog, 
the  a^agonist,  one  lying  anti,  or  oppo¬ 
site.  Antagonist  to  whom  ?  To  Christ. 
“For,”  says  Liinemann,  “he  is  the 
forerunner  of  Christ’s  advent,  and  has, 
as  Christ’s  counterfeit,  an  advent  (pa- 
rousia)  and  a  revelation  of  himself  ;  his 
works  are  the  direct  cm^’Lhesis  to 
Christ’s  works,  and  it  is  by  Christ’s  ap¬ 
pearing  that  he  is  abolished.  This  ant- 
agonist  is,  then,  no  other  than  anti¬ 
christ.  1  John  ii,  18.”  And  it  is  curious 
to  note  that  anti  signifies,  in  the  Greek. 


sthe  son  of  perdition  ;  4  Who 

opposetli  and  h  exaltetli  himself 
‘above  all  that  is  called  God,  or 
that  is  worshipped  ;  so  that  he 

h  Isa.  14.  13;  Ezek.  28.  2,  6,  9;  Dan.  7.  25;  11.  36; 

Rev.  13.  6. - i  1  Cor.  8.  5. 

instead  of,  as  commonly  as  it  means 
opposed  to;  so  that  antichrist  might  as 
well  mean  substitute  for  Christ ,  or,  in 
papal  phrase,  “vicar  of  Christ,”  as  an¬ 
tagonist  of  Christ.  Exalteth  him¬ 
self  above .  . .  God  —  Alford  argues 
from  this  clause  that  the  pope  cannot 
be  meant,  because  the  pope,  so  far  from 
placing  himself  above  God,  is  an  abject 
adorer  of  gods.  Alford’s  words  are  a 
feeble  repetition  of  a  Romanist  argu¬ 
ment.  Says  the  Rhemish  commenta¬ 
tor :  “  How  can  the  Protestants,  then, 
for  shame,  and  without  evident  contra¬ 
diction,  avouch  the  pope  to  be  anti¬ 
christ,  who,  as  we  say,  honoureth  Christ 
the  true  God  with  all  his  power,  or,  as 
they  say,  honoureth  idols,  and  challeng- 
eth  no  divine  honour  to  himself,  much 
less  to  himself  only,  as  antichrist  shall 
do.  He  humbly  prayeth  to  God,  and 
lowly  kneeleth  down  in  every  church 
at  divers  altars  erected  to  God  in  mem¬ 
ory  of  his  saints,  and  prayeth  to  him 
He  saith  or  heareth  mass  daily,  with 
all  devotion ;  he  confesseth  his  sins  to 
a  priest,  as  other  poor  men  do,”  etc. 
To  Alford  and  the  Rliemist  it  may  be 
replied,  1.  Alford  mistranslates  Paul’s 
Greek  preposition  km,  which  signifies 
not  so  properly  vn ep,  above,  as  against. 

2.  If  the  prophecy  is  to  wait  for  a  being 
who  literally  exalts  himself  above  the 
Omnipresent  and  Omnipotent,  it  waits 
an  impossibility.  No  finite  being  can 
exalt  himself  above  the  infinitely  high. 
The  very  thought  is  inconceivable. 

3.  The  only  possible  meaning  of  exalting 
himself  above  God  is  to  arrogate  and 
usurp  the  attributes  and  authority  of 
God  over  men  ;  making  his  own  laws 
the  substitute  of,  or  validating  power 
for  and  over,  the  divine  rule.  Now  the 
papacy  has  assumed  the  attribute  of  in¬ 
fallibility  ;  it  has  manifestly  and  man¬ 
ifoldly,  by  virtue  of  that  attribute,  truly 
reversed  and  overridden  the  divine  law. 
It  holds  itself  as  the  giver  of  Scripture, 
and  proceeds  to  overrule  Scripture  by 


396 


II.  THESSALOlsTIANS. 


A.  D.  53. 


as  God  sittetli  iu  the  temple  of  I  when  I  was  yet  with  you,  I  told 
God,  showing  himself  that  he  is  you  these  things  ?  6*  And  now 

God.  5  k  Remember  ye  not,  that,  ye  know  what  1  withholdeth  that 

&  Matt.  16.  9;  Mark  8.  18;  Acts  20.  3.  1  Or,  holdeth. 

its  traditions.  It  claims,  against  and  but  in  private  conversation.  St.  Paul, 
over  and  above  the  law  of  God,  to  ab-  then,  is  not  here  giving  them  any  new 
solve  from  sin.  Nor  does  Alford  at  all  revelation,  or  any  after-thought.  He 
invalidate  the  strange  fact  that  the  had  told  the  Thessalonians  at  his  first 
pope  “creates  the  God  he  adores ;”  visit  that  events  of  unknown  magni- 
manu  factoring  a  wafer  when  he  pleas-  tude  intervened  between  the  present 
es,  and  then  by  consecration  transform-  hour  and  the  parousia. 
ing  that  wafer  into  God.  To  claim  the  6.  Ye  know— So  that  all  the  specific 
power  of  creating  God  when  he  pleases  points,  the  characteristics  of  antichrist, 
is  one  of  the  most  flagrant  self-exalta-  were  already  known  to  them.  What 
tions  over  God  conceivable.  Nor  does  withholdeth — He  who  now  letteth, 
the  fact  that  he  worships  the  God  he  or  hindereth,  or  prevents  from  coming, 
•has  created  invalidate  the  argument.  This  hindering,  or  holding  back,  is  done 
The  pagan  idolator  first  makes  his  fe-  (verse  7)  both  by  a  what,  in  the  neuter 
tish  and  then  worships  it.  As  God —  gender,  signifying  a  thing ,  and  by  a 
Usurping  divine  attributes,  such  as  in-  who,  in  the  masculine,  signifying  a  per- 
fallibility,  absolution,  God-making.  The  son.  This  thing  and  person,  who  thus 
best  critics,  however,  omit  these  words,  hinder  antichrist,  his  readers  know  ; 
Sitteth — Literally,  Takes  his  seat ,  and  but  St.  Paul  persists  in  not  here  naming 
by  implication  keeps  it.  Temple  of  it  and  him.  Now  there  is  a  universal 
God — Not  the  Jewish  temple,  which  Christian  tradition,  held  in  the  Greek, 
is  never  called  so  in  the  New  Testa-  Roman,  and  Protestant  Churches  alike, 
ment,  but  unquestionably  the  Christian  which  explains  both  the  hinderer  and 
Church.  See  2  Cor.  vi,  16;  Eph.  ii,  21.  the  reason  for  this  mysterious  silence. 
This  seating  himself  in  supremacy  in  The  hindering  thing  was  the  Roman 
the  Church  is  a  vivid  picture  of  the  in-  empire,  and  the  hindering  person  was 
auguration  of  each  new  pope.  Forth-  the  emperor.  And  says  Chrysostom, 
with  upon  his  election  he  enters  St.  “  If  St.  Paul  had  said  that  the  Roman 
Peter’s  Church,  the  claimed  temple  of  empire  was  to  be  destroyed,  the  hea- 
God ;  is  lifted  by  his  cardinals  and  then  would  have  destroyed  him  as  a 
placed  upon  the  high  altar.  There  he  rebel,  and  all  the  faithful  with  him  as 
takes  his  seat,  and  is  by  them  adored,  persons  who  took  up  arms  against  the 
kneeling  on  their  knees  and  kissing  his  Roman  empire  ;  and  when  that  shall 
feet.  Their  technical  term  for  this  act  have  been  taken  away,  then  the  1  man 
is  adoration;  and  the  words  on  the  pa-  of  sin  ’  will  come.”  Similar  in  very 
pal  coin  are,  Quern  creant ,  adorant :  explicit  terms  (as  given  by  Bishop 
Whom  they  create,  they  adore.  Is  God  Newton)  were  the  views  of  Justin 
— He  is  styled,  “Dominus  Deus  noster  Martyr,  Iremeus,  Tertullian,  Origen, 
papa;  alter  Deus  in  terra:  The  Lord  Lactantius,  Ambrose,  Jerome,  and  Au- 
God  our  pope ;  a  second  God  on  earth.”  gustine. 

This  antichrist,  whoever  he  may  be,  We  have  already  said  that  John’s 
then,  occupies  a  high ,  a  supreme ,  seat  in  Apocalypse  largely  supplements  this 
the  Christian  Church.  He  cannot,  there-  Apocalypse  of  St.  Paul.  With  a  great 
fore,  be  Nero,  nor  Mohammed,  nor  any  body  of  commentators,  we  identify  this 
mere  secular  prince  or  warrior.  “man  of  sin”  with  the  “beast”  of 

5.  Remember  ye  not — No  reproof  Rev.  xiii;  and  the  Roman  empire  with 
here,  but  one  of  several  appeals  to  the  the  great  red  dragon  of  xi  and  xii. 
memory  of  his  readers,  with  which  |  Each,  as  we  have  noted,  is  the  anti- 
these  epistles  abound.  I  told  you —  ,  christ,  the  historic  guise  of  the  pej'sonal 
Probably  not  in  his  public  preaching,  |  Satan  of  his  period.  And  we  thus  can 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  II. 


397 


lie  might  be  revealed  in  his  time. 
7  For 1  the  mystery  of  iniquity  doth 

1 1  John 

-inderstand  why  the  man  of  sin  can¬ 
not  appear  until  the  emperor  disap¬ 
pears.  For  the  beast  antichrist  cannot 
develop  until  the  dragon  antichrist  has 
finished  his  career,  both  beast  and 
dragon  being  guides  and  phases  of  the 
personal  Satan. 

When  the  dragon  (Satan  under  in¬ 
signia  of  the  Roman  empire)  is  cast 
down,  his  guise  drops  off,  and  he  is  the 
naked  “  Satan.”  Rev.  xii,  9.  He  next 
infuses  his  “power”  into  the  “beast,” 
and  gives  him  his  “  seat”  and  external 
“authority.”  Rev.  xiii,  2.  Though 
he  does  not  merge  his  personality  in 
the  “beast,”  yet  he  is  the  corporate 
soul  of  the  organic  monster,  (papal 
Rome,)  and  constitutes  it  the  regu¬ 
lar  successional  antichrist  of  history. 
While  the  beast  is  in  power,  Satan  is 
latent  in  him ;  but  when  the  beast  is 
destroyed  by  the  conquering  Christ, 
Rev.  xix,  11-21,  (Christ  versus  Anti¬ 
christ,)  the  naked  Satan  reappears,  as  at 
Rev.  xii,  9,  is  arrested,  and  cast  into  pris¬ 
on.  At  the  close  of  the  thousand  years 
he  makes  his  true  literal,  personal,  incar¬ 
nate  parousia,  and  perishes  before  the 
divine  parousia.  He  probably  “  de¬ 
ceives  the  nations  ”  by  professing  to  be 
the  glorious  Messiah,  but  turns  out  to 
be  Satan-Messiah,  such  a  Messiah  as 
he  tried  to  tempt  Christ  to  be.  Note 
on  Matt,  iv,  8.  He  will  exhibit  all  the 
traits  described  in  this,  St.  Paul’s,  Apoc¬ 
alypse  in  a  far  deeper  atrocity  than  the 
more  immediate  subject,  and  will  verify 
the  primitive  Christian  belief  of  a  per¬ 
sonal  “  man  of  sin.”  The  climax  of 
blended  human  and  diabolic  wicked¬ 
ness  will  be  attained,  and  the  “bright¬ 
ness  of  His  coming ” before  the  “great 
white  throne  ”  will  cut  it  short. 

7.  The  mystery  of  iniquity — As 
antithetical  to  “  the  mystery  of  godli¬ 
ness,”  1  Tim.  iii,  16,  which  is  the  in¬ 
carnation,  including  its  kindred  truths  ; 
the  mystery  of  iniquity  is  Satanic 
possession,  (see  note  on  verse  9,)  with 
its  kindred  errors  and  lies,  as  described 
in  vv.  10-12.  Now — Literally,  already. 
Surprisingly  early.  This  word  hints  at 


already  work  :  only  he  who  now 
letteth  will  let ,  until  lie  be  taken 

2.  18;  4.  3. 

an  unknown  distance  of  development 
of  existing  seeds  of  guilty  error.  Work 
— In-work,  operating  secretly  and  lurk- 
ingly  in  the  minds  of  men.  Same  word 
as  rendered  working  in  ver.  9,  where 
see  note. 

The  seed  doctrine  here  alluded  to 
was  the  radical  principle  of  Simon 
Magus,  and  the  vital  germ  of  Gnosti¬ 
cism,  the  inherence  of  all  evil  in  matter 
alone.  See  note,  Acts  viii,  9.  This  doc¬ 
trine  (note,  Acts  vi,  5)  had  two  sides  to 
it.  First ,  it  could  be  said  by  one  class 
of  Gnostics,  that  the  material  body 
could  be  consigned  over  to  all  licen¬ 
tiousness,  while  the  soul  remained  pure 
and  holy;  or,  Second ,  it  could  be  said 
by  others  that  the  body  should  be  ab¬ 
horred,  scourged,  starved,  and  asceti- 
cally  crucified.  Of  the  former  of  these 
two  classes  Conybeare  and  Howson 
say:  “ Their  immorality  is  the  subject 
of  constant  animadversion  in  the  writ¬ 
ings  of  the  Fathers,  who  tell  us  that 
the  calumnies  which  were  cast  upon 
the  Christians  by  the  heathen  were 
caused  by  the  vices  of  the  Gnostics. 
Irenaeus  asserts  that  they  said,  ‘as  gold 
deposited  in  the  mud  does  not  lose  its 
beauty,  so  they  themselves,  whatever 
may  be  their  outward  immortality,  can¬ 
not  be  injured  by  it,  nor  lose  their  spir¬ 
itual  substance.’ — Iren.,  vi.  2,  quoted  by 
Burton.  And  so  Justin  Martyr  speaks 
of  heretics,  who  said  ‘  that  though  they 
lived  sinful  lives,  yet,  if  they  know  God , 
the  Lord  will  not  impute  to  them  sin.’ 
—  Tryph.,  141.  And  Epiphanius  gives 
horrible  details  of  the  enormities  which 
they  practised.  Again,  their  addiction 
to  magical  arts  was  notorious.  And 
their  leaders,  Basilides  and  Valentinus, 
are  accused  of  eating  idol-sacrifices 
(like  the  Nicolaitans  of  the  Apocalypse) 
to  avoid  persecution.” — Vol.  i,  p.  453. 
Note  on  1  Tim.  vi,  20.  Against  the 
holders  of  this  former  view  St.  John 
affirms  that  any  such  denial  of  sin  is 
untrue,  1  John  i,  6-10  ;  that  the  tru¬ 
ly  regenerate  does  not  practice  sin, 
iii,  8,  9 ;  that  all  transgression  of  law 
is  sin,  iii,  4 ;  and  he  denounces  these 


898 


II.  THESSALONIANS. 


A.  1).  53. 


out  of  the  way.  8  And  then 
shall  that  Wicked  he  revealed, 

m  Dan.  7. 10,  11. n  Job  4.  9;  Isa.  11.  4; 


licentious  hypocrites  in  Rev.  ii,  14,  etc. 
The  latter  view  led  in  the  Corinthian 
Church  to  the  denial  of  the  resurrection 
of  die  body,  (xv,  12-19 ;)  in  the  Colos- 
sian  Church  to  ascetic  fastings,  celi¬ 
bacies,  and  mysticisms,  (Col.  ii,  18  ;)  and 
in  Asia  Minor  generally  to  Docetism, 
or  the  denial  of  the  unity  of  the  Logos 
with  a  body  of  real  flesh,  condemned 
by  1  John  iv,  3,  and  expressly  identi¬ 
fied  by  him  with  antichrist,  “whereof 
ye  have  heard  that  it  should  come.” 

St.  John’s  allusions  to  antichrist  are, 
indeed,  here  very  instructive.  They 
are  three:  1  John  ii,  18-22,  and  iv,  3; 
2  John  7.  In  the  last  two  antichrist 
is  expressly  identified  with  the  last  of 
these  two  classes  of  views.  In  the 
first  we  have  three  points  :  1.  That  the 
coming  of  the  antichrist  was  generally 
known  to  be  predicted  as  taking  place 
at  the  last  time ;  2.  That  there  are 
many  (without  the  article)  elemental 
antichrists  now ;  and,  3.  From  this  it 
is  inferred  that  it  is  a  (without  the  def¬ 
inite  article)  last  time.  This  is  not 
asserting,  as  Alford  ineffectually  main¬ 
tains,  that  the  real  antichrist,  or  the 
real  advent,  is  approaching;  but  that 
some  terminus  is  approaching  analo¬ 
gous  to  the  final  catastrophe,  (see  note, 

1  Tim.  iv,  1,)  since  there  are  some  an¬ 
tichrists  existing  analogous  to  the  final 
antichrist. 

The  above  described  asceticism,  based 
on  the  inherent  evil  of  matter,  was 
wrought  at  a  later  period  into  the  sys¬ 
tem  of  Gnosticism.  Thence  it  was  em¬ 
braced  in  the  Popish  system  in  the  form 
of  clerical  celibacy,  abstaining  from 
meats,  bodily  flagellations,  and  monas- 
ticism.  The  forbidding  to  marry, 
consummated  by  Pope  Hildebrand, 
completed  the  absoluteness  of  the  pa¬ 
pacy,  by  cutting  the  clergy  from  all 
human  ties  and  compacting  them  into 
a  devoted  hierarchy,  profoundly  servile 
to  the  pope.  And  the  enactment  of 
the  dogma  of  the  “  immaculate  con¬ 
ception  ”  of  the  blessed  mother  by  Pope 
Pius  Ninth,  in  our  own  day,  is  the  last 
articulate  expression  of  the  ascetic 


whom  the  Lord  shall  consume 
"with  the  spirit  of  his  mouth,  and 

Hosea  6.  5 ;  Rev.  2.  16;  19.  15,  20,  21. 


Gnosticism  which  was  already  work¬ 
ing  in  Paul’s  day. 

8.  Then — As  soon  as  the  hinderance 
is  withdrawn.  The  Roman-pagan  em¬ 
pire  must  disappear,  before  the  Roman- 
papal  power  can  disclose  itself.  The 
Roman  emperor  must  cease  before  the 
Roman  pope  can  commence  supremacy. 
The  great  red  dragon  must  be  cast 
down  before  the  beast  can  rise.  One 
antichristic  guise  must  be  dropped  be¬ 
fore  another  can  be  assumed.  That 
Wicked  —  That  Lawless ;  who  over¬ 
rules  God’s  laws  and  substitutes  his 
own.  Revealed — Clearly  alluding  to 
the  personal  Satan.  For  as  Christ  is 
revealed,  being  pre-existent,  so  is  this 
antichrist  revealed,  being  pre-exist¬ 
ent.  Consume .  .  .  destroy— We  have 
now  a  vivid  semi-poetic  picture  of  the 
double  destruction  of  antichrist.  Our 
apostle,  in  the  glow  of  inspiration,  in¬ 
terrupts  his  description  to  hasten  to  the 
destruction.  He  has  a  moment  of  old 
Hebraic  rapture,  and  gives  us  a  splen¬ 
did  specimen  of  Hebraic  parallelism  : 

Shall  consume  with  the  breath  of  his  mouth 
Destroy  with  the  brightness  of  his  coming.  ’ 

But  the  Hebrew^  parallelism  wras  not 
ahvays  the  reiteration  of  the  same 
thought,  but  tvTo  richly  varied  phases 
of  the  same  subject.  The  subject  here, 
as  just  noted,  is  the  double  destruc¬ 
tion  of  antichrist,  first  under  his  beast 
guise,  as  in  Rev.  xix,  12-21,  and  the 
second  in  his  incarnate  form,  as  in 
Rev.  xx,  7-10.  Consume  with  the 
spirit  (or  breath)  of  his  mouth  — 
An  allusion  to  the  beautiful  words  of 
Isa.  xi,  4 :  “  He  shall  smite  the  earth 
with  the  rod  of  his  mouth,  and  with 
the  breath  of  his  lips  shall  he  slay 
the  wdeked.’’  This  figure  is  not  to 
be  degraded  into  a  description  of  a 
physical  or  bodily  destruction  by  an 
uttered  v'ord  of  Christ.  “The'  rod 
of  his  mouth  ”  is  the  powerful  truth 
that  he  utters  to  the  v’orld ;  and  “  the 
breath  of  his  lips  ”  is  that  divine  doc¬ 
trine  by  which  the  old  man  is  slain  that 
the  new  man  may  be  born.  This  pas- 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  II. 


399 


shall  destroy  ‘’with  the  brightness 


o  Chap.  1.  8,  9 ; 


Bage  is  virtually  reproduced  in  Rev. 
xix,  15:  “Out  of  his  mouth  goeth  a 
sharp  sword,  that  with  it  he  should 
smite  the  nations.’’  As  a  material  im¬ 
age  this  would  be  very  gross ;  but  as 
an  emblem  of  all-conquering  truth  go¬ 
ing  forth  from  the  lips  of  Jesus,  cut¬ 
ting  and  smiting  down  all  before  it,  it 
is  a  parable  of  beauty.  And  so  the 
entire  passage  (Rev.  xix,  11-21)  is  a  pic¬ 
ture  of  spiritual  conquests  and  providen¬ 
tial  overrulings  by  Jehovah-Christ  in 
behalf  of  his  earthly  kingdom.  Kings, 
there,  are,  as  in  ancient  prophecy,  an- 
titheistic  dominations  and  organisms ; 
the  beast  and  false  prophets  are  not 
so  much  men  as  antichristic  systems; 
their  overthrow  is  the  emancipation  of 
“  the  nations  ”  of  verse  15,  who  are 
still  existing  in  xx,  3,  8.  This  battle 
and  overthrow  are  not  the  work  of  a 
day,  but  of  an  age  ;  and  it  is  the  prepa¬ 
ration  for  that  predominance  of  Christ’s 
kingdom  symbolized  by  the  reign  with 
Christ  of  the  imparadised  “  souls  ”  of 
the  martyrs  in  the  battle,  who  are  en¬ 
throned  over  the  world,  Satan  having 
been  bound.  And  —  As  the  previous 
member  of  this  parallelism  describes 
Rev.  xix,  11-21,  so  the  following  cor¬ 
responds  with  xx,  1-10.  Destroy — 
Bring  to  naught.  Not  “  annihilate,”  as 
Alford  (apparently  following  Liine- 
mann’s  vernicliten)  translates  it ;  but, 
abolish,  nullify.  To  “annihilate ”  would 
imply  the  putting  the  very  elements  of 
his  being  out  of  existence.  Bright¬ 
ness  of  his  coming — The  kiuyavtia 
ryg  napovoLag,  by  the  resplendence  of  his 
parousia.  Very  flatly  rendered  by  Al¬ 
ford  “annihilated  by  the  appearance  of 
his  coming.”  It  is  by  the  epiphania , 
and  not  by  the  parousia,  that  anti¬ 
christ  is  said  to  be  destroyed.  The 
word  in  tile  New  Testament  uniformly 
implies  either  physical  or  moral  re¬ 
splendence  ;  as  an  adjective,  Acts  ii, 
20;  as  noun,  2  Tim.  i,  10;  as  verb, 
Acts  xxvii,  20 ;  Luke  i,  79.  In  Rev.  xx* 
9,  antichrist’s  armies  are  “  devoured  ” 
by  “  fire  cut  of  heaven,”  just  before  the 
parousia. 


of  his  coming:  9  Even  him ,  whose 


Heb.  10.  27. 


This  interpretation  does,  with  a  slight 
yet  effective  variation,  ratify  the  view 
taken  of  this  parallelism  by  the  best. 
Protestant  writers.  Thus  says  Dr. 
Gloag:  “The  spirit  or  breath  of  his 
mouth  has  been  understood  to  denote 
the  preaching  of  the  pure  gospel,  the 
diffusion  of  the  word  of  God,  and  the 
revival  of  evangelical  doctrines,  which 
will  undermine  popery.  By  the  bright¬ 
ness  of  his  coming  is  meant . the 

final  destruction  of  popery  by  the  com¬ 
ing  °f  Christ  to  judgment.”  Substitute 
antichrist  here  for  popery,  embracing 
our  historic-prophetic  view  of  anti¬ 
christ,  and  these  words  express  our 
exposition  of  this  parallelism.  And 
so  says  Bishop  Newton  :  “If  the  two 
clauses  relate  to  two  different  events, 
the  meaning  manifestly  is,  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  shall  gradually  consume 
him  with  the  free  preaching  of  his 
gospel,  and  shall  utterly  destroy  him 
at  his  second  coming.”  The  former 
began  to  take  effect  at  the  Reformation, 
and  the  latter  will  be  accomplished  in 
God’s  appointed  time. 

And  this  puts  into  our  hands  a  key 
for  the  solution  of  the  most  important 
section  of  the  Apocalypse,  Rev.  x-xx. 
It  is  a  tracing  the  history  of  the  stages 
of  contest  between  Christ  and  antichrist 
from  the  first  to  the  second  coming. 
The  former  appears  under  successive 
phases  of  his  true  Person,  as  man-child, 
conquering  hero,  and  final  judge ;  the 
latter  lurks  through  various  guises  and 
exposures  as  dragon,  beast,  naked  Sa¬ 
tan,  and  incarnate  anti-messiah.  At 
the  successive  time-points  the  two, 
Christ  and  antichrist,  meet;  at  every 
point  Christ  is  increasingly  victorious ; 
until  at  last  his  glorious  advent  con¬ 
signs  the  adversary  to  hell  forever., 

9.  Even  him — Italic  words  inserted 
by  our  translators  to  indicate  that  Paul 
returns  from  the  destruction  of  anti¬ 
christ  back  to  a  completion  of  his  de¬ 
scription  of  antichrist.  Whose  com¬ 
ing — Antichrist  is  the  caricature,  the 
black  shadow,  of  Christ.  Like  Christ, 
he  has  his  parousia,  his  revelation. 


400 


II.  THESS ALON IAN S. 


coming  is  p  after  the  working  of 
Satan  with  all  power  and  q  signs 
and  lying  wonders,  lO  And  with 

V  John  8.  41 ;  Eph.  2.  2. - q  Deut.  13.  1 ;  Matt. 

Is  after  the  working  of  Satan — Lii- 
neraann  (followed  by  Alford)  does  not 
penetrate  the  full  truth  here;  but  he 
furnishes  the  interpretation  that  estab¬ 
lishes  it.  The  working  of  Satan, 
he  sa}rs,  does  not  mean  activity  after 
the  model  of  Satan ;  but  is  “  an  ener¬ 
gizing  equivalent  to  a  Satanic  possession ; 
that  is,  the  devil  in  and  through  him 
works/’  Alford  says:  “Satan  being 
the  agent  who  works  in  the  lawless.” 
It  is  not  a  true  incarnation,  but  a  mock 
incarnation,  a  q>ossession.  So  that  here 
again  antichrist  is  a  mockery  of  Christ. 
The  pattern  of  this  possession  is  found 
in  the  demoniac  of  G-adara,  Mark  v,  9, 
(where  see  note,)  where  the  man  and 
demon  are  so  identified,  that  predicates 
may  be  applied  of  the  individual  that 
suit  either  nature,  or  include  both  ;  just 
as  in  the  divine  unity  of  Christ  pred¬ 
icates  are  affirmed  often  that  suit  one 
or  the  other  nature,  or  both  inclusive. 
Power — The  three  terms  here  used 
present  the  miracle  in  three  aspects,  or 
three  classes.  Power  is  a  miracle,  as 
being  a  display  of  supernatural  might; 
a  sign  is  a  miracle,  as  proof  of  a  doctrine 
or  authentication  of  a  religious  teacher  ; 
a  wonder  is  a  miracle  viewed  as  an 
external  marvel.  We  all  know  that 
popish  history  is  full  of  professed  mir¬ 
acles.  Transubstan.tiation  assumes  to 
be  a  miracle  of  stupendous  power; 
nothing  less  than  transmuting  a  wafer 
into  God!  Even  at  the  present  day 
large  communities  are  excited  by  ru¬ 
moured  miracles,  and  extensive  pil¬ 
grimages  are  made  to  the  scene  of  their 
performance.  Lying  — This  epithet 
properly  characterizes  all  three  classes. 

Against  identifying  the  man  of  sin 
with  the  papal  power  it  is  often  ob¬ 
jected  that  the  Roman  Church  of  the 
Middle  Ages  fills  a  large  part  of  Church 
history,  possessed  a  large  amount  of 
piety,  and  was  the  author  of  a  large 
amount  of  good  to  mankind.  This 
may  all  be  cheerfully  granted;  for  the 
text  expressly  says  "that  it  was  in  the 


A.  D.  53. 


all  deceivableness  of  unrighteous¬ 
ness  in  rthem  that  perish;  because 
they  received  not  the  love  of  the 


24.  24;  Rev.  13.  13;  19.  20. - r 2  Cor.  2. 15;  4.  3. 


very  temple  of  God  that  he  en¬ 
throned  himself.  The  Western  Church 
of  the  Middle  Ages  retained  a  largo 
amount  of  Christian  truth  and  power, 
by  which  she  took  the  dead  corpse  of 
falling  pagan  Rome,  and  uniting  it  with 
the  barbarians  of  Europe,  whom  she 
slowly  civilized,  laid  the  foundations 
of  modern  Europe  and  America.  Tne 
churches  and  monasteries  were  built 
with  much  of  holy  purpose,  and  were 
largely  the  abodes  of  piety  and  learn¬ 
ing.  The  schoolmen  were  among  the 
moral  and  intellectual  benefactors  of 
mankind.  All  this  proves  that  the 
Western  Church  could  truly  be  called 
the  temple  of  God.  But  to  such  a  his¬ 
tory-  there  are  two  sides.  Babylon,  Per¬ 
sia,  Greece,  Rome  are  splendid  objects 
in  human  history.  They  were  human 
governments,  and  as  such,  “ordained 
of  God,”  and  their  rulers  were  “  minis¬ 
ters  of  God.”  And  yet,  on  the  other 
side,  as  idolatrous,  apostate  from  God, 
despotic  and  worldly,  they  are  in  proph¬ 
ecy  figured  as  “  beasts.”  "And  so  in  the 
very  temple  of  God  the  papal  pow¬ 
er  arose,  forged  the  most  stupendous 
falsehoods  and  the  most  abject  super¬ 
stitions,  and  thereon  founded  the  most 
absolute  despotism,  sustained  by  the 
direst  cruelties  recorded  in  history. 
But  this  forbids  not  the  trust  that 
there  is  many  a  true  saint  in  the  Ro¬ 
man  communion. 

10.  Deceivableness  —  Rather,  de¬ 
ceivingness ,  actively  taken ;  referring  to 
the  deceiving  operations  of  the  man  of 
sin.  Of  unrighteousness — The  de¬ 
ceptiveness  of  his  iniquity.  In  them 
that  perish  —  The  objects  of  the  un¬ 
righteous  deception;  literally,  towards 
or  upon  them  who  are  the  perishing: 
namely,  those  who  receive,  and  become 
partisans  of,  the  iniquity  of  antichrist 
They  are  now  sinking  to  perdition. 
Because — Reason  why  they  are  the 
perishing;  first ,  they  loved  not  the 
truth  ;  secondly ,  they  consequently  be¬ 
lieved  not  the'  truth  ;  thirdly,  they  in- 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  II. 


401 


truth,  that  they  might  be  saved. 
11  And  sfor  this  cause  God  shall 
fiend  them  strong  delusion,  lthat 
they  should  believe  a  lie  :  12  That 
they  all  might  be  damned  who  be¬ 
lieved  not  the  truth,  but  uhad  pleas- 

s  Rom.  1.  24 ;  see  1  Kings  22.  22 ;  Ezek.  14.  9. 
_ t  Matt.  24.  5,  11 ;  1  Tim.  4,  1. 

curred  from  God  these  strong  delusions 
to  the  belief  of  the  deception  of  the 
man  of  sin,  that  they  might  be  (not 
damned)  but  judged.  Received  not 
the  love  of  the  truth — Back  of  their 
disbelief  of  truth  was  their  hatred  of 
the  truth.  And  this  hatred  was  vol¬ 
untary  and  not  necessary,  for  they  re¬ 
ceived  not — they  rejected  the  possi¬ 
ble  predisposition  towards  the  truth. 
Back  of  all  was  a  free  responsible  will. 
Bor  these  followers  of  antichrist  had,  or 
might  have  had,  knowledge  of  the  true 
Christ.  They  were  in  the  Church,  as  he 
was  seated  in  the  Church,  ver.  4 ;  and 
they  were  guilty  of  a  falling  away, 
verse  3,  an  apostasy.  That  they 
might  be  saved  —  The  result  which 
would  have  followed  their  choosing  the 
love  of  truth. 

11.  For  this  cause — Namely,  that 
they  first  hated  and  rejected  the  love 
of  the  truth.  Shall  send  —  Rather, 
present  tense,  sends;  or,  as  the  mis¬ 
chief  was  already  working  while  St. 
Paul  was  writing,  is  sending .  Strong 
delusion — Greek,  a  working  of  decep¬ 
tion,  that  is,  the  deceiving  operations 
of  the  man  of  sin.  God,  as  God  of 
providence,  sends  these  deceptive  oper¬ 
ations  as  part  of  our  probation  ;  not  to 
make  us  sinful,  but  to  afford  us  means 
of  trial,  triumph,  and  salvation.  St. 
Paul  is  full  and  formal  in  tracing  their 
perdition  and  their  being  deceived  to 
their  own  previous  volitional  and  re¬ 
sponsible  act,  and  their  mental  state  in 
consequence  of  that  act.  Bui  for  that 
state  and  act  the  delusion  would  have 
been  no  delusion.  But,  for  those  who 
hate  the  truth,  the  events  sent  by  the 
providence  of  God  will  furnish  ample 
grounds  for  being  deluded,  if  they 
please.  Note,  Rom.  viii,  11.  That 
they  should  believe  a  lie  —  Greek, 
to  the  result  that  they  believe  the  lie. 
Men  may  infer,  but  the  words  do  not 

Vol.  IV.— 26 


ure  in  unrighteousness.  13  But 
vwe  are  bound  to  give  thanks  al¬ 
ways  to  God  for  you,  brethren  be¬ 
loved  of  the  Lord,  because  God 
w  hath  x  from  the  beginning  chosen 
you  to  salvation  y  through  sanctifi- 

Chap.  1.  3. - w  1  Thess.  1.  4. 

-y  Luke  1.  75 ;  1  Pet.  1.  2. 


wRom.  1.  82. - 

a?Eph.  1.  4.- 


say,  that  it  was  the  divine  intention 
that  they  should  believe  falsehood.  It 
states  only  a  result,  a  result  which  the 
believers  were  fully,  as  free  agents,  able 
to  avoid.  We  reject  the  absurd  state¬ 
ment  of  Alford,  “  whatever  God  per¬ 
mits,  he  ordains.”  The  non-preven¬ 
tion  by  God  of  the  voluntary  sin  of  a 
free  agent  is  not  the  ordaining  of  it. 
All  that  St.  Paul  affirms  here  is,  that 
God  sends  a  working  of  deception  (by 
its  own  will  already  existing)  to  these 
persons,  who  are  voluntarily  predis¬ 
posed  to  it.  One  set  of  sinners  grati¬ 
fies  the  willingness  to  be  damned  of 
another  set.  A  lie — Rather,  the  lie. 
The  stupendous  systematic  lie  of  the 
“  man  of  sin.” 

12.  That  they  all  might  be 
damned — Not  damned,  but  judged. 
And  damned  if  judgment  justly  goes 
against  them.  But  a  true  translation 
should  give  only  what  the  apostle  says, 
and  let  the  inferential  results  take  care 
of  themselves.  God’s  purpose  is  not 
that  any  man  should  be  damned.  Be¬ 
lieved  not  —  St.  Paul  reiterates,  as  if 
anxious  to  secure  a  true  view  of  man’s 
responsibility  and  God’s  justice,  that 
they  were  voluntary  rejecters  of  truth 
which  it  was  in  their  power  to  accept. 
Had  pleasure  —  Not  from  necessity, 
nor  from  God’s  decree,  but  from  free 
choice. 

1 3.  But — In  contrast  with  the  dark 
picture  of  10-12,  we  are  relieved  with 
the  beautiful  portraiture  of  the  believ¬ 
ers  of  the  truth  in  Thessalonica.  St. 
Paul  presents  the  divine  side  of  their 
salvation,  the  human  conditions  being 
subordinately  assumed.  From  the 
beginning — From  the  first  founding 
of  the  Thessalonian  Church,  when  they 
were  first  called.  .  .by  our  gospel,  as 
said  in  verse  14.  This,  in  contrast  with 
the  unbelievers  of  verse  10,  who  by 
their  own  rejection  became  victims  of 


402 


II.  THESS ALONI AN S. 


A.  D.  53. 


cation  of  the  Spirit  and  belief  of 
the  truth :  14  Whereunto  lie  called 
you  by  our  gospel,  to  zthe  obtain¬ 
ing  of  the  glory  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  15  Therefore,  brethren, 
a  stand  fast,  and  hold  The  tradi¬ 
tions  which  ye  have  been  taught, 
whether  by  word,  or  our  epistle. 


10  c  Now  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
himself,  and  God,  even  our  Father, 
d  which  hath  loved  us,  and  hath 
given  us  everlasting  consolation 
and  egood  hope  through  grace, 
17  Comfort  your  hearts, f  and  stab- 
lish  you  in  every  good  word  and 
work. 


s  John  17.  22;  1  Thess.  2.  12;  1  Pet.  5.  10. - 

a  1  Cor.  1(5.  13;  Phil.  4.  1. - b  1  Cor.  11.  2; 

chap.  3.  6. 


cChap.  1.  1, 

- e  1  Pet.  1.  3, 

1  Pet.  5.  10. 


2.—  —  d\  John  4.  10;  Rev.  1.  5. 
—f  1  Cor.  1.8;  1  Thess.  3.  13; 


delusions,  Lunemann,  followed  by  Al¬ 
ford,  interprets  from  eternity ,  a  sense 
which  the  phrase  never  has  in  the 
New  Testament.  It  is  entirely  uncrit¬ 
ical  to  quote  as  they  do  such  phrases 
“  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,” 
etc.  Equally  uncritical  to  quote  St. 
John’s  “In  the  beginning  was  the 
Word,”  where  the  sense  of  eternity 
arises  from  the  verb  was,  as  see  our 
note  there.  In  the  following  passages 
the  phrase  is  used,  limited  by  the  ad¬ 
joining  words  to  the  commencement  of 
human  history  with  Adam.  Matt,  xix, 
4,  8;  John  viii,  44;  1  John  iii,  8  ;  Matt, 
xxiv,  21 ;  Mark  x,  6  ;  xiii,  19  ;  2  Pet. 
iii,  4.  So,  limited  by  the  context  to 
particular  things,  in  Luke  i,  2;  John 
xv,  27  ;  1  Johni,  1  ;  ii,  7,  13, 14,  24;  iii, 
11;  2  John  5,6;  Actsxxvi,  4.  Chosen 
— In  consequence  of  faith,  just  as  those 
of  verse  10  were  rejected  because  of 
unbelief.  Through — The  preposition 
of  instrumentality.  On  the  divine  side 
God  uses  the  free  act  of  the  creature’s 
faith  as  his  instrument  in  bringing  them 
to  salvation.  Sanctification  of,  or 
from,  as  agent,  the  Spirit — Depends  on 
salvation.  It  was  not,  then,  first  jus¬ 
tification  by  faith  which  was  wrought 
through  sanctification  of  the  Spirit,  as 
Lunemann  strangely  puts  it.  Such  an 
idea  as  sanctification  being  the  pri¬ 
mary  means  of  our  being  chosen  is 
wholly  iinbiblical.  Belief  of  the  truth 
— The  firm  permanent  faith  of  the  be¬ 
liever  in  contrast  with  the  unbelievers 
of  vv.  10-12. 

14.  Whereunto — Refers  to  the  en¬ 
tire  clause  salvation  .  . .  truth.  By 
our  gospel  —  here  the  word  our 
clearly  limits  it  to  Paul’s  first  preaching 
at  Thessalonica,  and  fixes  the  mean¬ 


ing  of  from  the  beginning,  in  ver.  13. 
Obtaining  —  Attaining.  Glory — At 
and  beyond  the  advent. 

15.  Therefore — In  view  of  the  gra¬ 
cious  things  from  the  divine  side,  vv. 
13,  14,  perform  your  duty  of  persever¬ 
ance  in  faith.  Stand  fast — In  contrast 
with  be  shaken  of  ver.  2.  Traditions- 
— His  written  or  verbal  deliverances  to 
them.  These  traditions  they  had  re¬ 
ceived  from  him  personally.  They  have 
no  connexion  with  the  pretended  tra¬ 
ditions  of  the  Romish  Church,  which 
have  no  valid  proof  of  authenticity,  and 
yet  are  reckoned  by  Romanists  as  au¬ 
thoritative  part  of  “the  word  of  God,” 
co-ordinate  with  the  Scriptures. 

16.  Now — The  heart  of  our  apostle 
now  ascends  in  prayer  to  God,  for  the 
completion  cf  the  hopes  and  exhorta¬ 
tions  he  has  uttered.  His  prayer  as¬ 
cends  through  the  Mediator,  Christ, 
to  the  primal  fountain  of  all  salvation, 
God.  Hath  loved  —  Fordo  not  im¬ 
agine  that  the  Father  is  all  justice, 
and  Christ  alqne  all  love.  Christ  is 
the  offspring  of  the  Father’s  love  to  us. 
Consolation— Of  which,  as  truly  for¬ 
lorn  beings  and  condemned  sinners,  we 
stand  in  great  need.  This  consolation 
must  be  also  everlasting,  for  if  it  ter¬ 
minate  we  shall  be  as  forlorn  and  lost 
as  ever.  Good  hope — By  the  divine 
assurance  which  sustains  our  consola¬ 
tion,  given  us  through  grace  received 
by  the  mediation  of  Christ. 

17.  Comfort  your  hearts — By  the 
present  immediate  application  of  that 
everlasting  consolation.  Stablish 
you — By  the  rich  inspiration  of  that 
good  hope.  In  the  performance  of 
every  good  word  we  can  utter  and 
every  good  work  we  can  perform. 


A.  D.  53. 


CHAPTER  III. 


403 


CHAPTER  III. 

FINALLY,  brethren,  apray  for 
us,  that  the  word  of  the  Lord 
1  may  have  free  course,  and  be 


glorified,  even  as  it  is  with  you: 

2  And  bthat  we  may  be  delivered 
from  2  unreasonable  and  wicked 
men:  cfor  all  men  have  not  faith. 

3  But  d  the  Lord  is  faithful,  who 


shall  stablish  you,  and  ekeep  you 
from  evil.  4  And  f  we  have 
confidence  in  the  Lord  touching 
you,  that  ye  both  do  and  will  do 
the  things  which  we  command 
you.  5  And  s  the  Lord  direct, 
your  hearts  into  the  love  of  God, 
and  into  3  the  patient  waiting  for 
Christ.  & 


a  Eph.  6.  19;  Col.  4.  3;  1  Thess.  5.  25. - 

1  Greek  ,may  run. - b  Rom.  15.  31. - 2  Greek, 

absurd. - c  Acts  28.  24 ;  Rom.  10. 16. - d\  Cor 


L  Thess.  5.  24  —e  John  17.  15;  2  Pet.  2.  9. 

7-  16.\  Gal.  5. 10. - q  1  Chron.  29.  18. 

o  Or,  the  vattence  of  Christ ,  1  Thess.  1.  3. 


CHAPTER  III. 

4.  Hopeful  prSyer  for  their  con¬ 
tinued  firmness,  1-5. 

1.  Finally— Note,  1  Thess.  iv,  1. 
Pray  for  —  Rather,  concerning  us. 
The  prayer  is  rather  for  the  success  of 
the  gospel,  and  for  Paul  only  as  its 
minister.  Have  free  course — A  cir¬ 
cumlocutory  translation  of  simply  the 
word  for  run.  Compare  Psa.  cxlvii,  15 : 
“His  word  runneth  very  swiftly.” 
The  prayer  is,  for  the  rapid  spread  of 
the  gospel.  Be  glorified — By  a  tri¬ 
umphant  universality  in  the  salvation 
of  men.  Is  with  you— It  being  your 
true  glory,  and  you  being  the  happy 
models  for  a  Christian  world. 

2.  Delivered  from — The  great  im¬ 
pediment  to  the  free  course  of  the 
word.  Unreasonable  —  The  word 
means,  etymologically,  out  of  place; 
and  hence,  as  an  adjective  signifies, 
unsuitable ,  unfitting.  In  Luke  xxiii,  41 
it  is  rendered  “  amiss;”  in  Acts  xxviii,  6 
it  is  rendered  “harm,”  meaning  harm¬ 
ful.  At  this  time  of  writing  at  Corinth, 
probably  St.  Paul  was  being  harassed 
by  the  unbelieving  J ews,  who  raised  an 
“  insurrection,”  and  arraigned  him  be¬ 
fore  Gallio,  (Acts  xviii,  12-17,)  and  it 
is  very  possible  that  it  is  to  them  he 
here  alluded.  All . . .  not  faith — Why 
state  so  obvious  a  fact  as  that  all  men 
are  not  Christians  in  faith?  To  obvi¬ 
ate  this  difficulty  some  commentators 
understand  by  faith,  fidelity,  good  faith, 
sincerity.  And  such  meaning  it  has  in 
Matt,  xxiii,  23,  and  Titus  ii,  10.  This 
is  strongly  favoured  by  the  apparently 
antithetic  word  faithful  in  next  verse, 
and  in  have  confidence,  in  verse  4. 
Let  us  suppose  that  the  'unsuitable  and 
evil  men  were  unreliable  professors  of 


Christianity,  “false  brethren,”  who 
were  out  of  place  in  Christian  com¬ 
munion,  and  we  get  a  very  consistent 
train  of  thought.  Pray  deliverance 
from  untrusty  adherents,  (who  prevent 
the  gospel’s  being  glorified,)  for  not 
all  prove  faithful;  yet  faithful  is  the 
Lord,  and  we  have  faith  through  him 
in  you.  This  seems  better  than  Liine- 
mann  s  (followed  by  Alford)  interpreta¬ 
tion  of  faith  as  receptive  predisposition. 
Every  other  interpretation  than  ours  re¬ 
duces  the  antithesis  between  faith  and 
faithful  to  one  of  “  sound,  ’  (Alford,) 
and  does  not  notice  the  confidence 
of  verse  4  at  all. 

4.  Confidence  in  the  Lord  touch- 

ing  you — That  on  the  divine  side, 
since  the  Lord  is  faithful,  every 
thing  possible  will  be  done ;  that  pos¬ 
sibility  and  faithfulness  being  limited 
only  by  the  laws  of  God’s  action  in  the 
kingdom  of  grace,  laws  prescribed  by 
himself  upon  himself.  And  among 
those  laws  is  the  postulate  by  him  re° 
quired,  that  man,  as  free-agent,  should 
ise  granted  grace,  and  power  to  meet 
.he  conditions  necessary  to  justification, 
sanctification,  persevering  grace,  and 
eternal  life.  Ye  both  do  and  will 
do— That  they  will  do  he  trusts,  first, 
because  God,  on  the  divine  side,  will 
stablish  and  keep ;  and  you,  on  the 
human  side,  will  consent  to  be  stab- 
lished  and  kept;  that  is,  that  you 
will  do  the  conditions  of  the  full  reali¬ 
zation  of  God’s  stablishing  and  keeping. 

5.  Love  of  God — The  feeling  in  us 
of  love  towards  God.  Patient  wait¬ 
ing  for  Christ— Literally,  T r/v  vnoyo- 
vr/v  rov  xpiGTov,  the  patience  of  Christ. 

It  may  mean  Christ’s  patience;  and 
then  Christ's  patience  and  the  Christian's 


404 


II.  THESS ALON  IANS. 


A.  D.  53. 


<»  Now  we  command  you,  breth- 

patience ,  the  patience  to  which  Paul 
prays  that  God  may  direct  their 
hearts,  are  one  holy  patience.  So  the 
Christian,  in  2  Cor.  i,  5,  undergoes  the 
“  sufferings  of  Christ.”  Our  transla¬ 
tors,  and  many  commentators,  apply 
the  words  to  the  awaiting  the  second 
advent.  Liinemann  objects,  that  the 
Greek  word  for  such  waiting  in  1  Thes- 
salonians  i,  10  is  slightly  different;  but 
the  same  word  is  used  for  it  in  1  Thes- 
salonians  i,  7. 

6.  Charge  that  idlers  be  required 
to  become  industrious  or  be  dis¬ 
owned,  6-15. 

When  the  apostle  first  came  to  Thes- 
ealonica  he  gave  an  example  of  man¬ 
ual  labour,  and  gave  special  charge  to 
his  converts  to  be  models  of  industry. 
This  charge  was  made  necessary,  evi¬ 
dently,  from  the  fact  that  some  of  his 
converts  were  from  among  the  class 
of  idlers,  and  needed  the  most  strin¬ 
gent  instruction  that  to  be  a  Christian 
was  to  be  a  faithful  performer  of  ev¬ 
ery  secular  and  industrial  duty.  Yet 
as  the  gospel  opened  the  hearts  of  the 
wealthier  portion  to  liberal  charities, 
the  temptation  became  strong,  after 
Paul’s  departure,  for  the  idler  to  avail 
himself  of  these  means  of  support  in 
idleness.  The  apostle,  therefore,  in 
his  first  epistle,  (iv,  11,  12,)  gave  them 
a  gentle  admonition.  This  failing,  he 
now,  in  the  most  authoritative  style,  re¬ 
quires  that  these  brethren  correct  or  be 
disowned.  He  recalls  his  own  exam¬ 
ple  and  previous  precepts,  and  concludes 
with  this  solemn  direct  appeal  to  them. 

Many  standard  commentators,  as 
Olshausen,  Liinemann,  and  Alford, 
maintain  that  the  expectation  of  the 
immediate  advent  was  the  main  cause 
of  this  idleness.  Put  the  only  ground 
for  such  a  supposition  is  the  fact  of 
the  coexistence  of  the  two  things,  name¬ 
ly,  the  expectation  and  the  idleness. 
There  is  not  one  syllable  in  either  epis¬ 
tle  that  connects  the  two  things  as 
cause  and  effect.  On  the  contrary,  the 
whole  aspect  of  the  case  is  the  reverse. 
The  idleness  existed  previous  to  the 
existence  of  the  expectation.  Paul  ex¬ 
erted  example  and  precept,  at  his  first 


ren,  in  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus 


appearance  among  them,  against  it.  In 
the  first  epistle  the  excitement  of  ex¬ 
pectation  had  not  risen,  and  yet  the 
idleness  existed.  Xor  does  the  quality 
of  this  idleness  suit  the  expectation  of 
an  immediate  advent.  It  was  not  a 
solemn  giving  over  of  business,  and  at¬ 
tending  exclusively  to  religious  exer¬ 
cises  ;  nor  even  an  overdone  religious 
dissipation ;  but  a  lounging  and  gad¬ 
ding  spirit  of  meddlesome  gossip,  im¬ 
pudently  devouring  the  charities  of  the 
Church.  Xor  does^St.  Paul  refer  to 
the  palpable  inconsistency  of  such  a 
spirit  and  conduct  with  the  expectation 
of  the  immediate  judgment,  but  grounds 
his  solemn  charge  on  the  very  nature 
of  Christian  duty,  as  if  purposing  to 
place  honest  secular  industry — perma¬ 
nent  and  regular  attention  to  business 
— among  the  cardinal  virtues  of  Chris¬ 
tianity. 

Two  periods  of  excitement  in  ex¬ 
pectation  of  the  advent  on  a  speci¬ 
fied  day  are  memorable  in  American 
religious  history.  In  the  latter  of 
these,  which  occurred  within  our  own 
memory,  there  was  an  intense  religious 
excitement,  but  no  relaxation  of  busi¬ 
ness,  and  no  increase  of  secular  idle¬ 
ness.  The  evangelical  Churches,  es¬ 
pecially  those  most  exposed  to  the  ex¬ 
citement,  received  large  accessions  of 
converts,  followed  by  an  immense  dim¬ 
inution  the  year  following.  In  a  former 
generation  in  Xew  England,  under  the 
preaching  of  an  eloquent  divine,  named 
Austin,  a  day  was  fixed  and  a  great 
excitement  rose.  The  appointed  day 
happened,  in  fact,  to  be  characterized  by 
a  great  darkness.  The  Legislature  of 
Connecticut,  it  is  said,  was  in  session, 
and  its  members  were  in  no  little  com¬ 
motion.  But  the  presiding  officer  ad¬ 
dressed  them  substantially  in  the  fol¬ 
lowing  terms :  “  Let  us  keep  order,  gen¬ 
tlemen  ;  the  judgment-day  can  find  us 
in  no  better  business  than  the  discharge 
of  our  regular  duties.” 

6.  Command  you — An  authorita¬ 
tive  phrase,  in  Greek  terms  which  are 
used  by  kings  to  their  subjects  or  gen¬ 
erals  to  their  soldiers.  These  are.  now, 
our  apostolic  orders,  solemnly  enforced 


A.  I>.  53 


CLIAPTEU  III. 


405 


Christ,  h  that  ye  withdraw  your¬ 
selves  ‘from  every  brother  that 
walketh  k  disorderly,  and  not  after 
1  the  tradition  which  he  received 
of  us.  7  For  yourselves  know 
m  how  ye  ought  to  follow  us :  for 
hwe  behaved  not  ourselves  disor¬ 
derly  among  you ;  8  Neither  did 

we  eat  any  man’s  bread  for  nought ; 
but  °wrought  with  labour  and  trav¬ 
ail  night  and  day,  that  we  might 
not  be  chargeable  to  any  of  you  : 
9  i>Not  because  we  have  not  power, 

h  Rom.  16.  17 ;  verse  14 ;  1  Tim.  6.  5 ;  2  John  10. 

- i  1  Cor.  5.  11. - k\  Thess.  4.  11 ;  5.  14;  vers. 

11 , 12, 14. - 1  Chap.  2. 15. - m  1  Cor.  4. 16 ;  11. 1 ; 

1  Thess.  1.  6,  7. - n  1  Thess.  2. 10. - o  Acts  18.  3 ; 

by  being  in  the  name  of  our  Lord 

J esus  Christ.  These  are  his  orders, 

by  his  representative  apostle.  Paul 
commences,  severely,  with  charge  to 

the  Church  to  deal  with  the  offenders, 

6-11 ;  delivers  but  a  brief  charge  to  the 
offenders  themselves,  12,  as  he  had  on 
former  occasions  pretty  much  said  his 

say  to  them  ;  and  then  encourages  the 
liberal  part  of  the  Church  to  continued 
duty,  18,14.  Withdraw  yourselves 
— The  Christian  people  were  to  note, 
(verse  14,)  specialize,  the  individual, 
and  withdraw  themselves  from  any 
recognition  or  intercourse  by  which  he 
was  acknowledged  as  belonging  to  the 
Christian  body  —  a  passive  expulsion 
of  the  offender.  It  was  thus  signified 
that  no  idler,  able  to  work,  yet  spong¬ 
ing  upon  the  industry  of  others,  could  be 
an  accepted  Christian.  Disorderly — 
Like  a  soldier  wandering  out  of  the 
ranks,  and  so  destroying  discipline. 
Tradition — See  note  on  verse  15. 

7.  Yourselves  know  —  Another 
appeal  to  their  own  consciences  in  proof 
of  his  truth.  Ourselves  —  Again  ap¬ 
pealing  to  his  own  example.  Note, 

1  Thess.  ii,  9. 

9,  Power — See  note  on  Acts  xx,  34. 
Make  ourselves  an  ensample — Lit¬ 
eral  Greek,  we  may  give  ourselves  a 
type.  In  this  phrase  the  ourselves  is 
plural,  and  the  type  singular,  showing 
that  St.  Paul  speaks  of  himself  in  the 
plural. 

10.  Not  work. .  .eat — He  is  scarce 
&  Christian,  whatever  his  rank,  who, 


but  to  make  q  ourselves  an  ensam¬ 
ple  unto  you  to  follow  us.  10  For 
even  when  we  were  with  you,  this 
we  commanded  you,  rthat  if  any 
would  not  work,  neither  should  he 
eat.  11  For  we  hear  that  there 
are  some * * * * * * 7  8 9 10  which  walk  among  you 
disorderly,  forking  not  at  all,  but 
are  busybodies.  12  u  Now  them 
that  are  such  we  command  and 
exhort  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
vthat  with  quietness  they  work, 
and  eat  their  own  bread.  13  But 

20.  34 ;  2  Cor.  11. 9 ;  1  Thess.  2.  9. - j>  1  Cor.  9.  6 ; 

1  Thess.  2.  6. q  Ver.  7. r  Gen.  3. 19 ;  1  Thess. 

4. 11. - s  Ver.  6. - 1 1  Thess.  4.  11 ;  1  Tim.  5.  13 ; 

1  Peter  4.  15. - u  1  Thess.  4.  11. - v  Eph.  4.  28. 

possessed  of  the  ability,  does  not  earn 
his  own  living.  It  is  a  sad  account  he 
has  to  give  at  the  judgment-seat  who 
has  not  made  the  world  better  by  his 
having  lived  in  it.  And  he  who  does 
so  earns  his  living,  and  the  final  re¬ 
ward,  whether  he  has  worked  with  his 
brain  or  his  hands.  St.  Paul’s  converts 
were  doubtless  mostly  artisans,  and  he 
set  the  example  of  working  with  his 
hands ,  not  because  his  preaching  was 
not  a  most  arduous  and  powerful  work , 
but  in  order  to  make  the  idlers  among 
them  work  at  all.  Paul’s  maxim  is 
based  on  the  primeval  law  of  Gen. 
iii,  19,  that  “eat  bread”  should  depend 
on  “  the  sweat  of  thy  face.”  And 
hence  saith  an  old  Rabbi:  “Whoso  la- 
boureth  not  on  the  sixth  day  — what 
shall  he  eat  on  the  Sabbath  ?  ” 

11.  Not  business  men ,  but. ,  .busy- 
bodies.  For  there  is  such  a  play  upon 
words  in  the  apostle’s  Greek.  He  de¬ 
scribes  people  who  mind  no  business  of 
their  own,  and  so  have  time  and  fancy 
to  “  meddle  and  muddle  ”  in  the  busi¬ 
ness  of  others.  Th q parasites  of  Greece 
were  a  class  that  lived  by  dining  out, 
flattering  the  patrons  who  fed  them, 
sometimes  being  made  heirs  of  estates 
by  their  rare  skill  in  obsequiousness. 

12.  Direct  appeal  to  the  idlers. 
Command — A  command  on  which  a 
penalty  depends.  Exhort — A  ten¬ 
derer  word,  appealing  to  their  own 
sense  of  Christian  duty.  Quietness 
— The  opposite  of  a  restless,  busy¬ 
body  impertinence.  Own  bread — 


4  06 


II.  THESSALONIANS. 


A.  I).  53. 


ye,  brethren,  w4be  not  weary  in 
well  doing.  14  And  if  any  man 
obey  not  our  word  by  this  epistle, 

note  that  man,  and  x  have  no 
company  with  him,  that  he  may 
be  ashamed.  15  *  Yet  count  him 
not  as  an  enemy,  z  but  admonish 
him  as  a  brother. 

wGal.  6.  9.  —4 Or, faint  not. - 5 Or,  nigni- 

tl/  that  man  by  an  epixtle. - x  Matt.  18.  17; 

1  Cor,  5.9,  11 ;  verse  6. - y  Lev.  19.  17;  1  Tliess. 

Instead  of  playing  the  parasite  and  eat¬ 
ing  the  bread  of  others. 

13.  Brethren — An  address  to  the 
industrious  and  liberal  class.  Be  not 
weary  in  well  doing — Let  not  the 
idle  selfishness  of  these  eaters  at  oth¬ 
ers’  tables  weary  you  in  bestowing 
your  charities  on  the  really  needy. 

1 4.  Note — Literally,  set  a  mark  upon. 
Make  him  a  marked  man.”  Let  him 
be  viewed  by  both  the  world  and  him¬ 
self  as  disowned  by  the  Church.  No 
company  —  Avoid  such  association 
with  him  as  identifies  him  with  the 
Church.  May  be  ashamed  —  The 
feeling  proper  for  conduct  which  is  a 
violation  of  Christian  honour  and  self- 
respect,  and  conducive  to  the  appro¬ 
priate  spirit  of  repentance. 

15.  As  an  enemy — Indulge  no  ha¬ 
tred  ;  do  him  all  the  good  in  your 
power.  Admonish  —  This  is  the 
meaning  of  your  withdrawal  from  him, 
as  an  admonition  and  a  guidance  of  the 
man  to  the  resumption  of  his  position 
as  a  brother.  From  the  entire  ten¬ 
ure  of  this  paragraph  it  is  clear  that 
8t.  Paul  held  that  the  possible  nearness 
of  the  advent  should  with  Christians 
not  change  the  tenor  of  life.  The  ar¬ 
tisan  should  ply  his  trade,  the  scholar 
his  books,  and  the  farmer  cultivate  the 
soil,  as  usual.  We  should ,  indeed ,  live 
as  liolily  as  if  the  advent  were  to  he  to¬ 
day,  hut  as  practically  as  if  the  world 
were  to  last  forever. 

7.  Benedictory  and  salutatory 
conclusion,  16-18. 

16.  Lord  of  peace — Christ;  as  the 


16  Now  athe  Lord  of  peace  him¬ 
self  give  you  peace  always  by  all 
means.  The  Lord  he  with  you  all. 

17  bThe  salutation  of  Paul  with 
mine  own  hand,  which  is  the  to¬ 
ken  in  every  epistle  :  so  I  write. 

18  cThe  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  he  with  you  all.  Amen. 


5.  14- - «  Titus  3.  10. - a  Rom.  15  33:  ]fi  20- 

1  Cor.  14,33;  2  Cor.  13.  11;  1  TheVs.  23.— 
bl  Cor.  10.  21 ;  Col.  4.  18. - cRom.  16.  24. 


Father,  or  rather,  the  Trinity,  is  the 
God  of  peace,  1  Thess.  v,  23.  Give 
you  peace — See  note,  1  Thess.  v,  23. 
By  all  means — In  every  way ;  by  the 
mutual  performance  of  every  duty. 
All — Both  the  reproved  and  the  ap¬ 
proved. 

17.  With  mine  own  hand — So  far 

by  amanuensis ;  now  by  autograph. 
Token  in  every  epistle— His  first 
epistle  was  without  such  authentication ; 
but  the  forged  or  pretended  epistle  of 
ii,  2,  had  warned  him  to  guard  against 
imposition.  Every  epistle  needing 
authentication,  whether  written  to  the 
Thessalonians  or  to  others,  was  to  re¬ 
ceive  its  autographic  token  henceforth. 
Of  those  so  explicitly  authenticated 
are  Colossians,  (iv,  18,)  and  1  Corinthi¬ 
ans,  (xvi,  21,)  Galatians  being  entirely 
autographic.  In  Romans  the  conclud¬ 
ing  doxology  may  have  been  autograph¬ 
ic;  as  Ephesians  vi,  24,  and  Philippi¬ 
cs  iv,  23.  Several  epistles  may  not 
have  needed  authentication ;  as  2  Co¬ 
rinthians,  which  was  sent  by  Titus; 
and  those  written  to  individuals,  as 
Timothy,  Titus,  and  Philemon,  which 
were  either  autographic  or  known  by 
circumstances  to  be  genuine.  So  I 
write — This  is  ni}r  penmanship.  Gro- 
tius,  ingeniously,  but  incorrectly,  sup¬ 
poses  that  Paul  appended  a  complex 
monogram  as  his  mark.  The  apos¬ 
tle’s  autograph  probably  included  vv 
17,  18. 

18.  Grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ — Paul’s  usual  benediction.  See 
note  on  1  Thess.  v,  28. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  FIRST  TIMOTHY. 


The  so-called  Pastoral  Epistles  (from  their  being  pastoral  instructions 
from  a  pastor  to  a  pastor)  of  Timothy  and  Titus  were  received  as  au¬ 
thentic  and  canonical  by  the  primitive  Church  with  perfect  unanimity. 
Eusebius,  in  his  catalogue,  classifies  them  among  the  entirely  unques¬ 
tioned  books.-  They  are  contained  in  the  Pesliito,  the  Syriac  trans¬ 
lation,  made  in  the  second  century;  and  in  the  Muratorian  catalogue 
of  New  Testament  books,  made  about  the  same  time.  They  are  also 
quoted  by  name  by  Irenseus,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  and  Tertullian. 
They  are  apparently  alluded  to  by  Clement  of  Rome,  Ignatius,  and 
Polycarp. 

The  only  dispute  in  ancient  times  came  from  the  semi- Christian 
Gnostics  outside  the  Church,  who  found  their  own  heresies  therein 
predicted  and  portrayed  with  an  unwelcome  clearness  and  accuracy. 
In  modern  times,  also,  the  question  comes  from  a  semi-christian  class 
of  scholars,  occupying  a  position  in  relation  to  the  Church  quite  analo¬ 
gous  to  the  old  Gnostic,  such  as  Baur  and  Renan.  The  criticisms  of  such 
men  have  had  the  beneficial  effect  to  call  forth  very  thorough  inves¬ 
tigations  by  Christian  scholars,  and  very  conclusive  answers.  It  is  es¬ 
sentially  a  past  discussion.  There  is  nothing  in  the  formidable  array 
of  hostile  criticism  that  need  disturb  our  calmest  faith.  Our  limits 
do  not  admit  a  review  of  the  grounds,  which  may  be  amply  found  in 
the  pages  of  Alford,  Dr.  Gloag,  and  Fairbairn  on  the  Pastoral  Epistles. 

TIME  OF  WRITING. 

The  entire  authority  of  the  ancient  writers  affirms  that  St.  Paul  was 
twice  imprisoned  at  Rome,  and  that  his  second  imprisonment  was 
closed  by  martyrdom.  If  this  be  true,  we  have  no  difficulty  in  fixing 
the  approximate  time  of  the  writing  of  Second  Timothy ;  for  iv,  6-8 
shows  that  it  was  but  a  brief  period  previous  to  his  martyrdom,  which, 
according  to  the  best  authors,  took  place  about  A.  D.  68.  And  the 
similar  character  of  the  three  Pastoral  Epistles  indicates  that  First 
Timothy  and  Titus  could  not  have  been  written  much  earlier  than 
Second  Timothy.  The  fact  of  this  second  imprisonment  is  mentioned 
or  implied  by  Clement  of  Rome,  by  the  Muratorian  document,  and  by 


408 


INTRODUCTION  TO  FIRST  TIMOTHY. 


Eusebius.  St.  Paul  himself,  writing  during  his  first  imprisonment, 
Philippians  i,  20,  and  Philemon  22,  implies  an  expectation  of  an  early 
release;  whereas  the  second  epistle  to  Timothy  anticipates  an  early 
execution. 

A  number  of  able  Christian  scholars  have  endeavoured  to  show  that 
this  second  imprisonment  is  superfluous,  and  that  all  the  demands  of 
the  Pastoral  Epistles  may  be  brought  within  the  period  of  the  first. 
Their  learning  and  ingenuity  are  hardly  crowned  with  success.  Very 
lew  English  or  American  writers  have  endorsed  the  theory.  Our  limits 
permit  only  general  statements  of  the  reasons.  1.  The  unanimous  voice 
of  antiquity,  affirming  the  second  imprisonment,  lays  upon  their  theory 
a  heavy  burden  of  disproof.  The  obvious  meaning  of  the  testimony 
of  Clement  of  Rome,  (some  years  a  contemporary  of  Paul,)  though 
subjected  to  very  ingenious  criticism,  proves  a  second  imprisonment. 
So  also  the  Muratorian  fragment.  The  testimony  of  Eusebius  is,  that 
such  was  the  uncontradicted  account,  logos,  of  the  Church  in  his  day. 
2.  The  state  of  the  Church  and  spirit  of  the  times  implied  in  these 
epistles  indicate  a  later  age,  and  place  them  obviously  in  the  later 
group  of  epistles,  with  First  and  Second  Peter,  and  John  and  Jude. 
Heresies  seem  to  have  attained  an  advancing  development,  and  the 
polity  of  the  Church  has  crystallized  into  its  fixed  forms.  3.  There  are 
many  passages  expressing  facts,  or  a  state  of  things  for  which  no  room 
can  be  found  in  the  life  of  Paul  previous  to  or  during  his  first  impris¬ 
onment.  See  notes  on  1  Tim.  i,  3;  2  Tim.  iv,  13,  20.  The  apostle’s 
history,  after  his  first  imprisonment,  as  conjecturally  gathered  from 
his  epistles,  Dr.  Gloag  thus  summarizes  from  Howson:  44  Immediately 
on  his  liberation,  Paul  left  Rome  by  the  usual  route,  crossing  the 
Adriatic  from  Brundusium  to  Dyrrachium,  and  then  by  the  Egnatian 
road  to  Philippi,  (Phil,  ii,  24;)  he  then  journeyed  to  Proconsular  Asia, 
and  visited  Colosse,  (Philem.  22,)  Laodicea,  and  Ephesus.  From 
Ephesus  he  undertook  his  long-premeditated  journey  to  Spain,  where 
he  remained  two  years,  returning  in  A.  D.  66.  Departing  again  from 
Ephesus,  he  went  to  Macedonia,  (1  Tim.  i,  3,)  where  he  wrote  the  first 
Epistle  to  Timothy.  From  that  he  went  to  Crete,  (Tit.  i,  5,)  returned 
to  Ephesus,  and  wrote  the  Epistle  to  Titus.  Leaving  Ephesus  for  the 
list  time,  he  journeyed  by  Miletum,  where  Trophimus  was  left  sick, 
(2  Tim.  iv,  20,)  by  Troas,  where  he  left  his  parchments,  (2  Tim.  iv,  13,) 
and  by  Corinth,  where  Erastus  remained  behind,  (2  Tim.  iv,  20,)  to 
Nicopolis  in  Epirus,  where  he  remained  to  winter.  (Tit.  iii,  12.)  Here 
it  is  supposed  that  he  was  arrested  and  sent  for  trial  to  Rome,  where 
he  wrote  the  Second  Epistle  to  Timothy.”  In  regard  to  his  martyrdom 
see  note,  Acts  xxviii,  30. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  FIRST  TIMOTHY. 


409 


TIMOTHY. 

Early  in  his  second  missionary  tour  St.  Paul  found  at  Lystra  a  young 
man,  converted  probably  on  his  former  visit,  who  was  “  well  reported 
of  by  the  brethren.”  His  father  was  a  Greek ;  but  his  mother,  Eunice, 
and  his  grandmother,  Lois,  had  been  pious  Jewesses,  and  were  now 
faithful  Christians.  This  youth,  Timothy,  he  adopted  as  his  young 
attendant,  in  place  of  John  Mark;  as  he  had  Silas  as  coequal  ministei 
in  the  place  of  Barnabas.  Timothy  attended  him,  thence,  into  Europe. 
His  youth  and  subordinate  position  exempted  him  apparently  from  the 
sufferings  of  Paul  and  Silas  at  Philippi,  as  well  as  from  being  even 
mentioned  by  Luke  in  the  narrative.  Yet  when  Paul  departed  from 
Berea  to  Athens,  Timothy  was  by  him  sent  back  to  Thessalonica. 
When  Paul  passed  on  from  Athens  to  Corinth  he  was  rejoined  by  Tim¬ 
othy  there.  So  rapidly  had  Timothy  matured  in  the  holy  ministry 
that  St.  Paul  joins  his  name  with  that  of  himself  and  Sylvanus  in  both 
his  epistles  to  the  Thessalonians.  This  may  be  considered  as  the  close 
of  the  first  period  of  his  life,  which  we  may  call  his  novitiate. 

In  his  second ,  which  we  may  perhaps  call  his  presbyterial,  period ,  we 
find  him  at  Ephesus,  (whither  Paul  passed  from  Corinth,)  where  he 
was  doubtless  Paul’s  coadjutor  during  his  long  ministry  in  founding 
the  Ephesian  Church.  When  at  its  close  the  apostle  projected  another 
tour  into  Greece,  he  sent  Timothv  and  Erastus,  as  his  harbingers,  into 
Macedonia  and  Corinth.  When  Paul  himself  had  arrived  at  Macedonia, 
we  find  Timothy  with  him,  his  name  being  associated  in  the  greeting 
in  the  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  He  was  Paul’s  co-labourer 
at  the  next  brief  stay  at  Corinth ;  and  we  trace  him  as  Paul’s  co-traveller 
from  Corinth  back  through  Macedonia  into  Asia,  as  far  as  Troas. 

For  a  period  of  two  years,  during  which  Paul’s  arrest  at  Jerusalem 
and  confinement  at  Cesarea  take  place,  we  find  no  mention  of  Timothy. 
But  his  loyalty  to  Christianity  and  to  St.  Paul  is  amply  attested.  In 
three  of  those  voices  from  the  Roman  prison,  namely,  the  epistles  to 
Philippi,  Colosse,  and  Philemon,  Timothy’s  name  is  found  added  to 
Paul’s  in  the  opening  address.  From  his  prison  Paul  wrbes  to  Philippi 
that  he  hopes  soon  to  send  Timothy  to  them,  u  for,”  says  he,  14 1  have 
no  man  likeminded.”  Thus  we  are  authorized  by  Paul  to  place  Tim¬ 
othy  highest  in  his  estimation  among  all  by  whom  he  was  attended. 

The  third  may  conveniently  be  called  his  episcopal  period ,  in  which 
he  is  placed  by  the  apostle  as  presbyter-president  over  the  Church  at 
Ephesus.  Somewhere  about  this  time  it  was  that  he  suffered  impris¬ 
onment  and  was  set  at  liberty.  To  him  was  addressed  by  Paul  a  first 
epistle,  containing  a  most  solemn  charge,  enjoining  faithfulness  and 
various  directions  as  to  method  in  the  discharge  of  his  responsible 


410 


INTRODUCTION  TO  FIRST  TIMOTHY. 


office.  Finally,  a  second  epistle  contains  tlie  apostle’s  dying  charge, 
with  an  earnest  request  that  Timothy  would  hasten  to  visit  him  in  the 
loneliness  of  his  prison.  No  record  informs  us  whether  he  accomplished 
that  visit.  Eusebius  tells  us  that  “Timothy  is  historically  narrated 
to  have  first  received  the  episcopate  in  the  Church  at  Ephesus.”  But 
whether  he  has  any  other  authority  for  that  statement  than  these  two 
tpistles  is  more  than  we  know. 

We  know  Timothy  only  during  his  youth  and  earlier  manhood,  and 
while  he  was  under  the  direction  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  apostles. 
The  high  demands  of  that  apostle  he  met  and  satisfied  with  unparal¬ 
leled  success.  The  apostle’s  love  and  confidence  in  him  seemed  to 
increase  to  the  last  moment.  Aged  Luke  and  youthful  Timothy  were 
his  final  reliance.  Our  young  evangelist  seemed  to  unite  the  most 
perfect  obedience  to  his  superior  wfith  a  marked  executive  ability  in 
managing  the  interests  placed  under  his  charge.  In  youth  he  mani¬ 
fested  the  discreetness  of  maturity ;  in  spite  of  nervous  diffidence  he 
possessed  administrative  firmness.  Unselfishness,  purity,  abstinence, 
were  the  traits  of  his  piety.  Yet  such,  through  the  whole  period  of 
our  acquaintance  with  him,  is  his  subordinate  position,  that  we  are  left 
in  doubt  whether  he  did  not  succeed  best  under  a  director;  and  whether 
he  was  not,  (in  words  applied  by  Wendell  Phillips  to  a  very  different 
character,)  “  a  first-rate  second-rate  man.” 


PLAN  OF  THE  EPISTLE. 


- ■ 

PART  FIRST. 

The  Apostolic  Charge .  i_2o 

1.  The  sacred  charge  is  the  safe-keeping  of  a  pure 

gospel  doctrine .  j  3_q 

2.  God’s  commitment  of  this  charge  to  Paul  gratefully- 

recognised .  12-17 

3.  And  by  Paul  solemnly  committed  to  Timothy _  i}  18-20 

PART  SECOND. 

The  Church  Order  as  prescribed  by  the  Gospel 

Doctrine .  ii,  i_iV)  i6 

1.  In  worship .  y  1_15 

a.  Public  prayer  universally  to  be  offered  by  men .  ii?  i_8 

b.  With  orderly  array  and  deportment  of  women .  ii?  9_15 

2.  In  officiary .  iii,  1-13 

a.  Presbyter-bishops ,  their  qualifications .  i_7 

b.  Deacons  and  deaconesses .  iii?  8-13 

3.  In  doctrine . iii,  14-iv,  16 

a.  The  incarnation ,  its  predicted  opposers  soon  to  appear  . .  iii,  14-iv,  10 

b.  Timothy's  self-preparation  against  them .  iv?  11-16 

PART  THIRD. 

Apostolic  Precepts .  v,  l-vi,  21 

1.  Supervisory  duties  to  different  classes .  v,  l-vi?  io 

a.  To  different  ages ,  v,  1,  2,  and  to  beneficiary  widows ,  3-16  v,  1-16 

b.  To  elders ,  their  stipend,  trial ,  or  dination,  and  purity. . .  v,  17-25 

c.  To  servants,  vi,  1,  2  ;  to  mercenary  counter -teachers,  3-10  vi,  1-10 

2.  Final  charge .  vi,  11-21 


THE 


FIRST  EPISTLE  TO  TIMOTHY. 

- ♦♦♦ - 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAUL,  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ 
a  by  the  commandment  b  of  God 


our  Saviour,  and  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
c which  is  our  hope;  2  Unto  d Tim¬ 
othy,  emy  own  son  in  the  faith: 


a  Acts  9.  15;  Gal.  1.  1,  11. - frChap.  2.  3;  4.  10; 

Titus  1.  3;  2.  10;  3.  4;  Jude  25. 


cColossians  1.  27. - d  Acts  16.  1 ;  1  Corinthians 

4.  17. - e  Titus  1.  4. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Apostolic  Salutation ,  1,  2. 

1.  Paul — The  full  array  of  his  apos¬ 
tolic  title,  though  writing  to  an  individ-  j 
ual,  indicates  that  this  is  an  official 
charge,  not  a  mere  friendly  letter. 
Compare  the  Introduction  to  Philemon,  i 
Commandment  of  God — Not  as  the  j 
other  apostles,  by  the  regular  choice  of  ; 
Jesus,  but  by  a  special  call  from  heaven 
on  his  way  to  Damascus,  and  a  special*  1 2 
commandment  from  the  Spirit  at  An¬ 
tioch.  Acts  xiii,  1.  This  command¬ 
ment  is  more  explicit  than  the  will  of  | 
God,  of  which  it  is  the  announcement.  ; 
It  requires  the  absolute  obedience  of 
Timothy  to  the  charge  of  the  apostle, 
and  the  absolute  obedience  of  the  her¬ 
etics  and  other  persons  to  Timothy’s 
rightful  orders  in  obedience  to  that 
charge.  God  our  Saviour  —  Not 
merely  as  our  deliverer,  as  in  Psa.  xxiv,  5, 
and  Isa.  xii,  2 ;  but  as  the  back¬ 
ground  and  fountain  of  our  salvation 
through  Christ  by  faith.  Eph.  ii,  4-8. 
Lord  Jesus  Christ — As  the  conduit 
of  the  salvation  flowing  from  the  foun¬ 
tain,  God.  Our  hope — Without  whom 
all  is  despair ;  with  whom  there  is  a 
sure  result  of  “glory.”  Col.  i,  27. 

2.  Own  son — Literally,  genuine  son. 
Who  has  by  his  life  of  filial  faithfulness 
attested  the  genuineness  of  his  regener¬ 
ation  under  Paul’s  m'nistry.  Though 
investing  himself  with  his  own  full  title, 
Paul  gives  no  title  to  Timothy ;  such  as, 
to  the"  Lord  Bishop  of  Ephesus.  For  Tim¬ 
othy’s  present  position  in  Ephesus  there 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  any  title. 


He  was  shortly  afterwards  requested  to 
leave  Ephesus  and  visit  the  apostle  at 
Rome.  Yet,  1.  It  is  clear  that  he  was 
placed  over  the  entire  Christian  body, 
whether  one  congregation  or  more,  in 
Ephesus,  as  Titus  was  over  the  entire 
Christian  body  in  Crete.  It  is  altogeth¬ 
er  certain  that  this  was  a  supervision 
over  a  number  of  Churches,  with  their 
elders  and  deacons.  2.  The  entire 
epistle  implies  a  permanent  position. 
The  opposers  he  has  to  encounter  are 
described;  described  as  having  been 
predicted,  iv,  1-3 ;  and  most  solemn 
charges  are  given  to  do  this  work 
faithfully,  persistently,  and  through  an 
extended  future,  i,  18-20;  iv,  13-16; 
and  vi,  14.  3.  He  possessed  exclusive 

jurisdiction  over  the  elders,  and  over 
the  laying  on  of  hands,  v,  19-22.  All 
this  is  far  from  proving  that  such  an 
arrangement  is  obligatory  in  all  ages 
and  all  countries ;  but  it  does  show 
that  it  is  lawful  when  expedient.  Epis¬ 
copacy  is  permitted  and  exemplified, 
but  not  enjoined.  Grace,  mercy, 
and  peace — The  old  dual  grace  and 
peace  of  former  epistles  has  here  be¬ 
come  a  triad  by  the  insertion  of  mer¬ 
cy.  Long  years  of  trial  and  sadness 
have  impressed  upon  our  venerable 
apostle  our  need  of  the  tender  attri¬ 
bute  of  divine  mercy.  Grace  is 
the  fountain ;  mercy  is  the  outflow ; 
and  peace  is  in  us  the  blessed  re¬ 
sult.  God  our  Father  —  Primal  and 
parental  source  of  all.  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord — The  embodiment  of  God’s 
mercy,  to  whom  committing  ourselves 
we  are  safe. 


A.  D.  66. 


CHAPTER  I. 


418 


( Grace,  merer,  and  peace,  from  God 
our  Father  and  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord. 

3  As  I  besought  thee  to  abide 
still  at  Ephesus,  s  when  I  went  in- 

f  Gal.  1.  3;  2  Tim.  1.  2. - ^Acts  20.  1,3;  Phil. 

2.  24. - A  Gal.  1.  6,  7;  chap.  6.  3, 10. 

PART  FIRST. 

The  Apostolic  Charge,  i,  1—20. 

1.  Safe-keeping  of  a  pure  gospel 
doctrine,  i,  3-11. 

3.  As — More  fully,  according  as ;  to 
which  our  translators  have  inserted  so 
do,  in  Italics,  in  order  to  make  a  com¬ 
pleted  statement.  Some,  as  Fairbairn, 
insert  after  Macedonia  “  so  I  do 
now;”  but  that  would  simply  make 
Paul  charge  Timothy  still  to  stay  at 
Ephesus.  Our  so  do  is  preferable,  ap¬ 
plying  it  to  the  charge  of  this  verse. 
Paul’s  meaning  is,  Do  now  as  I  charged 
thee  when  I  left  Ephesus.  His  verbal 
charge  he  would  now  make  a  recorded 
charge.  Went  into  Macedonia  — 
This  going  from  Ephesus  into  Macedo¬ 
nia  cannot  be  identified  with  that  men¬ 
tioned  in  Acts  xx,  1 ;  for,  as  appears 
from  Acts  xix,  22,  he  had  before  that 
going  into  Macedonia  sent  Timothy  to 
Corinth.  And,  as  there  appears  no  go¬ 
ing  to  Macedonia  and  leaving  Timothy 
at  Ephesus  apparently  possible  before 
Paul’s  first  imprisonment,  so  this  pas¬ 
sage  requires  a  second  imprisonment. 
See  Introduction.  Some — A  reprehen- 
sive  word,  implying  that  these  teachers 
were  a  certain  few,  not  to  be  named 
here,  but  too  well  known  to  Timothy. 
Note  on  verse  20.  Teach  no  other 
doctrine  —  In  Paul’s  Greek  a  newly 
coined  and  very  expressive  single  Greek 
word,  to-he-otherwise-teoxhers.  It  ex¬ 
presses  the  idea  that  the  original  gos¬ 
pel  of  Jesus,  as  purely  and  genuinely 
transmitted  through  the  apostles,  must 
be  retained  unmixed  with  any  other 
elements,  and  without  variation. 

4.  Fables  —  The  “Jewish  fables” 
of  Tit.  i,  14;  in  1  Tim.  iv,  7,  they  are 
termed  “profane  and  old  wives’  fables;” 
and  in  2  Tim.  iv,  4,  simply  “  fables.” 
These  innovators,  verging  into  heresy 
and  apostasy,  and  leading  a  part  of  the 
Church  after  them,  are  Jews.  Of  these 


to  Macedonia,  that  thou  mightest 
charge  some  hthat  they  teach  no 
other  doctrine,  4  ‘Neither  give 
heed  to  fables  and  endless  geneal¬ 
ogies,  k  which  minister  questions, 

i  Chap.  4.  ?;  6.  4,  20;  2  Tim.  2.  14,  16,  23;  Titus 
1.  14;  3.  9. - k  Chap.  6.  4. 

fables  the  Talmud  was  a  great  repository. 
Says  Clarke  :  “I  will  give  one  instance 
from  the  Jerusalem  Targum,  on  Gen.  i, 
1 5 :  ‘And  God  made  two  great  1  ig  hts,  and 
they  were  equal  in  splendour  twenty- 
one  years,  the  six  hundred  and  seventy- 
second  part  of  an  hour  excepted :  and 
afterwards  the  moon  brought  a  false  ac¬ 
cusation  against  the  sun,  and  therefore 
she  was  lessened ;  and  God  made  the 
sun  the  greater  light  to  superintend  the 
day,’  etc.  I  could  produce  a  thousand 
of  a  similar  complexion.” — Commenta - 
ry.  1  Tim.  i,  7. 

The  Tar  gums  were  very  liberal  trans¬ 
lations  or  paraphrases  of  the  Old  Test¬ 
ament  books,  prepared  for  the  people 
after  the  captivity,  who  had  forgotten 
their  pure  Hebrew  dialect.  The  Talmud 
was  a  collection  of  the  teachings  and 
traditions  of  the  Eabbies,  filled  with  a 
mixture  of  noble  moralities  and  most 
extravagant  inventions.  “  Such,”  says 
Grotius,  “  were  with  the  Jews  the  fa¬ 
bles  concerning  what  God  did  before 
the  world  was  created ;  concerning  man, 
created  at  first  hermaphrodite ;  concern¬ 
ing  his  conculntus  with  beasts,  and  with 
Lilith;  concerning  demons  and  those 
born  from  them ;  concerning  behemoth 
and  leviathan ;  concerning  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  souls  before  the  body  ;  concern¬ 
ing  the  angels  distributed  into  the  stars 
and  aerial  regions.”  Tertullian  says 
that  Valentinus,  the  Gnostic,  “  intro¬ 
duced  many  fables.”  “Such  worth¬ 
less  stories,”  says  Schaff,  “are  still 
found,  as  is  well  known,  in  the  Tal¬ 
mud  and  in  the  Cabala,  ( Cahala=tradi- 
tion ,)  the  elements  of  which  confes¬ 
sedly  existed  in  the  first  century, 
probably  even  before  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem.”  For  a  good  account 
of  the  Cabala,  see  M’Clintock  and 
Strong’s  Cyclopaedia.  Endless  gene¬ 
alogies — As  to  what  these  geneal- 
gies  were,  Alford  adduces  six  differ¬ 
ent  suppositions.  It  is  clear  that  wo 


414 


I.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  66. 


rather  than  godly  edifying  which 
is  in  faith  :  so  do.  *>  Now  1  the 
end  of  the  commandment  is  char¬ 
ity  rnout  of  a  pure  heart,  and  of  a 
good  conscience,  and  of  faith  un- 

Z  Romans  13.  8,  10;  Galatians  5.  14. - m2Tim- 

o  thy  2.  22. _ 

must  look  for  these  genealogies,  as 
for  the  forementioned  fables,  among 
the  Jews.  And  this  excludes  the 
Gnostic  emanations,  by  which  exist¬ 
ing  things  were  traced  back  to  their 
origin  through  a  series  of  generative 
developments  from  the  original  Plero- 
ma.  For  an  account  of  these  see  Pres- 
sense’s  Heresy  and  Christian  Doctrine, 
book  i.  We  must  also  reject  the  Old 
Testament  genealogies,  and  the  Jewish 
family  genealogies ;  for  these  could 
form  no  part  of  a  heresy  in  Christian¬ 
ity.  These  genealogies  were,  rath¬ 
er,  allegorical  theories  and  phantasies, 
based  upon  mystical  interpretations  of 
the  Old  Testament  genealogical  regis¬ 
ters.  Of  these  we  have  specimens  in 
Philo,  who  finds  plenty  of  Platonic  and 
Oriental  philosophy  in  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  mystically  interpreted.  “Gene¬ 
alogical”  is  a  term  which  he  himself 
applies  to  his  allegories.  They  were 
fresh  inventions  of  liberalizing  Jews, 
who  endeavoured  to  find  all  the  wisdom 
of  “  modern  thought  ”  wrapped  up  in 
the  letter  of  the  Old  Testament  books, 
and  to  be  unfolded  by  drawing  out  a 
concealed  sense.  In  Ephesus  and 
Crete,  this  doctrine  would  substitute 
for  Christianity  a  mystical  blend  of  the 
Jewish  letter  with  Oriental  philosophy. 
These  genealogies  are  called  endless, 
as  they  could  be  spun  out  at  will  by  the 
imaginative  allegorizer  ;  and  every  new 
allegorizer  could  add  a  new  spin;  so 
that  the  whole  system  was  intermina¬ 
ble.  Still  more  truly  interminable  be¬ 
cause  they  led  to  no  satisfactory  con¬ 
clusions,  but  induced  questions  for 
ever  and  ever,  without  solid  or  saving 
answers,  as  to  the  true  system  or  con¬ 
stitution  of  things.  Rather  than  god¬ 
ly  edifying  —  Better,  rather  than  the 
(actual)  system  of  God.  This  true  sys¬ 
tem  is  given  in  a  true  interpretation  of 
the  Old  Testament,  and  results  in  Je¬ 
sus  the  Messiah  and  the  gospel.  Here 


’eigned :  6  From  which  some  1  hav¬ 
ing  swerved  have  turned  aside  un- 
o  n vain  jangling;  7  Desiring  to 
be  teachers  of  the  law;  ° under¬ 
standing  neither  what  they  say, 

1  Or,  not  aimino  at. - n  Chapter  6.  4,  20. 

o  Chapter  6.  4. 

we  have  solid  reality ;  there  nothing  but 
endless  questions.  In  faith — With 
the  Greek  article  before  it,  the  system 
of  God  which  is  embraced  in  our  faith, 
and  consequentl}r  results  not  in  ques¬ 
tions,  but  in  divine  composure  of  mind. 

5.  The  end,  or  purpose,  of  the  com¬ 
mandment,  or  injunction  contained  in 
the  law,  and  presupposed  in  the  gos¬ 
pel.  Is  —  Not  an  imaginary  wisdom 
made  up  from  these  fables  and  allego¬ 
ries,  but  charity.  Charity  —  Love. 
See  Introductory  Note  to  1  Cor.  xiii. 
The  commandment  prohibits  sins  and 
enjoins  duties ;  but  its  intrinsic  pur¬ 
pose  is  to  reach  deep  into  the  heart  and 
find  its  complete  fulfilment  in  love. 
Out  of  a  pure  heart — From  a  heart 
instructed  by  the  gospel  and  sanctified 
by  the  divine  Spirit  would  flow  the 
outgoings  of  love.  Omitting  the  of 
inserted  by  the  translators,  the  good 
conscience  and  the  faith  are  second 
and  third  elements  of  the  end  of  the 
commandment.  Love  not  only  pro¬ 
duces  goodness  in  action,  but  guards 
against  wrong,  and  so  preserves  a  good 
conscience.  And  by  establishing  a 
sympathy  between  the  heart  and 
Christ  it  results  in  relying  faith;  a 
faith  not  feigned ,  like  that  of  the  teach¬ 
ers  of  other  doctrines ,  in  order  to  win  the 
Church  to  error,  but  unfeigned  and 
true  to  Christ. 

6.  Having  swerved  —  The  Greek, 

missing  the  mark ,  as  an  archer.  They 
undertook  to  hit  the  mark,  the  end, 
but  were  induced  by  the  seductions 
of  the  fables  and  genealogies  to 
waver  and  miss.  Jangling  —  This 
word,  in  which  the  sense  is  indicated 
by  the  sound,  is  suitably  selected  by 
our  translators  for  a  word  not  belong¬ 
ing  to  classic  Greek,  used  by  St.  Paul 
to  express  contempt  of  the  fables  and 
genealogies  with  which  the  errorists 
were  befooling  themselves. 

7.  Teachers  of  the  law — The  Mo- 


A.  D.  66. 


CHAPTER  I. 


415 


nor  whereof  thev  affirm.  8  But 

«/ 

we  know  that  p  the  law  is  good,  if 
a  man  use  it  lawfully;  9  ^ Know¬ 
ing  this  that  rthe  law  is  not  made 

Romans  7.  12. - q  Gal.  3.  19 ;  5.  23. 


saic  law  ;  the  Old  Testament.  These 
teachers  wanted  to  transform  the 
Churches  into  rabbinical  schools,  in 
which  themselves  should  be  the  rab¬ 
bles,  and  the  teachings  should  be  the 
new  fangled  fantasies  of  which  Grotius 
gives  us  specimens  above.  What 
they  say  —  Their  words  and  phrases 
really  often  express  no  meaning,  be¬ 
cause  they  have  no  understanding  of 
the  subject  whereof  they  affirm. 
That  is,  they  explained  an  unintelligi¬ 
ble  subject  by  unmeaning  words. 

8.  The  law  —  The  Old  Testament, 
upon  which  these  errorists  base  their 
jangling.  Is  good — Its  centre  is  the 
decalogue,  which  embodies  all  right¬ 
eousness  ;  and  all  else  in  the  old  canon 
is  but  a  circumference  and  area  enclos¬ 
ing  and  sustaining  this  centre.  “  The 
law  is  holy,  and  the  commandment 
holy,  and  just,  and  good.”  Rom.  vii,  12. 
Use  it  lawfully  —  As  these  errorists 
were  using  it  unlawfully,  illegitimately, 
and  contrary  to  its  riirln  end  as  law. 
The  play  upon  the  words  law  and 
lawfully  is  very  significant.  Use  the 
law  unlawfully,  and  it  leads  to  vain 
jangling ;  use  it  lawfully,  and  it  brings 
us  to  the  glorious  gospel,  verse  11. 

9.  Not  made  for  —  Literally,  does 
not  lie  for,  does  not  exist  for.  The  term 
lies  does  not  express  a  penal  effect  upon 
the  just  man,  though  the  severe  strain 
of  the  following  verses  indicates  that 
such  is  the  implication.  Legal  penalty 
is  not  for  the  good,  but  for  the  crimi¬ 
nal.  A  righteous  man  —  As  the 
subtle  teacher  of  the  fables  and  gene¬ 
alogies  claimed  to  be.  The  law  did 
not  exist  for  the  purpose  of  making 
him  wise  in  his  own  conceit.  Law, 
here,  means  not  the  absolute  rule  of 
right,  for  that  exists  for,  and  is  bind¬ 
ing  on,  all  beings;  but  it  means  the  vocal 
or  written  expression  of  that  rule ;  the 
commandment  in  words.  Lor  beings 
who  do  absolutely  and  continually  right, 
no  such  verbal  commandment  would 
be  needed.  It  would  be  intrinsically 


for  a  righteous  man,  but  for  the 
lawless  and  disobedient,  for  the 
ungodly  and  for  sinners,  for  un¬ 
holy  and  profane,  for  murderers  ot 

_ r  Rom.  4.  13 ;  o.  20 ;  Gal.  3.  10, 14. _ 

good,  but  relatively  superfluous.  In 
practical  daily  morals  this  truth  has 
been  recognized  among  the  best  pagan 
writers.  From  many  passages  in 
W etstein  we  select  the  following :  An¬ 
tiphon  says,  “  The  man  doing  no  wrong 
needs  no  law.”  “  Aristippus,  being 
asked  what  was  the  superiority  of  the 
philosophers,  replied,  in  the  fact  that 
if  the  laws  were  abrogated  we  should 
live  the  same.”  iElian  says,  “  Solon 
did  not  legislate  for  lions,  when  he  en¬ 
acted  that  it  was  obligatory  to  support 
one’s  parents.”  See  our  note  on  Matt, 
xi,  30.  But  Paul’s  righteous  man  is 
the  gospel  ideal ;  the  made  righteous, 
not  by  nature,  but  by  grace  purifying 
and  exalting  nature.  To  him  Christ, 
by  faith  embraced,  is  the  substitute  for 
law,  being  a  living  law,  and  the  Spirit 
is  the  quickener  to  a  conformity  with 
Christ.  As  the  man  sinks  below  Christ, 
he  sinks  into  law,  and  feels  its  enslav¬ 
ing  and  condemning  power  until  he 
rises  again  into  Christ. 

The  objects  of  law  are  now  first  de¬ 
scribed  in  three  severe  antitheses. 
The  lawless  are  those  who  ignore  Jaw, 
and  act  as  if  it  had  no  existence;  the 
disobedient  recognise  law  and  con¬ 
sciously  rebel  against  it.  The  ungodly 
neither  recognize  nor  reverence  God, 
and  think  and  live  as  if  no  God  existed  ; 
sinners  know  God,  yet  consciously 
disregard  his  authorit}^  as  God,  and 
transgress  his  commandments.  Un¬ 
holy  are  those  whose  hearts  and  lives 
possess  no  inward  purity  or  conformity 
to  the  divine  ideal;  the  profane  are 
those  who  regard  nothing  and  nobody 
as  sacred  or  holy. 

The  above  three  antitheses  specify 
qualities  of  character ;  the  following 
epithets  characterize  classes  of  evil 
men  according  to  their  evil  actions. 
The  apostle’s  mind  evidently  runs  along 
the  prohibitions  of  the  second  table 
of  the  decalogue,  from  the  fifth  to  the 
ninth  commandment,  selecting  what  lie 
deems  the  most  flagrant  transgressions 


416 


I.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  66 


fathers  and  murderers  of  mothers, 
for  manslayers,  10  For  whore¬ 
mongers,  for  them  that  defile 
themselves  with  mankind,  for  men- 
stealers,  for  liars,  for  perjured  per¬ 
sons,  and  if  there  be  any  other 
thing  that  is  contrary  Bto  sound 
doctrine;  11  According  to  the 
glorious  gospel  of  1  the  blessed 
God, u  which  was  committed  to  my 
trust. 

*  Chap.  6.  3:  2  Tim.  4.3;  Titus  1.  9;  2.  1. - 

£Chap.  6.  15. - u  1  Cor.  9.  17;  Gal.  2.  7;  Col. 

1.  25;  l  Thess.  2.  4;  chap.  2.  7;  2  Tim.  1.  11; 

Titus  1.  3. - v2  Cor.  12.  9. - w  1  Cor.  7.  25. - 

x  2  Cor.  3.  5,  6 ;  4.  1 ;  Col.  1.  25. _ 

of  each.  The  transgressors  against  the 
fifth  commandment  are  parricides  and 
matricides ;  and  against  the  sixth  are 

manslayers. 

10.  Perjured — Who  either  break  a 
sworn  engagement,  or  swear  to  a  false¬ 
hood  in  point  of  fact.  Any  other  — 
Stopping  with  the  ninth  command¬ 
ment,  the  apostle  generalizes  against 
all  that  contradicts  sound  doctrine. 
Sound  is  literally  healthful  in  opposi¬ 
tion  to  diseased.  So  sound  doctrine, 
2  Tim.  iv,  3;  and  Tit.  ii,  1.  This  is 
one  of  the  phrases  peculiar  to  the  pas¬ 
toral  epistles.  This  arises  from  the 
fact  that  in  Paul’s  most  truthful  view 
the  Jewish  fables  and  genealogies  and 
heresies,  which  -were  invading  the 
Church,  were  mental  imbecilities,  aris¬ 
ing  from  and  resulting  in  a  sickly  state 
of  mind.  And  against  these  brain  dis¬ 
eases  the  healthful  doctrine,  the  faith¬ 
ful  saying,  of  the  gospel  were  the  cor¬ 
rective. 

11.  This  entire  charge  against  the  er- 
rorists  is  according  to  the.  .  .gospel. 
The  issue  is  between  the  vain  jan¬ 
gling  and  that  sound  doctrine  which 
is  committed  to  my  trust.  Glori¬ 
ous  gospel  —  Literally,  gospel  of  the 
glory  of  the  blessed  God;  that  is,  the 
blessed  announcement  of  that  glory  as 
a  heavenly  attainment. 

2.  God’s  commitment  of  this 
charge  to  Paul  by  him  gratefully 
recognised,  12-17. 

St.  Paul  is  well  authorized  to  commit 
this  charge  to  Timothy ;  for  it  was  his 
unparalleled  lot  to  receive  it  fresh  and 
pure  from  God  himself 


1 2  And  I  thank  Christ  Jesus 
our  Lord,  vwho  hath  enabled  me, 
wfor  that  he  counted  me  faithful, 
*  putting  me  into  the  ministry ; 
14  y  Who  was  before  a  blasphemer, 
and  a  persecutor,  and  injurious: 
but  I  obtained  mercy,  because  2 1 
did  it  ignorantly  in  unbelief. 
14  aAnd  the  grace  of  our  Lord 
was  exceeding  abundant  b  with 
faith  c  and  love  which  is  in  Christ 

V  Acts  8.  3;  9.  1;  1  Corinthians  15.  9;  Phi- 

lippians  3.  6. - z  Luke  23.  34;  John  9.  39,  41 1 

Acts  3.  17;  26.  9. - a  Romans  5.  20;  1  Corin¬ 
thians  15.  10. - b  2  Timothy  1.  13 - c  Luke 

7.  47. _ _ 

12.  I  thank  Christ  —  To  be  hon¬ 
oured  and  blest  with  so  divine  a  charge 
called  forth  all  his  gratitude  to  the  be- 
stower,  Christ.  Faithful  —  Trust¬ 
worthy  ;  one  who  would  never  betray 
his  trust. 

13.  The  gift  was  wonderfully  en¬ 
hanced  by  the  character  of  the  receiv¬ 
er.  A  blasphemer — One  who  vilifies ; 
but,  in  its  most  direful  sense,  one  who 
vilifies  God.  Persecutor — Long  years 
had  passed  since  the  martyrdom  of 
Stephen,  the  fierce  dispersion  of  the 
Jerusalem  Church,  and  the  wild  raid 
upon  Damascus :  but  to  the  perpet¬ 
ual  penitence  of  Paul  the  memory  is 
still  fresh.  He  is  now  “  Paul,  the 
aged;”  but  he  realizes  his  historical 
identity  with  that  “  young  man  whose 
name  was  Saul.”  Acts  vii,  58.  Christ 
has  forgiven  him  ;  but  how  can  he  for¬ 
give  himself  ?  He  will  remember  the 
whole  as  an  incitement  of  gratitude  to 
the  pardoning  Jesus.  Injurious — An 
insulter.  Ignorantly  in  unbelief  — 
Not  that  this  rendered  him  innocent, 
but  it  was  cause  why,  when  the  truth 
was  revealed  to  him,  that  he  yielded 
that  faith  and  obedience  on  which 
mercy  depended.  See  note  on  Luke 
xxiii,  34. 

14.  Grace. .  .exceeding abundant 

— Or  it  could  not  have  pardoned  a  guilt 
like  mine.  With  faith  and  love  — 

The  blessed  response  in  the  forgiven 
heart  to  the  forgiving  grace.  In  Christ 
— And  are  in  our  hearts  the  overflow 
from  him.  We  love  him  because  he 
loved  us ;  we  are  faithful  to  him  be¬ 
cause  he  is  “  the  faithful  and  true.” 


A.  D.  G6. 


CHAPTER  I. 


417 


Jesus.  15  d  This  is  a  faithful  say¬ 
ing,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation, 
that  e  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the 
world  to  save  sinners ;  of  whom  I  am 
chief.  10  Howbeit  for  this  cause 
fI  obtained  mercy,  that  in  me  first 
Jesus  Christ  might  show  forth  all 


longsuffering,  s  for  a  pattern  to 
them  which  should  hereafter  be¬ 
lieve  on  him  to  life  everlasting. 
17  Now  unto  h  the  King  eternal, 

1  ini  mortal,  k  invisible,  Rhe  only 
wise  God,  mbe  honour  and  glory 
for  ever  and  ever.  Amen. 


d  Chap.  3.  1 ;  4.  9;  2  Tim.  2.  11 ;  Titus  3.  8. - 

e  Matt.  9.  13 ;  Mark  2.  17 ;  Luke  5.  32 ;  19.  10 ; 
jRom.  5.  8;  1  John  3.  5. - / 2  Cor.  4.  1. - g  Acts 


13.  39. - h  Psa.  10.  16; 

6.  15,  16. - i  Rom.  1. 

I  Rom.  16.  27;  Jude  25.- 


145. 13 ;  Dan.  7. 14 ;  chap. 
23. - k  John  4.  12.- 


-m  1  Chron.  29.  11. 


15.  Faithful  saying — A  full  trust¬ 
worthy  proposition.  This  is  one  of  the 
phrases  peculiar  to  the  pastoral  epis¬ 
tles.  .See  iii,  1  ;  iv,  9  ;  2  Tim.  ii,  2,  11 ; 
Tit.  i,  9  ;  iii,  8.  All  acceptation  — 
Acceptation  entire,  and  all.  This 
comprehensive  and  glorious  saying  lies 
in  the  apostle’s  train  of  thought ;  for 
he  had  found  it  faithful  and  true  in 
his  own  experience.  Save  sinners — 
So  that  it  is  our  sins  that  give  us  a 
claim  upon  this  Saviour.  If  we  are  no 
sinners,  then  for  us  Christ  is  no  Sav¬ 
iour.  I  am  chief— Literally,  I  am  npCj- 
rug,  first ;  not,  of  course,  in  the  order 
of  time,  but  of  eminence.  Dr.  Clarke 
seems  to  think  it  necessary  to  maintain 
that  Paul  was  literally  and  accurate¬ 
ly  the  greatest  sinner  that  ever  lived. 
But  compare  the  similar  hyperboles  at 
1  Cor.  xv,  9,  and  Eph.  iii,  8.  Yet  w^e 
coincide  with  Flatt  (quoted  by  Hither) 
in  noting  the  want  of  the  Greek  article 
before  the  word  tt ptirog,  and  translat¬ 
ing  it  not  the  first ,  or  the  chief;  but  a 
chief,  a  first,  one  of  the  first  We  agree 
with  Huther  that  Paul’s  words  need 
no  softening ;  and  we  may  add,  no 
hardening  either.  No  one  can  doubt 
that  the  article  would  have  increased 
the  emphasis,  and  the  due  import  of  its 
omission  must  be  ackno  wl  edged.  No  te 
the  present  tense :  not  was,  but  am 
chief.  For  though  forgiven,  saved, 
apostled,  1  e  is  still  that  same  Saul ;  he 
is  the  man  who  sinned;  the  past  can 
never  be  undone.  Even  though  saved, 
he  is  forever  a  saved  sinner. 

Yet  in  what  sense  could  the  dying 
Wesley  affirm : 

“  I  the  chief  of  sinners  am, 

But  Jesus  died  for  me  ?  ” 

Not  certainly  as  a  literal  fact,  but  as 
a  profound  assumption  before  God.  He 
renounced  all  claims,  and  freely  and 

Vol.  IV. — 27 


fully  consented  to  be  saved  at  God’s 
estimate,  even  if  it  be  as  the  greatest 
of  sinners,  by  Christ’s  atonement. 

16.  St.  Paul  now  gives  the  divine 
jfide  of  his  wonderful  experience. 
What  could  God  mean  by  granting 
mercy  to  so  unparalleled  a  sinner  ? 
Be  sure  God  knew  that  the  very  promi¬ 
nence  of  the  sinner  rendered  his  salva¬ 
tion  a  pre-eminent  specimen  and  typo 
that  no  sinner  hereafter  need  despair, 
or  be  despaired  of.  Who  may  not  be 
converted  if  Saul  the  persecutor  be¬ 
came  an  apostle  ?  Longsuffering — 
For,  although  the  period  of  his  heinous 
sin  was  comparatively  brief,  yet  that 
God  did  not  smite  him  down  in  wrath 
was  a  wonderful  patience.  To,  unto, 
everlasting  life — The  glorious  aim  and 
result  of  that  believe.  And  now  St. 
Paul,  having  attained  this  lofty  climax, 
everlasting  life,  seems  to  make  an  up¬ 
ward  spring  into  the  coming  doxology. 

17.  Now — But;  as  rising  from  him¬ 
self,  the  finite,  to  God,  the  infinite,  and 
tracing  his  salvation  to  Him.  Unto  the 
King  eternal — Literally,  King  of  the 
aeons,  or  ages.  Ellicott  says  that  this 
phrase  should  not  be  diluted  into  eter¬ 
nal.  God  is  sovereign  of  the  aeons 
and  all  they  embrace.  Yet  as  they  are 
endless,  the  idea  of  eternity  is  included. 
Immortal — Rather,  incorruptible.  All 
things  decay  and  fade  from  one  aeon 
into  another;  the  sole,  essentially  un¬ 
decaying,  One,  through  the  ever-rolling 
waves  of  aeons,  is  the  King  of  aeons. 
Invisible  —  The  unseen,  behind  the 
vail  of  the  seen.  Wise — Omitted  as  a 
false  reading,  leaving  only  God ;  ex¬ 
cluding  all  polytheism,  and  recognising 
one  God  as  one  universe.  For  ever 
and  ever — Elf  rovg  aiuvag  rtiv  aiu- 
vov,  into  and  throughout  the  ages  of 
ages.  Note,  Eph.  i,  10.  This,  as  the 


418 


I.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  T).  66. 


18  This  charge  nI  commit  un¬ 
to  thee,  son  Timothy,  ‘according 
to  the  prophecies  which  went  be¬ 
fore  on  thee,  that  thou  by  them 
mightest  p  war  a  good  warfare ; 
19  « Holding  faith,  and  a  good 
conscience  ;  which  some  having 
put  away  concerning  faith  rhave 


n  Chap.  6. 13, 14 :  2  Tim.  2  2  - 
7>  Chap.  6.  12;  2  Tim.  2.  3. 


— o  Chap.  4. 14. - 

- q  Chap.  3.  9. 


other  doxologies  of  St.  Paul,  marks  the 
terminus  of  a  climax  of  thought. 

3.  Solemn  formula  committing 
this  charge  to  Timothy,  18-20. 

18.  Prophecies.  .  .before.  .  .thee 
— Of  directive  and  predictive  proph¬ 
ecies  we  find  instances  in  Acts  xiii, 
1,  2,  and  xxi,  10,  12.  By  comparison 
with  the  parallel  passage  (iv,  14)  we 
learn  that  prophecies  attended  his 
ordination  concurrently  with  a  divine 
charism  imparted  within  him.  These 
prophecies  are  here  said  to  be,  literal 
Greek,  going  before  upon  thee.  On 
thee,  affirms  that  the  prophecies 
rested  down  upon  him  as  their  sub¬ 
ject.  Went  before  implies  that  they 
preceded  and  predicted  his  future,  and 
were  now  pointing  his  path  of  duty, 
and  inciting  him  to  an  energetic  prose¬ 
cution.  That — Depending  on  going 
before.  War — For  the  errors,  heresies, 
and  sins  of  the  day  indicated  that  his 
life  was  to  be  a  warfare.  With  the 
Greek  article,  the  good  warfare. 

19.  Holding — Emphatic,  in  no  case 
surrendering .  Faith,  .  .  .  conscience 
— Which  at  start  (ver.  5)  Paul  had  de¬ 
clared  to  be  the  end  of  the  command¬ 
ment,  the  test  of  the  true  doctrine ; 
and,  therefore,  the  detection  of  the  er- 
rorists  against  whom  his  warfare  was 
to  be  waged.  Some — The  some  of 
verse  3.  Put  away  —  After  having 
once  possessed.  Shipwreck  —  They 
were  in  the  ship  and  wrecked  it,  by  put¬ 
ting  away  faith  and  hiking  up  falsehood. 

20.  Two  of  the  mysterious  some  of 
verse  3  seem  here  to  be  named,  and  a 
third  in  2  Tim.  ii,  17,  Philetus.  Un¬ 
questionably  the  Hymeneus  here  and 
there  are  the  same.  Alexander  as 
unquestionably  is  the  coppersmith  of 
2  Tim.  iv,  14.  Delivered  unto  Sa¬ 
tan — See  note  on  1  Cor.  v,  5.  The 


made  shipwreck :  £0  Of  whom  is 
8  Hymeneus  and 1  Alexander;  whom 
I  have  “delivered  unto  Satan,  that 
they  may  learn  not  to  1  blaspheme. 


CHAPTER  II. 


I* EXHORT  therefore,  that,  first 
of  all,  supplications,  prayers. 


rChap.  6.  9. - *2 

u  1  Cor.  5.  5. - v 


Tim.  2.  17. - 1 2  Tim.  4.  U. 

Acts  13.  45. - 1  Or,  devire. 


consigning  to  Satan  did  not  prevent 
Hymeneus  from  persisting  in  sin,  as 
appears  from  the  mention  in  the  second 
epistle.  May  learn — May  be  discip¬ 
lined  by  punishment.  Not  to  blas¬ 
pheme— For  apostates  are  very  apt  to 
become  blasphemers.  And  this  phrase 
serves  to  show  that  the  adoption  of  tlie 
fables  and  genealogies  of  verse  4  was 
no  mere  speculative  error,  but  led  not 
only  to  folly,  but  to  gross  apostasy. 

Creeds  may  be  limitations  to  liberty, 
but  they  are  also  safeguards  of  the 
soul.  When  they  are  made  simply  a 
means  of  ecclesiastical  despotism  or 
bitter  contention,  great  injury  no  doubt 
results.  Yet  the  forms  of  doctrine 
adopted  by  the  holy  of  past  years,  aft¬ 
er  the  most  intense  study  of  the  Scrip¬ 
tures,  are  to  be  treated  with  solemn 
respect  and  not  discarded  with  levity. 
Our  apostle  here  gives  us  one  of  the  best 
brief  tests  of  their  excellence.  1  s  t-hei  r 
end,  their  purpose,  their  effect,  faith 
and  a  good  conscience?  that  is,  a 
sound  mind  and  a  holy  life? 


- 4»»- - 

PART  SECOND. 

CHURCH  ORDER  PRESCRIBED, 
ii,  1-iv,  16. 

CHAPTER  II. 

1.  In  worship,  1-15. 

a.  Public  prayer  universally  to  be 

offered  by  men ,  1-8. 

1.  Therefore — As  an  outflow  from 
the  general  charge  of  i,  1 8.  First  of 
the  specific  elements  of  the  charge. 
Supplications,  prayers,  interces¬ 
sions — Words  nearly  synonymous,  ac¬ 
cumulated  to  show  the  variety  yet  one¬ 
ness  of  prayer.  Supplication  is  the 
call  of  felt  need ;  prayer  is  the  generic 
word  for  asking  divine  favour;  inter¬ 
cession  is  more  immediate  and  person- 


A.  D.  66. 


CHAPTER  II. 


419 


intercessions,  and  giving  of  thanks, 
be  made  for  all  men ;  2  a  For 

kings,  and  hfor  all  that  are  in *  2 3 4 5  au¬ 
thority;  that  we  may  lead  a  quiet 
and  peaceable  life  in  all  godliness 
and  honesty.  3  For  this  is  cgood 
and  acceptable  in  the  sight  dof 
God  our  Saviour;  4  eWho  will 

a  Ezra  6.  10;  Jer.  29.  7. - b  Rom.  13.  1. - 

2  Or,  eminent  place. - c  Rom.  12.  2;  chap. 

5.  4. - d  Chap.  1.  1 ;  2  Tim.  1.  9. - e  Ezek. 

18.  23;  John  3.  16;  Titus  2.  11;  2  Pet.  3.  9. - 

./'John  17.  3;  2  Tim.  2.  25. - p-Rom.  3.  29,  30; 

al  entreaty.  All  men — The  religion 
for  our  entire  race  suggests  prayer  for 
the  entire  race. 

2.  For  kings — Specially  the  most 
important  of  men  on  earth,  whose 
wellbeing  and  welldoing  have  most  ef¬ 
fect  on  the  wellbeing  and  welldoing  of 
all  other  men.  Kings  is  here  simply 
the  representative  term,  suggested  by 
the  habits  of  the  age,  for  any  other  gov¬ 
ernmental  ruling  persons  or  person,  as 
queen,  president,  stadtholder,  or  senate. 
All. .  .in  authority  —  Official  ageri 
cies,  the  whole  officiary,  under  the  su 
preme.  That — Such  public  interces 

sion  for  rulers  does  not  terminate  in  the 
wellbeing  of  the  persons.  It  takes 
place  in  order  that  the  quietude  neces¬ 
sary  to  the  wellbeing,  temporal  and 
eternal,  of  the  community,  may  be  pre¬ 
served.  See  notes  on  Rom.  xiii,  1-7. 
Quietude,  godliness,  and  honesty, 
that  is,  orderly  deportment,  were  the 
results  sought  in  prayer. 

3.  This — The  seeking  these  results 
by  the  public  prayers  of  the  Church. 
Good  intrinsically,  and  also  accept¬ 
able  to  God. 

4.  Will  have — Rather,  who  wills. 
It  is  the  divine  ideal,  willed  by  God 
to  be  accomplished.  All  men — The 
same  all  as  in  verse  1.  The  reason 
why  prayer  should  be  made  for  all  is, 
that  God  wills  the  salvation  of  all.  On 
the  reason  why  all  are  not  saved  see 
note  on  Eph.  i,  10.  And  to  come — 
In  order  that  they  might  be  saved 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  by 
which  they  would  be  saved. 

5.  The  universality  of  the  mediator- 
ship  proves  the  universality  of  the  pro¬ 
vided  salvation;  for  as  God  is  one 
and  Christ  the  mediator  is  one, 


have  all  men  to  be  saved,  f  and  to 
come  unto  the  knowledge  of  the 
truth.  5  &For  there  is  one  God, 
and  h  one  mediator  between  God 
and  men,  the  man  Christ  Jesus; 

6  ‘Who  gave  himself  a  ransom  for 
all,  k3to  be  testified  Jin  due  time. 

7  m  Whereunto  I  am  ordained  a 

10. 12;  Gal.  3.  20. - A,Heb.  8.  6;  9.  15. - i  Matt 

20  28;  Mark  10.  45;  Eph.  1.  7;  Titus.  2.  14.— 

k\  Cor.  1.  6;  2  Thess.  1.  10;  2  Tim.  1.  8. - 3  Or, 

a  testimony. - 1 Rom.  5.  6 ;  Gal.  4.  4 :  Eph.  1.  9 ; 

3.  o;  Titus  1.  3. - m  Eph.  3.  7  ;  2  Tim.  1.  11. 


so  both  are  for  not  a  part  but  for  the 
whole  to  be  saved.  A  universal  God 
and  a  universal  mediator  proves  a  uni¬ 
versal  humanity,  between  whom  and 
God  he  mediates.  Mediator — One 
who  serves  as  communicator  between 
two  parties.  Men — The  all  men  of 
verses  1  and  4.  The  man— Without 
the  definite  Greek  article,  a  man. 
Men  are  mediated  with  God  by  a 
man,  who,  by  being  a  man  and  yet  di¬ 
vine,  partaking  a  double  nature,  brings 
God  and  man  into  contact  and  unity. 

6.  Gave  himself— So  that  his  death 
was  voluntary.  Note,  John  x,  15,  18. 
While  God  gave  his  Son,  (John  lii,  16.) 
the  Son  concurrently  yet  freely  gave 
himself.  A  ransom — A  very  ex¬ 
pressive  substitutive  term,  avri?,vTpcv, 
antilutron.  Lutron  (from  fono,  luo.  to 
release)  is  the  loosing-money  by  which 
a  person  is  ransomed  from  durance. 
It  is  the  term  applied  to  Jesus  by 
himself  in  Matt,  xx,  28,  and  Mark  x,  45. 
But  the  present  is  not  only  lutron,  but, 
with  the  prefix  anti ,  instead,  is  more 
explicitly  a  lutron  placed  instead  of  the 
person  in  durance.  For  all — The  all 
a  third  time  presented.  The  emphatic 
insisting  on  a  universal  atonement, 
limited,  not  by  divine  circumscription, 
but  by  human  rejection.  To  be  testi¬ 
fied  in  due  time  —  The  translation 
gives  accurately  the  general  sense. 
But  the  Greek  literally  is,  the  testi¬ 
mony  in  its  own  times.  The  noun,  the 
testimony ,  is  in  apposition  not  with 
ransom,  but  with  the  entire  preceding 
clause.  The  giving  himself  a  ransom 
was  itself  the  testimony.  Due  time 
— In  that  period  of  human  history  to 
which  it  providentially  belongs. 

7.  Whereunto — Namely,  to  the  tes - 


420 


I.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  GO. 


preacher,  and  an  apostle,  (n  I  speak 
the  truth  in  Christ,  and  lie  not,) 
°a  teacher  of  the  Gentiles  in  faith 
and  verity.  8  I  will  therefore 
that  men  pray  p  every  where,  i  lift¬ 
ing  up  holy  hands,  without  wrath 

n  Rom.  9. 1. - o  Rom.  11.  13;  15.  16;  Gal.  1.  16. 

p  Mai.  1.  11  ;  John  4.  21. 


timony.  A  preacher  and  an  apostle 

— Literally,  a  herald,  and  a  sent  one. 
Truth  .  .  .  and  lie  not— Alford  puts 
it  rather  strongly,  that  this  intense  self- 
affirmation  by  Paul  is  an  old  man’s  repe¬ 
tition,  by  habit,  of  the  necessary  self- 
assertions  against  his  opponents  used 
in  younger  da}rs,  as  in  2  Cor.  xi,  31,  and 
Rom.  ix,  1,  and  in  Galatians  through¬ 
out:  “  These  had  almost  become  stock 
phrases.”  The  very  obvious  reply  is, 
that  such  phrases  do  not  occur  in  epis¬ 
tles  which  did  not  face  the  impugners 
of  his  apostleship,  as  Ephesians,  Plii- 
lippians,  Colossians,  and  Philemon. 
What  called  them  forth  now  was  the 
appearance  of  a  new  set  of  impugners, 
by  whom  he  was,  doubtless,  posted  as 
a  liar,  and  against  whom  he  is  flinging, 
through  Timothy,  these  indignant  self¬ 
testimonials.  Teacher ...  in  Christian 
faith  and  divine  verity,  or  truth. 

8.  I  will — /  determine.  The  ex¬ 
pression  of  apostolic  authority,  deci¬ 
sive  with  Timothy  and  the  Ephesian 
Churches.  Men — In  antithesis  with 
women  in  verse  9  ;  as  assuming  that 
public  worship  would  be  usually  con¬ 
ducted  by  men.  Every  where — In 
all  Timothy’s  Churches ;  and,  by  im¬ 
plication,  in  all  other  places  of  worship. 
Lifting  up — The  ordinary,  if  not  the 
natural,  gesture  of  prayer;  either  as 
a  motion  of  offering  to  God,  or  more 
probably  as  the  natural  movement  of 
helplessness  seeking  aid.  Holy  hands 
— Pure  hands,  as  innocent  of  wrong¬ 
doing,  or  purified  therefrom  by  peni¬ 
tence,  pardon,  and  sanctification.  So 
Psalm  xx  vi,  6 :  “I  will  wash  mine 
hands  in  innocency :  so  will  I  compass 
thine  altar.”  As  the  hands  should 
be  holy  the  heart  should  possess  pure 
love  without  wrath,  and  pure  faith 
without  doubting.  We  must  cast  out 
every  malevolent  feeling  towards  man 


and  doubting.  9  In  like  manner 
also,  that r  women  adorn  themselves 
in  modest  apparel,  with  shame¬ 
facedness  and  sobriety;  not  with 
4  braided  hair,  or  gold,  or  pearls, 
or  costly  array;  10  'But,  which 

tfPsa.  134.  2;  Isa.  1.  15. - r  1  Pet.  3.  3. - 4 Or, 

plaited. - *1  Pet.  3.  4. 


before  we  can  come  with  perfect  trust 
before  God. 

b.  With  oi'derly  array  and  deportment 
of  women,  9-15. 

9.  The  apostle  is  still  enjoining  the 
orderly  conducting  of  public  worship, 
the  manner  of  men’s  prayer,  and  the 
style  of  women’s  dress  and  deport¬ 
ment  in  the  religious  assembly.  All 
this  must  be  read  with  clear  reference 
to  what  we  have  said  in  1  Cor.  xi  of 
the  women  of  that  age  and  clime.  In 
like  manner  —  Supply  I  will  from 
verse  8.  Modest  apparel  —  Ellicott 
renders  it,  “  in  seemly  guise,”  inas¬ 
much  as  the  Greek  word  includes  not 
only  the  apparel  but  the  whole  pre¬ 
sentation.  Shamefacedness  —  The 
old  word  in  the  earlier  editions  of  the 
English  Bible  was  “  shamefastness,” 
analogous  to  steadfastness,  which  in 
later  editions  has  become  the  present 
unfortunate  word,  “shamefacedness,” 
for  modesty.  Sobriety — The  calm  re¬ 
serve  of  feminine  self-respect.  Braid¬ 
ed  hair — Rather,  hair-braids.  Gold 
— Which  was  often  woven  into  the 
hair-braids.  Costly  array— The  or¬ 
dinary  form  of  female  extravagance. 
And  this  is  counterbalanced  usually  by 
half  a  dozen  forms  of  male  extrava¬ 
gance,  such  as  ardent  spirits,  cigars, 
blooded  horses,  etc.  The  precepts  of 
the  apostle  are  good  for  all  ages,  and 
especially  the  present  days  of  “  fast  ” 
living.  They  are  based  in  pure  taste 
and  sound  reason.  Pure  simplicity  of 
taste  ever  becomes  the  Christian.  1  et 
it  can  hardly  be  said  that  the  articles 
here  specified  are  placed  under  positive 
prohibition.  The  principle  of  modest 
dress  and  deportment  is  stated  under 
a  mention  of  specific  articles.  And 
here,  as  in  1  Pet.  iii,  3,  the  articles  are 
not  so  much  specifically  forbidden,  as 
counsel  given  that  it  is  not  iu  these 


A.  D.  66. 


CHAPTER  II. 


421 


becometh  women  professing  god¬ 
liness,  with  good  works.  1 1  Let 
Hie  woman  learn  in  silence  with 
all  subjection.  12  But  lI  suffer 
not  a  woman  to  teach,  u  nor  to 
usurp  authority  over  the  man,  but 
to  be  in  silence.  13  For  vAdam 
was  first  formed,  then  Eve.  14  And 
w  Adam  was  not  deceived,  but  the 

tl  Cor.  14.  34. - uEph.  5.  24. - v  Gen.  1.  27; 

_ 2.  18,22;  1  Cor.  11,  8. _ 

that  our  claims  to  the  respect  of  others 
should  consist.  And  as  it  is  the  sacred 
congregation  that  the  apostle  here  is 
regulating,  he  powerfully  dissuades  the 
making  the  sanctuary,  not  a  place  of 
devout  worship,  but  of  fashionable  dis¬ 
play. 

1 0.  Good  works — Are  the  true  or¬ 
namentation  of  the  Christian  lady. 
She  need  make  no  display  of  asceti¬ 
cism,  nor  spend  her  time,  money,  and 
health  in  elaborating  a  singular  plain¬ 
ness  of  style.  Nor  is  it  any  virtue  to 
dress  cheaply  to  hoard  money  in  the 
coffers.  It  is  a  poor  sham  to  mistake 
cheap  apparel  for  humility,  when  its 
savings  are  laid  up  for  one’s  children, 
perhaps  to  squander  in  dissipation. 
But  a  great  appropriateness  to  her  pro¬ 
fession  of  godliness  it  is  if  she  studies 
a  true  simplicity  of  taste,  and  spends 
what  she  saves  by  avoidance  of  extrav¬ 
agance  in  charities  and  good  works. 
And  all  this  good  advice  may  be  ad¬ 
dressed,  perhaps  with  double  force,  to 
the  Christian  gentleman.  The  money 
burnt  up  in  cigars,  and  that  largely  by 
Christian  men,  might  give  the  gospel 
to  the  world. 

11.  In  silence — Rather  in  quietude, 
the  absence  of  any  commotion. 

12.  Teach — The  apostle  does  not 
prohibit  to  pray  or  prophesy,  but  to 
teach,  as  that  would  be  to  usurp  au¬ 
thority.  These  rules  are  founded  in 
nature  as  in  grace,  and  apply  to  all  but 
the  gifted,  or  those  “moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost”  to  “prophesy”  or  “pray.” 

13.  This  law  of  nature  our  apostle 
authenticates  by  the  sacred  history  of 
the  creation.  Adam  was  first  formed 
— And  Eve  added  as  the  “  help  meet  ” 
for  the  original  man. 

14.  Not  deceived — He  was,  per- 


woman  being  deceived  was  in  the 
transgression.  15  Notwithstand¬ 
ing  she  shall  be  saved  in  childbear¬ 
ing,  if  they  continue  in  faith  and 
charity  and  holiness  with  sobriety. 

CHAPTER  III. 

THIS  a  true  saying,  If  a  man 
desire  the  office  of  a  b bishop, 

w  Gen.  3.  6;  2  Cor.  11.  3. - a  Chap.  1.  15. 

_ ft  Acts  20.  28;  Phil.  1.  1. _ 

haps,  inuaced  to  sin  by  love  of  Eve, 
more 'knowingly  than  she,  and  so  per¬ 
haps  more  guiltily. 

15.  Be  saved  in  childbearing  — 
Rather,  through  childbearing.  It  may 
signify  that  she  shall  be  saved  tlnough 
or  by  childbearing  as  a  means  or  in¬ 
strument:  or  throughout  the  process 
of  childbearing  as  an  endurance.  In 
the  former  meaning  it  is  plausibly  ap¬ 
plied  by  some  able  commentators  to 
the  bearing  by  woman  of  the  Messiah. 
Thus  she  who  brought  death  brought 
life.  Paul’s  allusion  would  then  be  to 
Gen.  iii,  15,  the  prophecy  that  the 
seed  of  the  woman  would  bruise  the 
head  of  the  serpent.  Woman  shall  be 
saved  through  that  wondrous  birth. 
If  they  —  There  is  here  a  sudden 
change  from  she,  woman ,  to  they, 
women;  from  the  collective  sex  to  its 
individual  members.  *  And  thus  most 
remarkably  is  it  expressed  that  the 
whole  sex  may  be  saved  by  Christ  if 
its  individuals  continue  in  faith.  Yet 
the  immediate  application  of  Paul’s 
words  is  to  the  women  of  the  Churches 
for  whom  he  is  laying  down  regula¬ 
tions  of  behaviour.  The  second  mean¬ 
ing  is,  that  through  even  the  sorrow  of 
childbearing,  imposed  by  the  fall, 
the  sex  may  be  finally  saved  by  the 
faith  of  its  members,  exemplified  by 
the  correspondent  virtues. 

CHAPTER  III. 

2.  In  officiary,  1-13. 

a.  Of  presbyter -bishops,  1-7. 

1 .  A  true  saying — Literally,  faith¬ 
ful  is  the  saying.  Worthy  of  reliance 
is  the  maxim.  Desire — Reach-after, 
as  with  the  hand.  Paul  seems  uncon¬ 
scious  that  we  may  construe  that  de¬ 
sire  into  an  unholy  ambition.  Evil  is 


422 


I.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  66. 


lie  desireth  a  good  cwork.  2  d  A 
bishop  then  must  be  blameless, 

_ cEph.  4.  13. - d  Titus  1.  6. _ 

in  him  that  evil  thinks.  The  apostle’s 
pure  mind  is  thinking  only  of  those 
who  earnestly  desire  to  achieve  a 
good  work,  in  discharging  the  office. 
Bishop  —  The  word  is  the  Greek  term 
episkopos ,  with  both  ends  clipped,  the 
initial  p  softened,  and  the  central  k 
turned  into  an  aspirate.  It  is  com¬ 
pounded  of  epi ,  over,  and  skopeo ,  to  in¬ 
spect;  and  is  exactly  synonymous  with 
the  Saxon  overseer  or  the  Latin  super¬ 
intendent.  Wesley,  in  ordaining  Coke 
as  bishop,  or  first  of  three  ordained 
ministerial  grades,  preferred  the  term 
superintendent  to  bishop. 

The  Greek  word  episkopos  was  a  po¬ 
litical  term,  used  by  the  Athenians  to 
designate  those  whom  they  appointed 
to  superintend  their  foreign  dependen¬ 
cies.  As  the  word  is  used  of  a  Church 
officer  in  the  Greek  Testament  only  by 
Paul  and  his  disciple  Luke,  (Acts  xx,  28 ; 
Phil,  i,  1;  Tit.  i,  7,)  it  is  possible  that 
such  application  originated  with  Paul. 
It  is  now  agreed,  we  believe,  general¬ 
ly,  by  Episcopalian  scholars  as  well  as 
others,  that  in  the  New  Testament  the 
term  is  always  synonymous  with  eld¬ 
er.  In  the  present  chapter  no  order  is 
recognised  between  the  bishop  and 
deacon.  It  is  in  Timothy  himself,  the 
delegate  of  the  apostle,  that  Episcopa¬ 
lian  scholars  find  the  bishop.  They 
thus  maintain  that  while  the  word 
bishop,  once  given  to  the  elder,  was 
afterwards  transferred  to  the  first  or¬ 
der,  yet  the  order  itself  is  the  continu¬ 
ation  of  the  apostolate,  divested  of 
its  miraculous  powers.  Others  main¬ 
tain  that  while  elder  and  bishop  were 
originally  one  order,  the  apostles  raised 
certain  elders  to  a  higher  ordained 
grade,  to  whom  the  term  bishop  was 
exclusively  applied.  The -Presbyterian 
scholars,  on  the  other  hand,  maintain 
that  the  apostolic  office  wholly  ceased, 
and  that  the  only  scriptural  Church 
officers  are  presbyters,  or  elders,  and 
deacons. 

Dr.  Adam  Clarke’s  exposition  of  this 
paragraph  is  hardly  less  than  a  curios-  j 
ity.  He  seems  to  suppose  it  a  thing  | 


e  tlie  husband  of  one  wife,  vigilant, 
sober,  1  of  good  behaviour,  giv- 

e  Chap.  5.  9. - 1  Or,  modeut.  _ 

undoubted  that  episkopos  here  means 
diocesan  bishop,  and  brings  out  very 
Episcopal  conclusions:  “Episcopacy  in 
the  Church  of  God.is  of  divine  appoint¬ 
ment,  and  should  be  maintained  and 
respected. . .  .  The  Shite  has  its  mon¬ 
arch,  the  Church  has  its  bishops ;  one 
should  govern  according  to  the  laws  of 
the  land,  the  other  according  to  the 
word  of  God.”  But  writers  like  Bloom¬ 
field,  Wordsworth,  Ellicott,  and  Bishop 
Onderdonk,  (in  his  Episcopacy  Tested  by 
Scripture ,)  find  no  bishop  in  the  Scrip¬ 
ture  episkopos. 

2.  Blameless — Unimpeachable;  one 
against  whom  no  fair  charge  cun  be 
made.  Husband  of  one  wife — Upon 
these  words,  and  the  parallel  in  Titus 
i,  6,  there  have  been  three  interpreta¬ 
tions:  as,  1,  A  requirement  of  mar¬ 
riage  ;  2,  A  prohibition  of  polygamy ; 
and,  3,  A  prohibition  of  deuterogamy, 
or  marriage  of  widower  or  widow. 

Upon  the  first  it  may  be  fairly  said, 
that  though  the  apostle  does  not  enjoin 
the  marriage  of  an  elder,  he  certainly 
assumes  its  probability.  The  text  is, 
therefore,  conclusive  against  enforced 
clerical  celibacy. 

That  deuterogamy  is  forbidden,  or  at 
least  for  that  age  discouraged,  is  the 
interpretation  of  Alford,  Huther,  and 
Wordsworth.  Fairbairn  has  a  full  dis¬ 
sertation  ably  maintaining  that  polyg¬ 
amy  only  is  forbidden. 

For  applying  it  to  deuterogamy  it 
is  urged  that  sacred  professions,  even 
among  heathens,  were  often  prohibited 
from  deuterogamy,  as  by  the  Romans  to 
their  priestesses.  Sicilian  law  forbade 
a  man  who  gives  a  stepmother  to  his 
children  to  fill  the  judicial  office.  In  an 
a°re  when  the  female  character  is  de- 

O 

graded  such  a  law  may  have  its  rea¬ 
sons.  Alford’s  objection  to  applying 
the  text  to  polygamy  only  is,  that 
it  makes  Paul  forbid  to  clergy  alone 
what  truly  no  Christian  should,  or  in 
that  age  did,  commit.  Tertullian  had 
used  that  argument  long  before  him. 
“They  say  that  the  apostle  permitted 
the  repetition  of  marriage  in  such  way 


A.  D.  66. 


CHAPTER  III. 


423 


en  to  hospitality,  fapt  to  teach; 
3  e  2  Not  given  to  wine,  h  no  striker, 
not  greedy  of  filthy  lucre  ;  but 
patient,  not  a  brawler,  not  covet¬ 
ous;  4  One  that  ruleth  well  his 
own  house,  1 *  having  his  children 
in  subjection  with  all  gravity ; 


f  2  Tim.  2.  24. - g  Verse  8;  Titus  t.  7. - 2  Or, 

Not  ready  to  quarrel ,  and  offer  wrongy  as 
one  in  wine. 


as  to  forbid  polygamy  to  the  clergy 
alone.”  But  the  apostle  does  not  im¬ 
ply  a  permission  to  laity  when  he  re¬ 
stricts  the  clergy,  as,  for  instance,  from 
the  being  a  striker. 

In  favour  of  the  application  of  the  text 
to  polygamy,  and  not  deuterogamy,  it 
may  be  urged,  1.  That  St.  Paul,  in  Rom. 
vii,  1,  3,  and  1  Cor.  vii,  8,  9,  decides  that 
death  dissolves  the  marriage  tie,  and 
permits  new  marriage  to  the  survivor. 
He  states  it  as  marriage  law  without 
exception.  The  assumption  of  Alford, 
that  St.  Paul  lays  down  a  special 
ethics  here  for  the  clergy,  cannot  be 
admitted  without  some  special  proof. 
2.  Polygamy,  in  St.  Paul’s  time,  was 
usual  with  both  Jews  and  Gentiles.  It 
was  demoralizing  both  races.  Rabbies 
had  four  and  five  wives.  Converts  to 
Christianity  involved  in  polygamy  would 
often  present  themselves  for  admission 
to  the  Church,  and  the  peculiarities 
of  their  case  might  be  considered  in 
the  instance  of  private  Christians ;  but 
Paul  forbids  any  such  entanglement 
for  an  elder.  3.  Alford  admits  that  the 
early  commentators,  Theodoret,  Chry¬ 
sostom,  Tlieophylact,  each  made  the 
text  forbid  only  polygamy.  On  the 
other  hand,  Fairbairn  maintains,  truly, 
that  the  earliest  writers  who  made 
it  condemn  deuterogamy,  as  Hermas 
and  Tertullian,  were  ascetically  in¬ 
clined.  4.  The  uniform  shaping  of  the 
three  expressions  obviously  applies  to 
polgyamy  only.  A  man  whose  single 
wife  died,  and  who  marries  again  a  sin¬ 
gle  wife  onty,  is  always  the  husband 
of  one  wife.  See  note  on  iv,  9. 

Vigilant  —  Wide  awake,  and  alert 
for  all  opportunities  for  holy  success. 
Sober — Discreet,  given  to  no  undigni¬ 
fied  excitement  or  levities.  Good  be- 


5  For  if  a  man  know  not  how  to 
rule  his  own  house,  how  shall  he 
take  care  of  the  church  of  God? 

6  Not  3 4 5 6 7  a  novice,  lest  being  lift¬ 
ed  up  with  pride  m  he  fall  into 
the  condemnation  of  the  devil. 

7  Moreover  he  must  have  a  good 


h 2  Tim.  2.  24. - i  1  Pet.  5.  2. - k 2  Tim.  2.  24. 

- 1  Titus  1.  6. - 3  Or,  one  newly  come  to  ihe 

faith. - m  Isa.  14.  12. 


haviour — Orderlv  in  external  manners 

%/ 

and  conduct.  Hospitality — In  es¬ 
pecial  relation  to  entertaining  Christian 
brethren ;  a  duty  very  important  in 
times  when  the  present  system  of  pub¬ 
lic  accommodations  but  imperfectly 
existed.  1  Pet.  iv,  9 ;  Heb.  xiii,  2 ;  Rom. 
xii,  13.  Apt  to  teach  —  Possessing 
full  knowledge  of  Christian  doctrine, 
and  naturally  gifted  to  deliver  it.  See 
note,  Titus  i,  9. 

3.  Not  given  to  wine  —  Avoiding 
the  stimulants  that  intoxicate,  (accord¬ 
ing  to  the  rule  of  1  Timothy  v,  23,)  un¬ 
less  medical  reasons  interfere.  No 
striker — The  natural  result  of  intoxi¬ 
cation,  and  the  natural  tendency  of  the 
oriental  temperament.  Greedy  of 
filthy  lucre — Literal  Greek,  not  silver  - 
loving. 

4.  House . . .  children — How  entire¬ 
ly  adverse  to  Scripture  is  the  require¬ 
ment  of  clerical  celibacy  is  transparent 
from  this  passage,  where  the  elder’s 
care  of  his  family  is  token  of  his  abil¬ 
ity  to  care  for  his  Church.  Indeed, 
Vigilantius,  the  great  opponent  of 
Jerome,  had  some  reason  for  maintain¬ 
ing  that  St.  Paul  required  marriage  in 
the  clergy. 

5.  House. .  .church  —  An  argu¬ 
ment  from  the  less  to  the  greater: 
from  the  man’s  own  house  to  the 

house  of  God.  The  passage  suggests 
the  relations  of  the  episkopos  to  his 
Church;  those  of  paternity,  rule,  in¬ 
struction. 

6.  Novice — Literal,  new-plani;  green 
young  convert.  Lifted  up  with  pride 
— At  his  sudden  elevation.  Condem¬ 
nation  for  pride  of  the  devil,  who 
was  cast  down  to  hell  for  rebellion. 

7.  Good  report.  .  .without  —  His 
public  reputation,  not  only  within  but 


424 


I.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  66. 


report  nof  them  which  are  with¬ 
out;  lest  he  fall  into  reproach  °and 
the  snare  of  the  devil.  8  Like¬ 
wise  must  p  the  deacons  l>e  grave, 
not  double-tongued,  9  not  given  to 

rt  Acts  22.  12;  1  Cor.  5.  12;  1  Thess.  4.  12. - 

_ _ o  Chap  6.  9 ;  2  Tim.  2.  2G. 

without  the  Church,  must  bo  good. 
Fall  into  reproach  —  As  disgracing 
his  preaching  by  his  character  and 
practice.  Snare  of  the  devil — Who 
is  here  a  huntsman  that  sets  traps  and 
snares  for  the  ministers  specially. 
And  if  the  minister  has  lost  character 
with  the  public  amid  whom  he  preach¬ 
es,  the  devil  has  a  great  advantage 
both  to  destroy  the  value  of  his  preach¬ 
ing  and  to  bring  him  to  a  downfall, 
whether  by  his  own  imprudences  in 
difficulty,  or  by  bearing  him  down  by 
scandal. 

b.  Of  deacons  and  deaconesses,  8-13. 

In  regard  to  the  office  of  deacon  we 
may  first  remark,  that  if  the  Greek 
word  dialconos,  with  its  cognates,  were 
always  rendered  deacon ,  we  should  have 
deacons  in  great  number  in  the  New 
Testament.  Thus  we  should  have  Matt, 
xx,  26,  Let  him  be  your  deacon;  John 
ii,  5,  the  mother  of  Jesus  said  to  the  dea¬ 
cons;  xii,  26,  The  king  said  to  the  dea¬ 
cons;  Rom.  xiii,  4,  the  magistrate  is  the 
deacon  of  God;  Gal.  ii,  17,  deacon  of  sin. 
From  all  which  instances,  and  many 
more,  it  appears  that  the  true  meaning 
of  the  word  is  servitor.  The  word  is  not 
applied  to  the  seventy  sent  forth  by 
our  Lord;  nor  to  the  seven  in  Acts 
vi,  save  in  the  verb  form  serve.  It  ap¬ 
pears  for  the  first  time  as  an  unmistak¬ 
able  church  officer  in  Phil,  i,  1 ;  there, 
as  here,  used  by  Paul  in  connexion 
with  the  episkopos.  Under  sanction 
from  these  two  texts,  however,  we  may, 
in  Rom.  xvi,  1,  read  deaconess  in  honour 
of  Phebe;  and  in  Rom.  xii,  7,  deacon- 
ship;  and  some  hold  1  Cor.  xii,  28, 
helps,  to  mean  deaconships. 

In  regard  to  this  office  in  the  Church 
we  may  note  two  distinctive  points: 
First.  It  was  not,  like  prophecy,  healing, 
tongues,  etc.,  an  extraordinary  gift  or 
charism ,  bestowed  at  the  will  of  the 
Spirit  without  the  agency  of  man.  The 
individual  was  humanly  selected  ac- 


muoh  wine,  not  greedy  of  filthy 
lucre;  9  r Holding  the  mystery  of 
the  faith  in  a  pure  conscience. 
SO  And  let  these  also  first  be 
proved ;  then  let  them  use  the  office 

2? Acts  G.  3. - q  Verse  3;  Lev.  10.  9;  Ezek.  44.  21. 

_ r  Chap.  1.  19. 

cording  to  qualifications,  and  probably 
ordained  by  the  imposition  of  hands. 
Second.  In  all  cases,  both  the  word 
and  its  connexions  embrace  generical- 
ly  the  idea  of  subordination  and  service 
in  sacred  function.  The  deacon  was 
subordinate  to  the  apostle  and  to  the 
episkopos.  Hence,  while  his  duties  are 
not  very  precisely  defined  in  Scripture, 
yet  throughout  the  history  of  the  Church 
a  sort  of  semblance  has  been  main¬ 
tained  in  this  respect.  He  may  assist 
the  bishop  or  elder  in  the  ritual ;  he 
may,  in  absence  of  the  elder,  read  a 
homily ;  he  may  catechize  the  cate¬ 
chumen,  keep  order  in  the  congrega¬ 
tion,  see  to  the  poor,  and  administer  to 
the  necessities  of  the  persecuted. 

In  modern  Protestant  Churches  the 
same  generic  idea  of  servitorship  is 
variously  maintained.  In  Presbyteri¬ 
an  and  Congregational  Churches,  ap¬ 
proaching  nearer  to  the  model  of  Acts 
vi  than  any  other  Church,  the  deacon 
is  overseer  of  the  poor,  yet  leading  the 
conference  and  prayer  meeting  in  ab¬ 
sence  of  the  minister.  In  the  Meth¬ 
odist  Episcopal  Church  the  deacon  is 
a  subordinate  minister,  with  a  few  sym¬ 
bolical  exclusions  from  higher  func¬ 
tions,  an  apprentice  rather  than  a  servi¬ 
tor  in  the  ministry.  In  this  respect  there 
appears  a  parallel  from  the  probable  faci 
that  in  the  New  Testament  Church  the 
deaconship  was  a  reserve  from  which 
the  elders  were  likely  to  be  selected. 
Note  v,  13. 

8.  Double-tongued — The  liability 

of  subordinates,  to  be  obsequious  to  su¬ 
periors  and  supercilious  to  inferiors. 
Greedy — So  as  to  be  tempted  to  em¬ 
bezzle  the  church  funds. 

9.  Mystery — See  note  on  verse  16. 
Faith  —  In  regard  to  doctrine.  Con¬ 
science — In  regard  to  moral  character 
and  conduct. 

10.  Proved  —  Not  by  prefixing  a 
period  of  probation ;  but  by  the  scruti- 


A.  D.  6G. 


CHAPTER  111. 


425 


of  a  deacon,  being  found  blameless. 
II  8  Even  so  must  their  wives  he 
grave,  not  slanderers,  sober,  faith¬ 
ful  in  all  things.  12  Let  the  dea¬ 
cons  be  the  husbands  of  one  wife, 
ruling  their  children  and  their  own 
houses  well.  13  For  ‘they  that 
have  4  used  the  office  of  a  deacon 

s  Titus  2.  3. - 1  Matt.  25.  21. 

ny  of  the  Church  and  eldership,  care¬ 
fully  noting  their  life,  character,  and 
qualifications,  and  making  them  a  mat¬ 
ter  of  free  discussion,  in  order  to  a 
right  decision  by  vote  before  ordina¬ 
tion.  Use  the  office  of  a  deacon — 
Literally,  let  them  serve. 

11.  Wives  —  The  Greek  word  may 
signify  either  woman  or  wife.  The  their 
is  not  in  the  Greek.  The  question 
thence  arises,  whether  St.  Paul  means 
vjives  of  the  deacons ,  or  deaconesses. 
Note  Rom.  xvi,  2.  The  absence  of  any 
prescription  for  the  wives  of  the 
elders  seems  very  decisive  in  favour 
of  the  latter.  The  existence  of  an  or¬ 
dained  grade  of  deaconesses  in  the 
early  Church  was  recognised  by  Tertul- 
lian,  Origen,  and  others  of  the  ecclesias¬ 
tical  writers.  Slanderers — Not  dealing 
in  scandal  and  personal  gossip. 

12.  Briefly  reiterating  for  the  dea¬ 
cons  some  of  the  qualifications  required 
above  for  the  elders. 

13.  A  good  degree — An  honourable 
step.  The  word  is  well  defined  in  Rob¬ 
inson’s  Lexicon  New  Testament,  a  step , 
namely,  “of  a  stair,  or  door,”  etc.;  de¬ 
rived  from  fia'cvo,  to  walk,  or  advance. 
Hence  unquestionably,  we  think,  Gro- 
tius  gives  die  true  meaning:  “They 
make  for  themselves  an  honourable  step, 
namely,  to  the  presbyterate.*  For  so 
was  the  custom  of  those  ages;  from 
the  most  excellent  of  the  Christian  peo¬ 
ple  to  select  the  deacons,  and  from  the 
most  excellent  deacons,  the  presby¬ 
ters,  and  from  the  most  excellent  pres¬ 
byters,  the  president.  In  the  Clemen¬ 
tine  Constitutions  are  prayers  for  the 
deacon  in  which  we  read  the  words: 
“  Render  worthy  him  who  has  per¬ 
formed  the  deaconship  to  him  commit¬ 
ted,  inflexibly,  blamelessly,  unimpeach¬ 
ably,  to  be  exalted  to  a  higher  step.  ” 


well  purchase  to  themselves  a  good 
degree,  and  great  boldness  in  the 
faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 

14  These  things  write  I  unto 
thee,  hoping  to  come  unto  thee 
shortly:  15  But  if  I  tarry  long, 
that  thou  mayest  know  how  thou 
oughtest  to  behave  thyself  uin  the 

4  Or,  ministered. - wEph.  2.  21;  2  Tim.  2.  20. 

The  connexion  shows  this  to  be  the 
meaning.  The  previous  verse  shadows 
the  qualifications  of  the  eldership  as 
the  model  for  the  deacon.  The  clause 
following  these  words  promises  a  great¬ 
er  freedom  of  exercise  as  belonging  to 
the  next  step.  The  most  natural  con¬ 
struction,  certainly,  should  view  the  step 
as  belonging  to  the  sphere  of  the  dea¬ 
conship.  So  Wesley,  “  They  purchase 
a  good  degree,  or  step  to  some  higher 
office.”  To  the  objection  that  this 
would  be  placing  an  objectionable  mo 
tive  before  the  deacon,  Wordsworth 
properly  replies,  that  St.  Paul  is  not 
addressing  the  deacon  at  all,  but  Timo¬ 
thy,  the  superintendent.  Just  so  he 
directs  Timothy  (1  Timothy  v,  17)  to 
put  a  double  value  upon  the  best  el¬ 
ders.  Great  boldness — Or  freedom  of 
speech;  an  advance  step  in  liberty  of 
exercise  well  becoming  a  higher  office. 

3.  In  doctrine. 

a.  Timothy  set  as  champion  of  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  the  incarnation  against  the  err  or  - 
ists  predicted  by  the  Spirit  as  about  to 
appear ,  14-iv,  10. 

14.  These  things — Not  only  the 
precepts  of  Church  order  in  ii,  1-i‘ii,  ]  3, 
but  including  the  entire  charge  against 
the  heresies  in  chapter  first.  For  as  the 
charge  is  against  their  false  doctrines, 
so  the  Church  order,  in  possession  of 
the  true  doctrine,  is  the  stronghold 
against  them.  Write  I— Place  them 
on  visible  monumental  records.  Short¬ 
ly  —Greek,  sooner ;  that  is,  sooner  than 
his  writing  a  letter  naturally  presup¬ 
posed. 

15.  If  I  tarry  long— So  that  the 
letter  was  a  proviso  against  his  failing 
to  come  soon,  or  ever.  Behave  thy¬ 
self  in  the  house  of  God  —  The  word 
behave  unfortunately  suggests  to  the 
ordinary  reader  the  idea  of  personal 


I.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  G6. 


42(1 


house  of  God,  which  is  the  church 
of  the  living  God,  the  pillar  and 
‘ground  of  the  truth.  10  And 

5  Or,  stay. - a  John  1.  14;  1  John  1.  2. - 6Gr. 

manifested 

deportment;  it  really  designates  Timo¬ 
thy’s  official  management  in  governing 
the  Church,  in  doctrine,  ordinations, 
and  administration,  according  to  the 
directions  thus  far  by  Paul  prescribed. 
House  of  God — Huther  objects  that 
if  Timothy’s  personal  management  is 
here  intended,  then  the  house  of  God 
must  mean  the  Church  of  Ephesus. 
Undoubtedly  it  does.  Timothy  and 
the  Church  of  Ephesus  are  solely  here 
meant,  and  the  whole  epistle  and  all 
its  contents  are  applicable  to  other  cases 
only  by  fair  inference.  And  so  it  is 
with  a  large  share  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment.  The  rule  in  the  immediate  case 
is  placed  on  record  for  future  applica¬ 
tion  to  future  cases.  Huther  well  notes 
that  the  term  house  of  God  is  the 
original  designation  of  the  temple,  Matt, 
xxi,  13  :  thence  applied  to  the  Church  of 
the  Old  Testament,  Ileb.  iii,  2-5 ;  now 
to  the  Church  of  the  New  Testament  in 
which  God  dwells,  Heb.  iii,  6;  1  Pet. 
iv,  17.  Synonymous  is  Eph.  ii,  22,  hab¬ 
itation  of  God ,  and  1  Cor.  iii,  1G,  and 
2  Cor.  vi,  16,  temple  of  God.  Church  of 
the  living  God  —  Emphatic  explana¬ 
tion  of  the  previous  phrase.  Living 
God  —  A  solemn  and  impressive  epi¬ 
thet;  used,  perhaps,  to  distinguish  Jeho¬ 
vah  from  the  lifeless  Diana  of  Ephesus. 
The  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth 
— That  St.  Paul  should,  after  having 
called  the  church  a  house,  then  make  it 
but  a  pillar,  has  been  decried  by  some 
critics  as  a  very  tasteless  anti-climax. 
And  to  avoid  this  objection  some  very 
forced  interpretations  have  been  in¬ 
vented;  as  for  instance,  the  making 
pillar  apposition  with  thou,  and  iden¬ 
tical  with  Timothy.  But  this  criticism 
fails  to  appreciate  St.  Paul’s  purpose 
in  this  rapid  change  of  figure.  The 
Church,  as  the  sphere  within  which 
Timothy  is  to  administer,  is  a  house ; 
but  as  a  bulwark  against  the  inva¬ 
sion  of  the  errorism  predicted  in  the 
next  verses,  it  is  a  pillar  and  basis. 
The  Church  is  hereby  the  pillar  and 


without  controversy  great  is  the 
mystery  of  godliness:  v  God  was 
6  manifest  in  the  flesh,  "justified 

w  Matt.  3.  16;  John  1.  32,  33;  15.  26;  16.  g,  S; 

Korn.  1.  4;  1  Pet.  3.  18;  1  John  5.  6. 

ground,  not  merely  of  truth,  nor  of 
the  truth,  as  the  gospel  generally, 
but  of  the  truth  beautifully  summa¬ 
rized  in  the  next  verse,  the  truth  of  the 
incarnation,  against  which  the  error- 
ists  of  iv.  1-3  are  assailants. 

16.  And  for  this  truth  a  powerful 
pillar  is  required,  for  without  con¬ 
troversy,  and  confessedly,  it  must  be 
conceded,  even  to  the  errorists,  that  its 
mystery  is  great.  But  that  it  is  in 
no  discouraged  or  apologizing  tone  that 
the  apostle  admits  this  mystery  is 
clear,  not  only  from  the  six  luminous 
points  through  which  he  next  traces 
the  history  of  the  incarnation,  but  from 
the  inverted  form  of  the  proposition, 
Great  is  the  mystery  of  godliness  ; 
a  proposition  far  sublimer  than  that 
which  he  once  heard  rung  through 
Ephesus,  “Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephe¬ 
sians.”  Mystery — The  same  as  mys¬ 
tery  of  the  faith  in  verse  9.  That 
mystery  in  a  divine  religion  arising 
from  its  transcendent  supernaturalism. 
Of  that  mystery  the  incarnation  in 
all  its  scenes  and  stages  is  the  centre 
and  sum.  As  a  mystery  of  truth  it 
claims  our  faith  and  pervades  our  piety 
— the  true  rendering  for  godliness. 
And  this  mystery  of  godliness  is 
the  truth,  of  which  the  Church  of 
Timothy,  being  truly  its  depositary  and 
advocate,  is  the  pillar  and  basis:  its 
pillar,  as  a  firm  defender ;  its  basis,  as 
a  true  support.  God  —  Of  this  word, 
celebrated  among  scholars,  there  are  in 
the  Greek  manuscripts  three  various 
readings :  God,  which ,  and  who.  The 
reading  God  would  render  the  passage 
a  strong  proof-text  of  the  supreme  di¬ 
vinity  of  Christ.  The  reading  luliich 
would  make  it  refer  to  mystery  as 
embracing  Christ.  But  the  reading  who , 
has  now  the,  perhaps,  unanimous  con¬ 
currence  of  scholars.  It,  then,  is  a 
relative  pronoun  wholly  without  any 
grammatical  antecedent.  To  this  con¬ 
clusion  commentators  like  Huther,  Al- 
|  ford,  Eliicott,  Wordsworth,  and  Fair- 


A.  D.  66. 


CHAPTER  III. 


427 


in  the  Spirit,  x  seen  of  angels, 
'preached  unto  the  Gentiles,  z be¬ 
er  Luke  2.  13;  24.  4;  John  20.  12;  Eph.  3.  10; 
i  Pet.  i.  12. - yActs  10.  34;  13.  48;  Gal.  2.  8; 

bairn,  as  well  as  critics  like  Laclimann, 
Tischendorf,  and  Tregelles,  are  forced. 

Connected  with  this  reading  is  a  very 
interesting  history  of  the  text  of  the 
Alexandrine  MS.  in  the  British  Muse¬ 
um.  (See  our  vol.  iii,  p.  7.)  In  the 
Greek  the  difference  between  the  read¬ 
ings  would  be  very  slight  to  the  eye. 
God  and  who  would  be  respectively 

0C  and  OC  ;  the  former  being  distin¬ 
guished  by  two  horizontal  marks ;  the 
one  within  the  letter,  and  part  of  it; 
the  other,  a  sign  of  contraction  above 
the  letter.  In  the  Alexandrine  Codex 
some  person  (probably  Patrick  Young, 
librarian  to  King  Charles  I.)  had  made 
both  the  horizontal  marks  with  a  fresh 
pen;  for  which  the  reason  was  as¬ 
signed  that  they  were  both  very  dim. 
By  this  the  value  of  the  Codex  seemed 
destroyed  as  evidence  for  ail  future  ex¬ 
aminers.  Dr.  Clarke  inspected  the  text, 
and  adopted  the  conclusion  that  the 
new  marks  were  truly  a  renewing  of 
the  old,  and  that  the  true  reading  was 
God.  But  in  our  day  the  letters  have 
been  subjected  to  a  powerful  magnify¬ 
ing  lens,  by  Alford,  by  Wordswortli, 
and  by  Ellicott.  Their  decision  is,  that 
what  Young  may  have  mistaken  for  a 
horizontal  mark  was  the  glimmer 
through  the  leaf  of  part  of  a  letter  on 
the  opposite  page.  Huther  would  ac¬ 
count  for  the  relative  without  an  ante¬ 
cedent  by  supposing  that  the  six 
rhythmical  clauses  are  so  many  lines 
of  a  primitive  Christian  hymn.  But 
Alford  happily  suggests  the  parallelism 
of  Col.  i,  27,  “this  mystery.  among  the 
Gentiles;  which  is  Christie tc.  In  the 
present  passage  the  apostle  thinks  of 
the  mystery  as  being  impersonated  in 
Christ ,  and  so  adds  his  who.  The 
passage,  therefore,  can  no  longer  be 
quoted  in  proof  of  the  absolute  deity 
of  Christ ;  but,  rather,  as  may  appear, 
for  his  pre-existence. 

Manifest  in  the  flesh — So  he  was 
the  eternal  Word  made  flesh.  John 
i,  14.  And  the  same  John  pronounces 
him  to  be  antichrist  who  denies  that 


lievecl  on  in  the  world,  a  received 
up  into  glory. 

Eph.  3. 5, 6 ;  Rom.  10.  18 ;  Col.  1.  27,  28 ;  chap.  2.  7. 
- s  Col.  1.  6,  23. - a  Luke  24.  51 ;  Acts  1.  9. 

lie  has  come  in  the  flesh.  1  John  iv,  2. 
This  was  the  collision  of  the  apostles 
with  the  heretics  of  verse  4,  “  com¬ 
manding  to  abstain  from  meats,”  be¬ 
cause  they  held  matter  to  be  intrin¬ 
sically  evil,  and  so  denied  that  a  per¬ 
fect  Christ  could  come  in  real  flesh. 
Justified  in  the  Spirit  —  The  article 
to  be  omitted.  Spirit  —  Christ’s  high¬ 
est  nature  antithetical  to  flesh,  his  low¬ 
est.  Justified — As  the  perfect  second 
Adam,  as  the  first  was  condemned. 
Justified — As  perfectly  righteous  per¬ 
sonally;  and  as  absolutely  perfect  in 
the  discharge  of  his  Messianic  office. 
Negatively,  he  was  pure  from  sin ; 
positively,  he  fulfilled  all  righteous¬ 
ness.  He  was  on  earth  the  express  im¬ 
age  of  God ;  showing  how  God  would 
be  and  do  if  God  were  man.  Seen  of 
angels — The  whole  scene  of  his  incar¬ 
nate  history  was  transacted  beneath 
the  view  of  the  higher  intelligences. 
See  our  note  on  1  Cor.  xi,  1 0.  This  does 
not  necessarily  mean,  as  Chrj'sostom, 
that  he  had,  as  second  person  of  the 
Trinity,  been  unseen  by  angels.  It 
only  affirms  that  his  incarnate  history 
was  under  the  angelic  contemplation. 
Not  merely  by  glimpses,  as  we  see 
them  in  the  gospels  announcing  his 
birth,  strengthening  him  in  the  gar¬ 
den,  opening  his  tomb,  and  attesting 
his  resurrection ;  but,  as  we  do  not  see 
them  though  they  see  us,  by  permanent 
perception.  The  three  clauses  thus  far 
present  the  incarnate  as  an  observed 
manifestation  ;  the  next  three  contem 
plate  his  Messianic  success.  Preached 
unto  the  Gentiles — Bather,  unto  the 
nations ,  irrespective  of  race.  Such  was 
his  commission  to  his  apostles.  Matt, 
xxviii,  19.  And  so  Paul  is  a  teacher  of 
the  Gentiles.  Chap,  ii,  7.  Believed 
on  in  the  world — So  that  his  coming 
is  the  world’s  great  event.  It  is  made  a 
different  world  by  his  entering  it.  Re¬ 
ceived  up  into  glory  —  Rather,  in 
glory.  His  ascension  is  fully  expressed 
in  received  up ;  and  at  that  point  the 
in  glory  commences. 


428 


I.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  G6. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

NOW  the  Spirit  “speaketh  ex¬ 
pressly,  that  L  in  the  latter 
times  some  shall  depart  from  the 

<7  2  Tim.  3.  1 ;  2  Pet.  3.  3;  1  John  2.  18;  Jude 
4, 18. - b  1  Pet.  1.  20. - <i2  Tim.  3. 13 ;  2  Pet.  2. 1 ; 

It  is  the  incarnate  Christ  in  the  gran¬ 
deur  of  such  a  history  that  Timothy  is 
to  maintain  in  Ephesus.  It  is  a  sum¬ 
mary  of  the  evangelical  history,  proving 
Paul  to  be  in  truth  a  fifth  evangelist, 
fully  confirming  the  other  four.  But 
against  Timothy,  and  the  Church,  and 
this  Incarnate,  a  direful  apostasy  is 
soon  to  muster  its  ranks,  as  the  verses 
following  will  declare. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  verses  1-10  are  a  continuation  of 
paragraph  beginning  iii,  14,  and  should 
be  read  with  it  as  one  piece.  But  1-3 
is  a  counter  picture  to  iii,  15,  16,  es¬ 
pecially.  They  are  a  contrast  of  the 
Church  of  apostasy  versus  the  Church 
of  faith ;  the  truth  of  the  incarnation 
opposed  by  the  errors  of  Gnosticism. 

1.  Now  —  Greek,  but,  contrastive 
between  the  incarnation  and  matter- 
hating  Gnosticism.  The  Spirit — The 
divine  inspirer  of  all  prophecy.  The 
apostle  does  not  here  refer  to  any 
written  prophecy,  although  the  same 
essential  prophecy  we  now  have  at 
any  rate  in  the  epistles  of  John.  He 
had  himself  briefly  uttered  the  same 
prediction  to  the  elders  of  Ephesus  in 
Acts  xx,  29,  30.  He  had  written  to 
the  Thessalonians  (2  Tliess.  ii,  7,  where 
see  notes)  cognate  predictions.  The 
Spirit,  therefore,  is  here  the  permanent 
prophetic  witness  within  himself  speak¬ 
ing  forth  on  its  own  occasions.  Ex¬ 
pressly — Not  in  parable,  allegory,  or 
symbol ;  but  in  explicit,  unmistakable, 
literal  words.  Latter  times — The  va¬ 
rious  phrases  of  this  kind  are  of  course 
antithetical,  and  to  be  explained  by  the 
former  period  to  which  they  stand  in 
contrast.  In  these  last  days ,  Heb.  i,  1, 
stands  in  antithesis  to  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  days,  and  means  the  days  of  the 
Christian  dispensation.  The  last  days 
of  2  Pet.  iii,  3,  plainly  refers  to  the  last 
days  before  the  second  advent ;  of 
which  Martha,  in  John  xi,  24,  men- 


faith,  giving  heed  c  to  seducing 
spirits,  dand  doctrines  of  devils; 
2  e  Speaking  lies  in  hypocrisy ; 
f  having  their  conscience  seared 

Rev.  16. 14. - d  Dan.  11. 35 ;  Rev.9.20. - e  Matt. 

7.  15;  Rom.  16.  18;  2  Pet.  2.  3. - /Eph.4. 19. 

tions  the  very  last  day.  In  1  John 
ii,  18,  we  have  a  (not  in  Greek  the)  last 
time ,  which,  in  our  note  on  2  Thess. 
ii,  7,  we  imply  to  be  the  close  of  the 
apostolic  age.  It  is  the  same  period 
with  the  latter  times  of  this  verse, 
when,  the  apostles  having  deceased, 
and  the  apostolic  age  closed,  the 
Church  is  handed  over  to  their  succes¬ 
sors,  and  their  hands  having  ceased  to 
write,  the  completed  canon  becomes  her 
guide.  John’s  many  antichrists  are 
the  very  same  as  the  seducing  spirits 
of  Paul  here.  Ilegesippus,  the  earliest 
of  Church  historians,  near  the  end  of 
the  second  century,  says,  in  a  fragment 
quoted  by  Eusebius,  (Book  iii,  §  32:) 
“  The  Church  remained  until  then  a 
pure  and  incorrupt  virgin.  If  there 
were  any  that  desired  to  corrupt  the 
healthful  type  of  gospel  doctrine  they 
lurked  in  dark  retreats.  But  when  the 
sacred  choir  of  apostles  departed  from 
life,  and  the  generation  privileged  to 
listen  to  their  divine  teachings  passed 
away,  then  the  system  of  godless  error 
took  a  start,  through  deception  of  teach¬ 
ers  varying  from  the  apostolic  doctrine. 
No  one  of  the  apostles  surviving,  they 
attempted  with  bare  face  to  preach  a 
falsely-styled  gnosis  in  opposition  to 
the  preaching  of  the  truth.”  Some — 
The  followers,  of  whom  the  seducing 
spirits  are  the  leaders.  Depart  from 
the  faith  —  As  a  true  church  officer 
should  hold  the  faith.  Chap,  iii,  9  ; 
Tit.  i,  9.  Seducing  spirits  —  The  de¬ 
moniac  opposite  of  the  Spirit  just  men¬ 
tioned.  The  Holy  Spirit  gives  warn¬ 
ing  of  the  diabolic  spirits.  Doctrines 
of  devils  —  Doctrines  propagated  by 
demons ;  not  doctrines  about  demons. 

2.  Speaking  lies  —  In  the  Greek  a 
single  noun,  lie-utterers.  And  the  wholo 
should  read,  giving  heed  to  seducing 
spirits  and  teachings  of  demons ,  of  (or 
by)  those  in  hypocrisy ,  speaking  lies ,  (to 
others,)  being  seared  (or  rather,  branded) 
in  their  own  conscience.  The  some  are 


A.  D.  66. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


429 


with  a  hot  iron  ;  3  s  Forbidding 

to  marry,  hand  commanding  to  ab¬ 
stain  from  meats,  which  God  hath 

o  1  Cor.  7.  28,  36,  38;  Col.  2.  20,  21 ;  Heb.  13.  4. 
h  Rom.  14.  3,  17 ;  1  Cor.  8.  8. 

the  followers,  as  the  lie-utterers  are  the 
leaders  of  the  apostasy,  who  are  in¬ 
spired  by  the  seducing  spirits,  and 
their  teachings  are  demoniac  doctrines. 
The  best  commentators  understand,  not 
seared,  by  which  the  conscience  is 
deadened,  but  branded ,  so  marked  and 
spotted  with  criminalities  that  they'  are 
conscious  of  their  own  guilt.  It  will 
be  seen  that  the  apostle’s  charges  of 
deep  guilt  fall  much  more  heavily  upon 
the  leaders  than  upon  the  followers. 

3.  Some  of  their  particular  tenets 
are  now  specified.  They  present  the 
ascetic  side  of  Gnosticism  as  distin¬ 
guished  in  our  note  on  2  Thess.  ii,  7. 
Jude  and  John  deal  with  the  licentious 
side.  Hence  Paul  imputes  to  the  lead¬ 
ers  not  so  much  sins  of  the  flesh,  as 
sins  of  the  spirit. 

Their  sin  consisted  in  an  apostasy 
from  the  Christian  faith,  and  the  forma¬ 
tion  of  a  spiritual  influence,  power,  and 
ultimate  despotism,  based  upon  the  dif¬ 
fusion  of  an  austere  and  oppressive 
superstition  among  the  people.  For¬ 
bidding  to  marry  —  From  an  ascetic 
view  of  the  sinfulness  of  matter  an  ex¬ 
aggerated  estimate  of  a  virgin  life  was 
propagated.  This  same  view  among 
the  Christian  Gnostic  heretics  reject¬ 
ed  the  real  manifestation  of  Christ  in 
the  flesh,  maintaining  that  his  was  a 
body  in  appearance  only,  and  con¬ 
demned  by  1  John  iv,  3,  as  antichrist. 
A  matter-condemning  celibacy  was  an¬ 
tichrist,  because  it  condemned  the  in¬ 
carnation.  This  doctrine  of  the  angelic 
nature  of  a  celibate  life  deeply  infect¬ 
ed  the  Church.  It  tinges  the  writings 
of  the  earliest  post-apostolic  fathers,  the 
coloring  growing  intenser  until  mon¬ 
asteries  and  nunneries  covered  the  face 
of  Christendom.  These  became  the  or¬ 
ganized  support  of  the  absolute  despot¬ 
ism  of  the  Roman  conclave.  The  last 
display  of  this  superstitious  reverence 
for  virgin  life  was  the  enforcement  as 
an  article  of  faith  in  our  own  day  of  the 
dogma  of  the  immaculate  conception  of 


created  1  to  be  received  k  with 
thanksgiving  of  them  which  be¬ 
lieve  and  know  the  truth.  4  For 

i  Gen.  1.  29;  9.  3. - k  Rom.  14.  6;  1  Cor. 

_ 10.  30. 

the  blessed  virgin,  followed  by  the  proc¬ 
lamation  of  the  infallibility  of  the  pope. 
Paul  might  well  say,  even  in  his  own 
day,  “The  mystery  of  iniquity  doth  al¬ 
ready  work,”  (2  Thess.  ii,  7  ;)  and  John 
as  significantly  assert  that  the  elemental 
“antichrists”  were  already  “many”  in 
existence.  lJohnii,  18.  Abstain  "from 
meats — Note  on  Rom.  xiv,  1-6.  Cre¬ 
ated  to  be  received  —  These  meats, 
matter  though  they  be,  are  not  con¬ 
crete  and  solid  lumps  of  sin.  They 
were  not  brought  into  existence  by  the 
principle  of  evil;  nor  are  they  the 
eternal  evil  principle  itself,  opposed 
to  the  true  God.  They  are  created 
by  the  true  God,  to  be  both  the  prop¬ 
er  gratification  of  our  created  appetite 
and  the  proper  support  of  our  bodily 
life.  Received  —  Of  them  which 
believe  —  This  does  not  mean,  as  Al¬ 
ford,  quoting  Calvin,  maintains,  that  the 
world  and  its  gratifications  are  creat¬ 
ed  for  believers  alone;  but  that  they 
are  rightfully  used  by  true  believers 
when  thankfully  used.  Christian  faith 
enjoins  the  enjoyment  sweetened  by 
the  gratitude.  Know  the  truth  — 
The  truth  of  iii,  16,  that  matter  and 
flesh  are  honoured  by  the  incarnation. 

4.  For — Assigning  the  ground  rea¬ 
son  for  so  receiving ;  namely,  the  cheer¬ 
ful  Christian  maxim,  that  under  the 
divine  benevolence  we  are  hern  to  enjoy. 
The  creation  is  a  storehouse  of  sup¬ 
plies,  and  man’s  appetites  are  the  av¬ 
enues  through  which  they  are  to  be 
received.  Atheism  scowls  at  the 
whole  system  of  things,  sinks  into 
pessimism,  and  says,  with  Voltaire,  “I 
wish  I  had  never  been  born.”  Buddh¬ 
ism,  the  religion  of  despair,  that  knows 
no  God  but  law,  looks  and  pants  for 
release  from  existence  in  annihilation. 
Christianity  rejoices  in  the  perpetual 
presence  of  the  All-Father,  as  being, 
indeed,  often  tried  and  chastened,  yet 
chastened  by  parental  love,  the  same 
love  which  gives  us  all  things  richly  to 
enjoy,  and  promises  eternal  enjoyment 


430 


I.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  66 


1  every  creature  of  God  is  good,  the  brethren  in  remembrance  of 
and  nothing  to  be  refused,  if  it  these  things,  thou  shalt  be  a  good 
be  received  with  thanksgiving  :  minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  fn  nour- 
5  For  it  is  sanctified  by  the  word  ished  up  in  the  words  of  faith  and 
of  God  and  prayer.  6  If  thou  put  of  good  doctrine,  whereunto  thou 


JRom.  14.  14;  1  Cor.  10.  25;  Titus  1.  15. 

to  our  faith.  Every  creature — Every 
created  thing.  Is  good — Is  not  the  mere 
effect  of  physical  laws,  but  the  product 
of  a  good  Creator,  who  pronounced 
it  good  at  the  creation,  and  is  good 
for  its  purpose,  if  we  can  find  what  its 
true  purpose  is.  Nothing  to  be  re¬ 
fused — From  a  wise  and  temperate  use. 
Yet  our  apostle,  in  perfect  consistency, 
was  ready  for  a  total  abstinence  from 
meats  through  his  whole  life  if  it  were 
necessary  to  save  his  brother. 

Asceticism  or  abstinence  is  to  be  con¬ 
demned:  1.  When  it  is  based  on  such 
idea  of  the  sinfulness  of  matter  as  con¬ 
demns  the  incarnation.  2.  When  it  is 
used  by  us  as  a  penance,  or  atonement, 
for  our  own  sin,  as  if  we  might  there¬ 
by  be  justified  or  pardoned.  3.  When 
it  is  assumed  to  be  a  meritorious  act, 
winning  for  us  the  divine  approbation, 
as  if  God  were  gratified  by  our  suf¬ 
fering.  4.  When  it  tends  to  diffuse  a 
gloomy  and  superstitious  view  of  God 
and  religion  among  men,  instead  of  a 
benevolent,  cheerful,  practical,  good¬ 
doing  piety.  Abstinence  is  commend¬ 
able,  on  the  other  hand :  1.  When  it 
conduces  to  our  health,  serenity,  or 
cheerfulness.  2.  When  it  aids  us  in 
obtaining  a  mastery  of  our  appetites 
and  passions.  3.  When  by  our  ex¬ 
ample  we  induce  others  to  abstain  from 
those  indulgences  and  intemperances 
by  which  their  bodies,  souls,  estates, 
and  families  are  brought  to  ruin. 

Dr.  Wordsworth,  and  Mr.  Washburn, 
in  Lange’s  “  Bibel-Werk,”  infer  from 
St.  Paul’s  words  a  condemnation  of  a 
pledge  of  total  abstinence  from  intoxi¬ 
cants.  But  surely  both  Timothy’s  prac¬ 
tice  and  Paul’s  direction  presuppose 
the  duty  of  total  abstinence  in  all  cases 
where  drinking  is  not  required  by  med¬ 
ical  necessity.  It  required  an  inspired 
adviser  to  induce  Timothy  to  drink 
wine;  and  by  parity,  it  ought  to  re¬ 
quire  a  temperate  medical  adviser  to 


m2  Tim.  3.  14, 15. 

induce  any  other  man  to  drink;  and 
no  medical  adviser  ought  to  prescribe 
it  where  any  other  medicine  will  suf¬ 
fice  as  well.  With  thanksgiving  — 
Which  in  the  right  temper  will  regu¬ 
late  our  enjoyments  to  the  due  object 
and  in  their  due  degree. 

5.  Sanctified — Though  it  be  a  piece 
of  flesh,  it  is  not  a  lump  of  sin;  it  is 
consecrated  to  be  aliment  for  the  holy 
life  of  a  holy  man.  And  no  man  is 
the  holier  for  looking  pure  and  solemn 
and  refusing  it  as  a  defilement.  By 
the  word  of  God — As  some  explain, 
by  the  declaration  of  God,  as  in  Gen. 
i,  29:  “God  said,  Behold,  I  have  given 
you  every  herb .  . .  and  every  tree ...  to 
you  it  shall  be  for  meat.”  Huther,  Al¬ 
ford,  and  Ellicott  refer  the  sanctification 
to  the  offering  of  prayer  composed  in 
spirit  or  in  words  of  the  word  of  God. 
Huther  gives,  from  the  Apostolic  Con¬ 
stitutions,  the  beautiful  Greek  of  the 
following  primitive  prayer  at  table: 
“Blessed  art  thou,  0  Lord,  who  nour- 
ishest  me  from  my  youth  up,  who  giv- 
est  food  to  all  flesh.  Fill  our  hearts 
with  joy  and  gladness,  in  order  that 
we,  having  all  contentment,  may 
abound  unto  every  good  work,  in  Christ 
Jesus  our  Lord ;  through  whom  to 
thee  be  glory,  honour,  and  power,  for 
ever  and  ever.  Amen/'  This  formula 
is  a  holy  blend  of  “the  word  of  God 
and  prayer,”  whereby,  offered  in  spirit 
and  truth,  the  meat  is  sanctified. 

6-10.  A  personal  impressing  of  the 
charge  upon  Timothy. 

6.  These  things — Specially  of  the 
paragraph  beginning  with  iii,  14,  which 
forms  a  unity  herewith.  Nourished 
— In  middle  voice,  nourishing  thyself. 
Words  of  faith  —  Such  as  compose 
this  paragraph;  rehearsing  the  posi¬ 
tive  doctrine  of  Christ,  iii,  14-16,  and 
repelling  the  formulas  of  heresy,  1-5. 
Attained— Which  thou  hast  thorough¬ 
ly  followed  up. 


A.  D.  66. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


431 


hast  attained.  7  But  "refuse  pro* 
fane  and  old  wives’  fables,  and 
"exercise  thyself  rather  unto  god¬ 
liness.  8  For  p  bodily  exercise 
profiteth  Tittle:  <*but  godliness  is 
profitable  unto  all  things,  r having 
promise  of  the  life  that  now  is,  and 
of  that  which  is  to  come.  9  s  This 
is  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of 
all  acceptation.  10  For  therefore 
1  we  both  labour  and  suffer  re- 

V  Chap.  1.  4 ;  6.  20 ;  2  Tim.  2. 16,  23 ;  4.  4 ;  Titus 

1-  H. - o  Iieb.  5.  14. - jj  1  Cor.  8.  8;  Col.  2.  23. 

- lOr ,  for  a  little  time . tfChap.  6.  6. 

v  Psa.  37.  4;  84.  11;  112.  2,  3;  145.  19;  Matt.  6.  33; 


proach,  because  we  "trust  in  the 
living  God,  v  who  is  .the  Saviour 
of  all  men,  specially  of  those  that 
believe.  11  w  These  things  com¬ 
mand  and  teach.  12  xLet  no  man 
despise  thy  youth;  but  >’be  thou  an 
example  of  the  believers,  in  word, 
in  conversation,  in  charity,  in  spir¬ 
it,  in  faith,  in  purity.  13  Till  I 
come,  give  attendance  to  read¬ 
ing,  to  exhortation,  to  doctrine. 

19.  29;  Mark  10.  30;  Rom.  8.  28. - sChap.  1.  15. 

- tl  Cor.  4.  11,  12. - u  Chap.  6.  17. - v  Psa. 

86.  6;  107.  2,  6,  &c. - wChap.  6.  2. - x\  Cor. 

16.  11 ;  Titus  2.  15. - y  Titus  2.  7 ;  1  Pet.  5.  3. 


7.  Paul  now  gathers  into  this  per¬ 
sonal  charge  the  errors  also  repudiated 
in  i,  3,  4.  Old  wives’  fables  —  On 
which  we  again  quote  Dr.  Clarke. 
Exercise — That  is,  gymnastize  thyself, \ 
as  a  practicing  athlete.  Train  thyself 
by  holy  exercises  to  holiness.  Instead 
of  poring  over  the  chaotic  pages  of 
Jewish  Rabbinism  and  Gnosticism,  cul¬ 
tivate  thy  powers  in  Christian  piety 
and  holy  activity. 

8.  Bodily  exercise  —  Paul  is  led 

by  his  word  gymnastize  to  a  brief  paral¬ 
lelism  between  gymnasticism,  corporeal 
and  spiritual.  The  former  profiteth 
little  ;  that  is,  so  far  as  human  sal¬ 
vation  is  concerned.  It  may  invigorate 
the  body,  improve  the  health,  and  pro¬ 
long  the  life ;  but  not  save  the  soul. 
We  could  almost  imagine,  however, 
that  these  ascetics,  like  our  modern 
Shakers,  as  well  as  the  Turkish  der¬ 
vishes,  practised  dancing,  or  some  other 
activity,  as  a  religious  exercise.  All 
things — For  body  and  soul,  and  in  re¬ 
gard  to  time  and  eternity. 

9.  This — The  value  of  godliness  for 
either  life.  Note  on  i,  15. 

10.  And  our  acceptance  of  this  value 
is  clear  for,  therefore ;  that  is,  for  the 
reason  now  to  be  given.  Labour  and 
suffer  reproach  —  Things  far  more 
serious  than  exercise.  Namely,  be¬ 
cause.  The  Saviour — Alford  says: 

“  So  far  as  salvation  stands  in  him,  he 
is  the  Saviour  of  all  men.  And  it  is 
by  virtue  of  this  universality  of  salva¬ 
tion  offered  by  God  that  we  have  rest¬ 
ed  our  hopes  on  him.”  Specially 
of  those  that  believe — Alford  adds : 


it 


In  these  (that  believe)  alone  does 
that  salvation  which  God  has  provided 
become  actual.  He  is  the  same  Sav¬ 
iour  toward  and  of  all :  but  these  alone 
appropriate  his  salvation. 

b.  Timothy  directed  to  complete  his 
self- qualification  for  this  charge ,  11-16. 

11.  These  things — Embracing  the 
whole  epistle  thus  far,  as  the  nature  of 
the  directions  shows.  Command  — 
Applying  to  the  Church  organization 
in  ii,  and  iii,  1-13.  Teach — Applying 
to  the  doctrines  of  all  the  preceding 
paragraphs. 

12.  Despise  thy  youth — To  be 

avoided  by  a  perfectly  circumspect  con¬ 
duct.  Though  Timothy  was  probably 
thirty-five  years  old,  he  was  younger 
than  many,  perhaps,  under  his  admin¬ 
istration.  At  any  rate  he  was  young 
to  Paul;  just  as  pupils  and  sons  often 
never  grow  old  to  teacher  or  father. 
“  In  those  times,”  says  Grotius,  “pres¬ 
byters  were  accustomed  to  be  what 
their  name  signifies,  persons  of  advanced 
age." 

13.  Till  I  come — The  Greek  pres¬ 
ent  indicative  implies  here  a  confident 
expectation.  But  when  Paul  came, 
what  then  ?  To  reading . .  .  exhorta¬ 
tion  . . .  doctrine  —  That  is,  teaching. 

1  O 

All  three  appear  to  be  named  as  public 
exercises.  The  reading  does  not  refer 
to  private  study ;  but  the  public  read¬ 
ing  in  the  Churches  of  the  Old  Scrip¬ 
ture,  or  perhaps  the  gospels  so  far  as 
published,  or  apostolic  epistles.  It  was 
thus  that  the  books  of  the  New  Test¬ 
ament  became  Scripture  in  the  early 
Church. 


432 


I.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  06 


14  z  Neglect  not  the  gift  that  is 
in  thee,  which  was  given  thee 
“by  prophecy,  bwith  the  laying  on 
of  the  hands  of  the  presbytery. 

15  Meditate  upon  these  things  ; 
give  thyself  wholly  to  them;  that 
thy  profiting  may  appear  2  to  all. 
1  ii  '  Take  heed  unto  thyself,  and  un¬ 
to  the  doctrine ;  continue  in  them : 
for  in  doing  this  thou  shalt  both 

z  2  Tim.  1.  6. - rtChap.  1.  18. - b  Acts  6.  6; 

8.17;  13.  3;  19.6;  chap.  5.  22 ;  2  Tim.  1.6. - 2  Or, 

in  till  things. - c  Acts  20.  28. - rfEzek.  33.  9. 

14.  Neglect  not — By  disuse.  The 
gift — Namely,  for  the  three  exercises 
just  mentioned,  which  gift  was,  as  ba¬ 
sis,  natural,  but  divinely  quickened  and 
inspired.  Given  thee  by  prophecy 
—  In  accordance  with  inspired  predic¬ 
tions  uttered  concerning  him  person¬ 
ally.  With  —  In  concurrence  with. 
From  2  Tim.  i,  6,  it  would  seem  that 
the  elders  or  presbytery  laid  hands 
on  Timothy  concurrently  with  Paul. 

15.  Wholly  to  them  —  All  other 
business  was  to  be  laid  aside,  and  the 
whole  man  to  be  surrendered  to,  and 
kept  within,  the  sacred  work,  of  public 
reading,  exhorting,  teaching,  and  gov¬ 
erning  the  Church.  Many  men  have,  as 
in  the  “local  ministry”  of  Methodism, 
maintained  a  secular  business  and  yet 
preached,  with  great  success  and  with¬ 
out  remuneration,  the  holy  gospel.  Yet 
others  there  are,  the  great  body,  indeed, 
of  the  ministry,  who  are  called  to  give 
themselves  wholly  to  the  work.  The 
“  priesthood  of  the  people  ”  does  not 
so  far  extend  but  that  there  is  a  di¬ 
vinely  established  line  drawn  in  the 
New  Testament  between  ministry  and 
laity.  Thy  profiting — Thy  improved 
ability  from  practice. 

1 6.  Warning :  Take  heed  unto  thy¬ 
self —  Paralleled  by  save  thyself;  as 
to  the  doctrine  is  paralleled  by  them 
that  hear.  There  is  danger  for  thy¬ 
self  ;  for  it  is  not  the  mere  office  of  the 
ministry  that  will  save  thyself.  Great 
heed  even  for  thee  is  necessary  to  in¬ 
sure  the  final  reward.  Doctrine  is 
teaching,  preaching,  publicly  putting 
forth  of  thought.  Only  by  heed,  care, 
earnest  purpose,  can  hearers  be  saved 
by  it. 


dsave  thyself,  and  ethem  that  hear 
thee. 

CHAPTER  Y. 

I)EBUKE  “  not  an  elder,  but 
V  entreat  him  as  a  father ; 
and  the  younger  men  as  brethren ; 
2  The  elder  women  as  mothers; 
the  younger  as  sisters,  b  with  all 
purity,  3  Honour  widows  c  that 
are  widows  indeed.  4  But  if  any 

e  Rom.  11.  14;  1  Cor.  9.  22;  Jamea  5.  20. - 

a  Lev.  19.  32 ;  L>eut.  33.  9 ;  Gal.  2. 11, 14. - b  PhiL 

4.  8;  1  Thess.  5.  22;  2  Tim.  2.  22. - c  Ver.  5.  16. 

PART  THIRD. 

APOSTOLIC  PRECEPTS,  V,1-V1, 21 
CHAPTER  Y. 

1.  Supervisory  duties  to  differ¬ 
ent  classes,  1-vi,  10. 

a.  To  different  ayes,  1,  2,  and  to  bene¬ 
ficiary  widovjs;  the  elderly ,  3-10,  the 
youngerly,  11-16. 

1.  Rebuke — Literally,  smite;  by 
inferential  meaning  smite  with  rebuke. 
Elder  —  Whether  in  office  or  age. 
The  antithesis  with  younger  shows, 
that  after  writing  the  word  Paul  ex¬ 
tends  it  specifically  to  age.  Though 
his  youth  was  not  to  be  allowed  to  be 
despised ,  yet  must  he  treat  the  aged 
with  the  deference  due  from  youth. 
Younger ..  .brethren  —  The  air  and 
spirit  of  loving  brotherhood  should  en¬ 
dear  him  to  his  coequals. 

2.  Mothers — So  that  all  these  suc¬ 
cessive  terms  of  relation  render  the 
Church  a  holy  family.  All  purity — 
A  caution  of  momentous  importance 
to  all  young  ministers.  Toward  these 
sisters  of  his  own  age  an  avoidance  of 
coquetries,  familiar  freedoms,  is  due  to 
his  own  positioji  as  a  minister.  Sad 
experiences  have  shown  the  folly  and 
guilt  of  neglecting  here  a  safe  reserve. 

The  widows  first  awakened  the  Je¬ 
rusalem  Church  to  the  need  of  sub- 
apostolic  organization,  (Acts  \i,  1-6,) 
and  called  the  deacons  into  existence. 
In  an  age  when  men  are  called  to  war 
and  subjected  to  massacre,  the  widows 
would  form  a  large  and  dependent 
class,  and  the  number  of  claimants 
would  require  their  subjection  to  scru¬ 
tiny  and  sifting. 

3.  Honour — Rightly  appreciate  af* 


A.  I).  66. 


CH  APTER  V. 


433 


widow  have  children  or  nephews, 
let  them  learn  first  to  show *  1  piety 
at  home,  and  d  to  requite  their 
parents:  efor  that  is  good  and  ac¬ 
ceptable  before  God.  5  fNow  she 
that  is  a  widow  indeed,  and  deso¬ 
late,  trusteth  in  God,  and  £  contin- 
ueth  in  supplications  and  prayers 
h night  and  day.  6  ‘But  she  that 

1  Or,  kindness. - <2  Gen.  45.  10,  11;  Matt. 

15.  4 ;  Eph.  6. 1, 2. - e  Chap.  2.  3. - -f\  Cor.  7.  32. 

■ Q  Luke 2.  37 ;  18. 1. h  Acts  26.  7. i  James 

5.  5. 


liveth  2  in  pleasure  is  dead  while 
1  she  liveth.  7  kAnd  these  things 
give  in  charge,  that  they  may  be 
blameless.  8  But  if  any  provide 
not  for  his  own,  1  and  specially  for 
those  of  his  own  3  house, rn  he  hath 
denied  the  faith,  "and  is  worse  than 
an  infidel.  9  Let  not  a  widow 
be  4  taken  into  the  number  under 

2  Or,  delicately . - &Chap.  1.  3;  4.  11;  6.  17. 

I  Isa.  58.  7 ;  Gal.  6.  10. - 3  Or,  kindred . 

-m  2  Tim.  3.  5;  Titus  1.  16. - n  Matt.  18.  17. 


-4  Or,  chosen. 


ter  due  scrutiny.  Widows  indeed — 
Beal  and  not  spurious  widows.  To  a 
real  widow  three  things  were  requisite: 
first ,  actual  death  of  husband ;  second , 
actual  destitution,  with  no  relatives  to 
support  her;  and,  third,  worthiness  as 
member  of  the  Church. 

4.  Children  or  nephews  —  Who 
are  able,  should  show  piety  enough 
at  home  to  keep  them  from  burden¬ 
ing  the  Church.  Nephews — Bather, 
grandchildren.  The  apostle’s  let  them 
learn,  implies  that  these  relatives  are 
members  of  the  Church,  and  may  be  by 
the  Church  required  to  do  their  duty 
under  pain  of  the  penalty  implied  in 
verse  8.  Requite  —  Recompense  re¬ 
turns;  so  expressed  to  show  that  the 
care  for  feeble  parentage  is  not  a  mere 
benevolence,  but  a  repayment,  and  so 
a  binding  duty.  Their  parents — Or, 
progenitors ;  including  grandparents, 
or  any  higher  living  progenitors  in  di¬ 
rect  line.  In  countries  where  women 
marry  in  extreme  youth,  great-grand¬ 
children  at  sixty  are  no  rare  occurrence. 

5.  Now  —  St.  Paul  now  gives  tests 
for  the  scrutiny  of  a  widow  indeed. 
She  is,  first,  desolate;  that  is,  left 
alone  by  the  death  of  her  husband 
and  the  non-existence  of  any  progeny 
to  support  her.  She  is,  second,  truly 
pious ;  for  she  trusteth,  and  contin- 
ueth  in  fervent,  devout  duties.  By 
night,  instead  of  revelry,  like  the  wan¬ 
ton  widow ;  by  day,  instead  of  wan¬ 
dering,  verse  13,  in  gossip. 

6.  The  spurious  widow,  that  liveth 
in  pleasure — not  necessarily  unchaste, 
but  gay  and  prodigal — is  dead  to  all 
Christian  life,  while  she  liveth  a  free 
iecular  life. 

Vol.  IV. — 28 


I.  These  things  —  This  important 
discrimination  between  the  genuine  and 
the  spurious  widows.  Charge — For 
it  concerns  not  only  the  good  economy 
of  the  Church,  but  it  concerns  the  spir¬ 
itual  well-being  of  the  women  them¬ 
selves.  That  they  may  be  blame¬ 
less — That  the  women  of  the  Church 
may  not  be  dead,  but  living  blame¬ 
less  examples  of  Christianity. 

8.  But — Turning  from  the  widows 
toward  those  relatives  who  mav  be  in 
duty  bound  to  support  them.  If  any 
— Professing  Christian  person.  Pro¬ 
vide  not  for  his  own — Comprehend¬ 
ing  all  whom,  according  to  the  dictates 
of  natural  affection,  he  ought  to  aid. 
Own  house — In  the  direct  line  of  an¬ 
cestry  and  descendants.  Denied  the 
faith  —  For  the  faith  confesses  that 
the  duties  of  natural  love  shall  be  richly 
felt  and  truly  performed.  His  conduct 
truly  proclaims  to  the  heathen  world 
that  Christianity  does  not  require  faith¬ 
fulness  to  the  most  sacred  ties.  Worse 
than  an  infidel — An  unbeliever.  For 
the  very  heathen  often  obe}^  the  law 
written  on  the  heart,  and  are  kindly 
alfectioned  toward  their  own ;  but 
these  break  not  only  this  divine-natural 
law,  but  the  fifth  law  of  the  decalogue, 
and  the  law  in  the  gospel. 

9-15.  What  cases  shall  upon  scrutiny 
be  enrolled  as  widows  indeed,  9,  10, 
and  what  cases  not,  11-16. 

9.  First,  the  required  age.  Taken 
into  the  number  —  Of  Church  wid¬ 
ows,  to  be  supported  by  contributions. 
The  Greek  may  signify,  enrolled  in  a 
catalogue,  and  clearly  implies  a  defi¬ 
nite  number;  namely,  genuine  wid¬ 
ows,  Church-supported.  There  is  here 


434 


I.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  66* 


threescore  years  old, 0 having  been 
the  wife  of  one  man,  lO  Well 
reported  of  for  good  works  ;  if 
she  have  brought  up  children,  if 
she  have  p  lodged  strangers,  if  she 
have  q  washed  the  saints’  feet,  if 

oLuke  2.  30;  chap.  3.  2. - 39  Acts  16.  15;  Ileb. 

13.  2 ;  1  Pet.  4.  9. 

no  intimation  of  their  being  deaconess¬ 
es.  or  eldresses  ;  or  as  being  ordained, 
or  having  any  duties  to  perform.  They 
appear  as  simply  beneficiaries  of  the 
Church  bounty.  Threescore  years 
old — Earlier  than  that  age,  there  is  a 
physical  capability  of  self-support,  and 
if  a  widow  younger  than  that  is  in 
distress,  she  would  be  temporarily  aid¬ 
ed,  not  as  an  enrolled  and  permanent 
widow,  but  like  any  other  immediately 
needy  person.  Wife  of  one  man  — 
The  verses  9,  1 0.  prescribe  what  a  true 
widow’s  previous  history  is  required  to 
be.  First,  her  marriage  relations  must 
be  without  complication ;  at  any  rate 
since  her  conversion.  For  the  prac¬ 
tice  of  polyandry,  as  Fairbairn  shows, 
was  by  no  means  rare.  President  Wol- 
sey  says,  that  even  after  Christianity 
obtained  ascendency  in  the  Roman  em¬ 
pire,  “divorce  by  mutual  consent  kept 
its  ground  all  the  way  down  to  Justin¬ 
ian.”  When  Justinian  attempted  to 
limit  divorce  by  law  to  cases  of  un- 
chastitv,  such  marital  plots  and  poison¬ 
ings  took  place  that  he  was  obliged  to 
relax  the  law  in  the  interests  of  public 
morality.  How  in  such  states  of  soci¬ 
ety  a  woman  became  more  than  the 
wife  of  one  man,  is  illustrated  by  the 
following  words  of  Conybeare :  “In  the 
corrupt  facility  of  divorce  allowed  by 
both  Greek  and  Roman  law,  it  was  very 
common  for  man  and  wife  to  separate, 
and  marry  other  parties  during  the  life 
of  each  other.  Thus,  a  man  might 
have  three  or  four  living  wives,  or 
women  who  had  successively  been  his 
wives.  An  example  of  this  may  be 
found  in  the  English  colony  of  Mau¬ 
ritius,  where  the  French  revolutionary 
law  of  divorce  had  been  left  unrepealed 
by  the  English  Government;  and  it  is 
not  uncommon  to  meet  in  society  three 
or  four  women  who  have  all  been 
wives  of  one  man,- and  three  or  four 


she  have  relieved  the  afflicted,  if 
she  have  diligently  followed  every 
good  work.  1 1  But  the  younger 
widows  refuse  :  for  when  they 
have  begun  to  wax  wanton  against 
Christ,  they  will  marry:  12  Hav- 

<1  Genesis  18.  4;  19.  2:  Luke  7.  38,  44;  John 
_ 13.  5, 14. _ 

men  who  have  all  been  husbands  of 
one  woman.  This  successive  rather 
than  simultaneous  polygamy  is  per¬ 
haps  forbidden  here.”  See  note,  iii.  2. 

10.  Second  qualification,  good  Christ¬ 
ian  housewifery  while  her  husband 
lived.  Of  course,  the  general  picture 
implies  that  the  individual  reach  this 
standard  so  far  as  circumstances  ena¬ 
bled.  Good  works  —  The  general 
term  of  which  next  follow  the  specifi¬ 
cations.  Brought  up  children — Had 
been  a  good  and  dutiful  mother. 
Lodged  strangers — Hospitable,  espec¬ 
ially  to  Christian  visitors.  Washed .  . 
feet — The  ordinary  hospitable  act  for 
the  traveller  over  the  tropical  sands, 
and  so  put  as  symbol  for  hearty  ser¬ 
vice  rendered  by  the  housewife  to  the 
comer.  Every  good  work  —  Land¬ 
ing  where  the  catalogue  of  good  quali¬ 
ties  started. 

11.  Cases  to  be  rejected  as  not  wid¬ 
ows  indeed,  and  so  not  to  be  perma¬ 
nently  enrolled.  Younger  widows 
—  As  able,  usually,  to  support  them¬ 
selves  ;  or  likely  to  get  a  husband  to 
support  them.  Refuse — Reject  from 
the  college  of  superannuated  widows 
entitled  to  support.  For — It  is  of  the 
first  importance  that  the  enrolled  wid¬ 
owhood  should  possess  the  perfect  ven¬ 
eration  of  the  Church,  since  nothing 
would  more  surely  arrest  the  contri¬ 
butions  and  break  up  the  institution 
than  a  suspicion  in  the  Church  that  its 
money  went  to  a  lot  of  wanton  flirts. 
When  they... wax  wanton — The 
verb  wax  wanton  refers  to  the  sexual 
impulse  arising  from  vigorous  middle 
life.  Under  its  influences  not  apos¬ 
tasy,  but  a  wandering  from  Christ, 
and  (verse  1  31  idleness  and  dissipation, 
result.  They  will  marry — Rather, 
they  will,  or  determine ,  to  marry.  The 
apostle  does  not  say  or  mean  that  the 
marrying  itself  is  against  Christ.  On 


A.  D.  66. 


CHAPTER  V. 


435 


ing  damnation,  because  they  have 
cast  off  their  first  faith. 

13  rAnd  withal  they  learn  to  be 
idle,  wandering  about  from  house 
to  house;  and  not  only  idle,  but 
tattlers  also  and  busybodies,  speak¬ 
ing  things  which  they  ought  not. 
14  5  I  will  therefore  that  the 
younger  women  marry,  bear  chil¬ 
dren,  guide  the  house,  1  give  none 
occasion  to  the  adversary  5 to  speak 


r  2  Thess.  3.  11. - *1  Cor.  7.  9. - £Chap.  f>.  1 : 

Titus  2.  8. 5  Gr.  for  their  railing. - ^Phil 

3,  18.  19;  2  Tim.  1.  15;  2  Pet.  2.  2,  20. 

the  contrary,  (verse  14,)  he  decides  that 
it  is  the  best  thing  they  can  do.  But, 
first,  the  marriage,  in  such  a  case,  re¬ 
sults  from  an  undevout  mental  state, 
scandalizing  and  endangering  to  the 
venerable  college  ;  and  it  results  in  an 
inroad  by  marriage  upon  the  enrol¬ 
ment.  indicating  that  it  need  not  and 
should  not  have  been  made.  It  is,  in 
general,  better  that  the  younger  wid¬ 
ows  be  turned  over  to  matrimony, 
(verse  14,)  possible  or  probable,  than  be 
enrolled. 

12.  Having  damnation  —  Rather, 
the  judgment  of  their  own  conscience 
that  (not  because)  they  have,  etc. 
Not  because  they  marry,  but  because 
of  the  apostate  state  of  mind  and  be¬ 
haviour  which  resulted  in  the  marriage, 
and  of  which  the  marriage  was,  per¬ 
haps,  the  best  remedy.  First  faith— 
Like  the  first  love  of  Ephesus.  Rev. 
ii,  4.  The  word  faith  here  is  taken 
by  the  great  body  of  commentators  to 
signify  a  vow  taken  by  the  widow  on 
enrolment,  or  ordination  as  eldress  or 
deaconess,  including  obligation  of  celi¬ 
bacy.  But,  1.  The  word  never  signi¬ 
fies  vow,  so  far  as  our  investigation 
goes,  in  the  New  Testament.  2.  If 
these  were  an  order  of  eldresses  or 
deaconesses  the  description  of  them 
should  have  taken  place  in  the  third 
chapter.  3.  It  seems  a  most  reason¬ 
able  conclusion  that  this  widow  list  was 
simply  a  continuation,  or  rather  recur¬ 
rence,  of  the  beneficiary  widowhood  of 
Acts  vi,  1-6,  which  existed  before  any 
official  class  existed  except  the  apos¬ 
tles,  and  was,  therefore,  itself  no  offi¬ 
cial  class. 


reproachfully.  15  For  some  uare 
already  turned  aside  after  Satan. 
16  If  any  man  or  woman  that  be- 
lieveth  have  widows,  let  them  re¬ 
lieve  them,  and  let  not  the  church 
be  charged;  that  it  may  relieve 
v  them  that  are  widows  indeed. 
IT  n  Let  the  elders  that  rule  well 
be  counted  worthy  of  double  hon¬ 
our,  especialty  they  who  labour  in 
the  word  and  doctrine.  18  For  the 

v i Verses  3,  5 \  —w  Rom.  12.  8;  1  Cor.  9.  10,  14; 
Gal  6.  6;  Phil.  2.  29;  1  Thess.  5.  12, 13;  Heb.  13. 
7,17. - a?  Acts  28.  10. 

13.  Withal — That  is,  additionally , 
or,  at  the  same  time .  Wandering  like 
gossips  from  house  to  house  in  order, 
as  tattlers  and  meddlesome  busy- 
bodies,  to  retail  scandal. 

14.  I  will — Spoken  apostolically  ;  I 
decide.  The  adversary  —  Not  the 
devil,  but  the  assailant,  whoever  he 
may  be,  of  Christianity. 

1 5.  Some — The  apostle  has  obvious¬ 
ly  drawn  his  picture  from  actual  life. 
Indeed,  the  when  they  wax  wan¬ 
ton  of  verse  11  implies  that  such  was 
the  character  of  the  women  of  the 
period  that  it  would  be  the  probable 
course  of  all  alike ;  and  that  nothing 
but  marriage  or  age  was  likely  to  keep 
them  in  order. 

16.  Have  widows — Spoken  of  the 
younger  widows,  as  verse  8  refers 
rather  to  the  support  of  elder  widows. 
Let  them — Referring  to  the  any  man 
or  woman;  that  is,  the  son  or  daugh¬ 
ter,  or  other  relative  able  to  maintain 
the  widow.  Widows  indeed — Note 
on  verse  3. 

b.  To  elders ,  their  stipend ,  trial ,  ordi¬ 
nation,  and  purity,  17-25. 

17.  Double  honour — A  double  ap¬ 
preciation,  or  apprisal,  showing  itself 
not  only  in  respect,  but  in  means  of 
support.  He  who  expended  most  time 
and  labour,  would  need  and  deserve 
most  remuneration.  That  compensa¬ 
tion  is  here  included  is  agreed  by  crit¬ 
ics  and  confirmed  by  Paul’s  reasons  as¬ 
signed  in  the  next  verse.  Labour  in 
the  word  and  doctrine  —  This  may 
mean  that  there  were  two  kinds  of  el¬ 
ders,  namely,  ruling  elders  and  preaching 
elders ;  or  it  may  simply  mean  that  some 


436 


I.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  66. 


Scripture  saith,  *  Tliou  shalt  not 
muzzle  the  ox  that  treadeth  out 
the  corn.  And*,  zThe  labourer  is 
worthy  of  his  reward.  19  Against 
an  elder  receive  not  an  accusa¬ 
tion,  but  °a  before  two  or  three 
witnesses.  20  ''Thom  that  sin  re¬ 
buke  before  all,  cthat  others  also 
may  fear.  2 1  dI  charge  thee  before 

V  Deut.  25.  4;  1  Cor.  9.  9. - s  Lev.  19.  13; 

l)eut.  24.  14,  15;  Matt.  10.  10;  Luke  10.  7. - 

6  Or,  under. a  Deut.  19.  15. b  Gal.  2.11, 14 ; 

Titus  1.  13. 

were  more  efficient  than  others.  The 
former  supposes  a  distinction  of  office, 
the  latter  a  difference  in  the  men. 
The  former  is  not  the  necessary  mean¬ 
ing  ;  and  this  passage  is  hardly  suffi¬ 
cient  to  show  a  twofold  office. 

18.  Ox  that  treadeth — Rather,  the 
ox  when  he  treadeth.  Deut.  xxv,  14. 
A  precept  of  humanity  to  man  as  well 
as  mercy  to  the  ox,  and  in  its  applica¬ 
tion  to  the  elder  a  principle,  a  portion 
of  justice  and  right.  The  labourer 
is  worthy — The  words  are  found  in 
Luke  x,  7,  and  seem  to  be  a  quotation 
thence.  Yet  as  it  is  introduced  with 
the  Scripture  saith,  Alford  and  oth¬ 
ers  prefer  to  believe  that  Paul  would 
not  call  the  gospel  of  Luke  Scripture, 
and  so  conclude  that  it  is  simply  a 
general  proverb  adduced  both  by  Je¬ 
sus  and  Paul.  Wordsworth,  however, 
thinks  that  as  Peter  styled  Paul’s  writ¬ 
ings  Scriptures,  Paul  might  be  sup¬ 
posed  so  to  style  Luke’s  gospel.  We 
believe  that  the  gospel  of  Luke  was  at 
this  time  published — was  known  to 
Paul ;  and  we  see  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  the  words  of  Jesus  were  by  him 
known  to  be  there  recorded.  It  would 
be  no  wonder  that  the  apostle  should 
style  the  recorded  words  of  Christ 
Scripture.  So  much  for  the  compen¬ 
sation  of  elders. 

19.  Trial  of  elders.  Two  or  three 
witnesses  —  Moses  (Deut.  xix,  15)  re¬ 
quired  that  number  of  witnesses  to 
condemn  a  man ;  St.  Paul  requires  that 
number  to  even  put  an  elder  on  trial. 
The  character  of  the  man  demanded  a 
double  amount  of  presumption  against 
him. 

20.  Them  of  the  elders  that  sin  and 


God,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  the  elect  angels,  that  tliou  ob¬ 
serve  these  things  7  without  pre¬ 
ferring  one  before  another,  doing 
nothing  by  partiality.  22  e  Lay 
hands  suddenly  on  no  man,  f  nei¬ 
ther  be  partaker  of  other  men’s 
sins:  keep  thyself  pure.  23  Drink 
no  longer  water,  but  use  a  little 

c  Deuteronomy  13.  11. - d  Chnpter  «5.  13; 

2  Timothy  2.  14;  4.  1. - 7  Or,  without  p re j a 

dice. - e  Acts  6.  6;  13.  3;  chapter  4.14;  2  Tim¬ 
othy  1.  6. - -f  2  John  11. 

are  proved  as  sinning  by  the  due  wit¬ 
nesses,  it  is  Timothy’s  duty  to  rebuke 
before  all.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
the  all  refers  to  the  other  elders  or  all 
the  congregation.  The  obvious  antith¬ 
esis  could  refer  it  to  the  others  of  the 
elders. 

21.  Elect  angels — Clearly  in  con¬ 
trast  from  the  reprobate  angels ;  equiv¬ 
alent,  therefore,  to  holy  angels.  With¬ 
out  preferring — Rather,  viithout  pre- 
judgment ,  or  prejudice  against  either 
one.  Partiality — Pre judgment  in  fa¬ 
vour  of  either  one. 

22.  Of  care  in  ordination.  Sud¬ 
denly — Without  full  investigation  in¬ 
to  the  fitness  of  the  candidate.  Par¬ 
taker.  .  .sins — By  introducing  unwor¬ 
thy  men  into  the  sacred  ministry,  for 
whose  sins  thou  wouldst  be  responsible. 
Keep  thyself  pure — And  so  wilt  thou 
secure  a  pure  ministry  and  ministra¬ 
tion  in  the  Church,  both  by  proper  se¬ 
lection  and  spotless  example. 

23.  There  is  no  connexion  in  lan¬ 
guage  between  this  and  the  previous 
verse,  but  we  may  imagine  one  in 
Paul’s  mind.  He  bids  Timothy  keep 
himself  pure,  and  then  there  arises  the 
image  in  his  mind  of  the  actually  pure 
character  of  Timothy ;  his  persistent 
abstinence,  for  instance,  from  wine, 
which  is,  indeed,  injuring  his  health 
and  so  is  overdone.  Drink  no... 
water — Rather,  Be  no  longer  a  water 
drinker ,  that  is,  exclusively.  From  these 
words  it  is  clear  that,  1.  Timothy  was 
totally  abstinent  from  all  that  could 
intoxicate ;  2.  It  took  an  apostle’s  au¬ 
thority  to  induce  him  to  cease  absti- 
nence ;  and,  3.  St.  Paul  authorized  the 
use  of  alcohol  only  as  medicine. 


A.  D.  G6. 


CHAPTERS  V,  VI. 


437 


wine  °for  thy  stomach’s  sake  and 
thine  often  infirmities.  24  h  Some 
men’s  sins  are  open  beforehand,  go¬ 
ing  before  to  judgment ;  and  some 
men  they  follow  after.  25  Like¬ 
wise  also  the  good  works  of  some 
are  manifest  beforehand  ;  and  they 
that  are  otherwise  cannot  be  hid. 


L  CHAPTER  VI. 

ET  as  many  a  servants  as  are 


i  ^  Gal.  5.  1^;  Jer.  2.  34;  Acts 

1.  16,  20;  2  Tim.  4.  10;  2  Pet.  2.  20,  21. - a  Eph 

6.  o ;  Col.  3.  22 ;  Titus  2.  9 ;  1  Pet.  2.  18. 


24.  Some  men’s  sins — Refers  back 
to  other  men’s  sins.  Yet  verse  23  is 
no  parenthesis,  being  a  continuation  of 
the  subject  of  keeping  pure,  that  is, 
from  other  men’s  sins,  in  promoting 
them  to  responsible  positions.  How 
shall  Timothy  find  other  men’s  sins 
in  Church  judicature  ?  Some  men’s 


sins  will  appear  open,  that  is,  clear 
and  evident;  their  antecedents  will, 
like  witnesses,  go  beforehand  to  the 
ecclesiastical  trial  and  judgment,  and 
convict  them.  Some  men,  however, 
the  antecedents  do  not  convict;  but 
they,  the  sins,  with  their  evidence, 
will  follow  after  the  arraignment,  aud 
bring  conviction  by  the  proof  adduced. 

25.  Also  the  good  works — Which 
are  the  well-known  antecedents  of 
some,  are  manifest  beforehand ;  so 
that  the  trial  will  be  only  matter  of 
form.  The  characters  of  the  men  refute 
the  charges.  They,  the  good  deeds, 
that  are  otherwise  than  previously 
manifest,  cannot  be  hid ;  they  will 
come  out  at  last. 


CHAPTER  YT. 

c.  To  servants ,  1,  2,  and  to  mercenary 
counter -teachers,  3-10. 

1.  Servants — For  the  Hew  Testa¬ 
ment  meaning  of  the  Greek  word  see 
our  note  on  Luke  vii,  2.  Under  the 
yoke  —  The  servile  yoke  is  a  Greek 
phrase  as  old  as  Herodotus.  Here  it 
is  used  to  characterize  unmitigated 
Roman  slavery,  as  described  in  our 
note  on  Luke  vii,  2,  and  as  it  stands 
in  contrast  under  the  believing  mas¬ 
ters.  Own — Respectively.  All  the 
honour — Required  by  the  existing  law 


under  the  yoke  count  their  own 
masters  worthy  of  all  honour, 
b that  the  name  of  God  and  his  doc¬ 
trine  be  not  blasphemed.  2  And 
they  that  have  believing  masters, 
let  them  not  despise  them,  c  be¬ 
cause  they  are  brethren;  but  rather 
do  them  service,  because  they  are 
1  faithful  and  beloved,  partakers  of 
the  benefit.  d  These  things  teach 
and  exhort.  3  If  any  man  e  teach 

5  Isa.  52.  5;  Rom.  2.  24;  Titus  2.  5,8. - cCol. 

4.  1. - 1  Or,  believing. - d  Chap.  4.  11. - 

eChap.  1.  3. 

of  the  relation.  That . . .  not  blas¬ 
phemed — The  duty  is  not  based  on  the 
rightfulness  of  the  relation,  but  upon 
the  disorder  and  reproach  incurred 
from  heathendom  upon  Christianity  if 
the  relation  were  enjoined  to  be  sum¬ 
marily  broken  up  by  the  servants. 
See  Titus  ii,  10. 

2.  Believing  masters  —  Whose 
servants  were  not  under  the  yoke. 
Each  one  was  “  not  now  as  a  servant, 
but  above  a  servant,  a  brother  be¬ 
loved.”  Philem.  16.  The  forms  of  sub¬ 
ordination  remained ;  the  Roman  stat¬ 
utes  were  still  in  legal  force ;  but  the 
servant  -was  no  longer  a  slave.  Let 
them — The  servants.  Not  despise 
— Set  at  naught  the  authority  of  them, 
the  masters.  Because  —  That  is, 
under  the  pretext  that  they,  the 
masters,  are  brethren — Are  Chris¬ 
tians,  and  so  bound  to  release  them. 
But  rather  do  them  service — And 
in  the  same  form  of  servitude,  yet 
under  a  new  principle  acd  law,  the  law, 
namely,  of  Christian  love.  Note,  1  Cor. 
vii,  21.  That  is,  serve  them,  (literally, 
rendered)  because  the  partakers  cr 
receivers  of  the  benefit  of  your  ser¬ 
vice,  namely,  the  masters,  are  faithful 
and  beloved.  Those  whom  you  once 
served  compulsorily  under  the  law  of 
slavery  continue  now  to  serve  volun¬ 
tarily,  under  the  law  of  gospel  freedom. 
Teach,  in  principle,  and  exhort,  urge, 
in  practice.  These  words  close  the  topic 
in  hand,  as  in  iv,  11,  13,  14. 

3.  Teach  otherwise — Said  here  in 
concluding,  as  in  i,  3 An  commencing. 
A  general  refutation  of  the  errorists, 
as  opposing  against  Christianit}'  a  sys- 


438 


L  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  66. 


otherwise,  and  consent  f  not  to 
wholesome  words,  even  the  words 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, * * * 4 5  & 7and  to 
the  doctrine  which  is  according 
to  godliness;  4  He  is  2  proud, 
h  knowing  nothing,  but  3 * * * * 8 9  doting 
about  *  questions  and  strifes  of 
words, whereof  cometh envy,  strife, 
railings,  evil  surmisings,  5  k  4  Per¬ 
verse  disputings  of  1  men  of  cor¬ 
rupt  minds,  and  destitute  of  the 
truth, m  supposing  that  gain  is  god- 

yChap.  1.  10;  2  Tim.  1. 13;  Titus  1.  9. g  Titus 

1.  1. - 2  Or,  afoul. - hi  Cor.  8.  2;  chap.  1.  7. 

- S  Or,  nick.. - i  Chap.  1.  4;  2  Tim.  2.  23; 

Titus  3.  9. - k  1  Cor.  11.  16;  chap.  1.  6. - 4  Or, 

Galling n  one  of  another. 12  Tim.  3.  8. 

m  Titus  1.  11 ;  2  Pet.  2.  3. 


tem  of  technical  notions,  abounding  in 

words  without  meaning,  adverse  to  ac¬ 

tual  piety,  and  with  none  but  merce¬ 
nary  motives.  Wholesome — Health¬ 
ful,  as  opposed  to  doting ;  that  is,  un¬ 
heal  thful,  or  morbid.  Words  of .  . . 
Christ  —  Their  teaching  contradicted 
the  health-giving  teaching  of  the  his¬ 
torical  Jesus  of  the  gospels,  and  con¬ 
tradicted  godliness,  piety  of  heart. 

4.  Proud — The  Gnostics ,  or  knowing 
ones,  (see  note,  Acts  xi,  19,)  claimed 
to  be  the  aristocracy  of  knowledge. 
Knowing  nothing  —  Although  claim¬ 
ing,  as  Gnostics,  to  know  every  thing. 
Questions — Note  i,  4.  Strifes  of 
words  —  Literally,  logomachies;  either 
where  the  words  had  no  meaning,  or 
the  whole  dispute  was  about  a  word. 
Tlio  evil  tempers  by  this  aroused,  are 
next  traced. 

5.  Corrupt  minds — Whose  mental 
intentions  are  bad.  Destitute — Nav, 
even  deprived  of  the  truth,  (as  in  i,  19 
and  Titus  i,  14,)  from  having  finally 
abandoned  it.  The  reason  for  their 
abandoning  truth  and  taking  up  the 
propagation  of  error  is  next  given. 
Gain.  .  .godliness — Rather,  godliness 
is  a  means  of  gain,  a  speculation.  And  all 
their  godliness  was  for  that  purpose. 

6.  Is  great  gain  —  Emphasis  on  is 
in  order  to  concede  what  truth  there  is 
in  the  proposition.  But  it  is  godliness 
with  contentment,  and  not  for  the 
restless  sake  of  the  earthly  gain. 

7.  For — Reason  why  earthly  gain 


liness  :  n  from  such  withdraw  thy¬ 
self.  6  But  ° godliness  with  con¬ 
tentment  is  great  gain.  7  Forpwe 
brought  nothing  into  this  world, 
and  it  is  certain  we  can  carry  noth¬ 
ing  out.  H  And  q  having  food 
and  raiment,  let  us  be  therewith 
content.  9  But  r  they  that  will 
be  rich  fall  into  temptation  *  and 
a  snare,  and  into  many  foolish 
and  hurtful  lusts,  ‘which  drown 
men  in  destruction  and  perdition. 

w  Rom.  16.  17;  2  Tim.  3.  5. - oPsa.  37.  16; 

Prov.  15.  16;  lleb.  13.  5. - v  Job  1.  21;  Psa. 

49.  17;  Prov.  27.  24;  Ecclea.  5.15. - g  Gen. 

28.  20 ;  Heb.  13.  5. - r  Prov.  15.  27 ;  2*4.  21 ;  Matt. 

13.  22;  James  5.  1. - 8  Chap.  3.  7. - 1  Chap. 

1.  19. 


should  not  be  the  supreme  end  of  our 

godliness  ;  it  ends  with  this  world, 

and  reaches  not  eternity.  Nothing 

into.  .  .nothing  out — We  go  into  eter¬ 

nity  as  naked  of  this  world’s  goods  as 

we  came  into  the  world. 

8.  Food  and  raiment  —  Literally, 
nourishments  and  covering.  Let  us  be 
. . .  content — Rather,  we  shall  be  sufficed. 
Wealth  itself  can  afford  us  little  more 
than  these. 

9.  That  will  —  That  is,  determine 
to  be  rich  ;  who  say,  “  At  all  events, 
honestly  if  I  can,  yet  certainly,  I  will 
be  rich.”  The  certainly  will  often  dis¬ 
miss  the  honestly.  Fall  into  tempta¬ 
tion —  Inducements  seduce  their  will 
at  every  turn  to  get  gain  at  the  price 
of  godliness.  These  inducements  in 
an  age  of  trade  and  successful  venture 
are  stupendous.  Men  are  tempted 
with  a  million  or  half  million  which 
can  be  secretly  pocketed ;  and  even  if 
known,  the  contempt  for  their  dishon¬ 
esty  can  be  braved  for  such  a  price  ;  or 
it  can  be  dazzled  awav  by  the  splendid 
display  of  the  successful  knave.  A 
snare  —  But,  alas !  the  great  man  is 
caught,  a  victim  in  a  net,  in  a  trap; 
and  by  whom  it  is  set  is  significantly 
hinted  in  chap,  iii,  7.  Hurtful  lusts — 
The  wealth  acquired  induces  free  grat¬ 
ification  of  appetites;  luxuries,  revel¬ 
ries,  excesses,  which  call  for  gain  to  sus¬ 
tain  them.  Drown  men — So  that 
a  wealthy,  luxurious  age  plunges  itself 
into  temporal  and  eternal  destruction ; 


A.  D.  66. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


43S 


10  uFor  the  love  of  money  is  the 
root  of  all  evil:  which  while  some 
coveted  after,  they  have  5  erred 
from  the  faith,  and  pierced  them¬ 
selves  through  with  many  sorrows. 

11  v  But  thou,  w  O  man  of  God, 
flee  these  things;  and  follow  after 
righteousness,  godliness,  faith,  love, 
patience,  meekness.  1 2  x  Fight  the 

wExod.  23.  8;  Deut.  16.  19. - 5  Or,  been  se¬ 
duced. - v  2  Tim.  2-  22. - wDeut.  33. 1 ;  2  Tim. 

8.  17. - xl  Cor.  9.  25,  26;  chap.  1.  18;  2  Tim.  4.  7. 

— V  Phil.  3.  12,  14 ;  verse  19. 


not  “mere  moral  degradation,”  says 
Alford. 

10.  The  root — No  definite  article; 
a  root,  or  a  source.  All  evil — Evil  of 
every  sort ;  of  total  amount.  Erred 
from  the  faith — Often  has  the  Christ¬ 
ian  man  apostatized  by  becoming  rich. 
Sometimes  he  abandons  the  Church, 
gives  up  all  profession,  and  becomes 
professedly  profane.  Sometimes  he 
stays  in  the  Church;  yet  only  to  dis¬ 
honour  religion  by  persistent  frauds. 
But  St.  Paul  is  here  specifying  Christ¬ 
ian  teachers  who  abandon  the  truth  in 
order  to  propagate  a  false  yet  remuner¬ 
ative  doctrine ;  a  doctrine  which  gives 
freer  license  to  immorality,  and  so  at¬ 
tracts  adherents  and  pay.  Pierced 
themselves  through— As  with  a  dag¬ 
ger,  with  many  arrows,  or  pangs; 
the  pangs  being  either  the  dagger  it¬ 
self,  or  its  agonizing  accompaniments. 
These  piercing  pangs  are  the  penalties 
of  conscience ;  the  deep  assurance  of 
guilt  and  forewarning  of  retribution, 
which,  forgotten  m  the  eagerness  of 
the  pursuit  and  the  flush  of  enjoyment, 
return  at  their  own  time. 

2.  Final  charge,  11-21. 

11.  But — In  opposition  to  the  guilty 
and  fatal  course  of  the  apostate,  mer¬ 
cenary  errorist.  JVTan  of  God  —  The 
solemn  title  of  the  Old  Testament 
prophets,  to  which  Timothy  is  heir. 
Deut.  xxxiii,  1;  Josh,  xiv,  6;  Judges 
xiii,  6;  1  Sam.  ix,  6.  Flee  these 
things  —  The  destruction,  the  thirst 
for  riches  from  which  it  proceeds,  and 
the  apostate  and  antichristian,  teach 
. . .  otherwise  (verse  3,)  from  which 
the  whole  takes  origin.  And  St.  Paul 
directs  not  only  what  to  flee,  but  what 


good  fight  of  faith,  ?lay  hold  on 
eternal  life,whereunto  thou  art  also 
called, z  and  hast  professed  a  good 
profession  before  many  witnesses. 

13  aI  give  thee  charge  in  the 
sight  of  God,  bwho  quickenetli  all 
things,  and  before  Christ  Jesus,  ‘'  who 
before  Pontius  Pilate  witnessed  a 
good  Confession;  14  That  thou 

z  Heb.  13.  23. - a  Chapter  5.  21. - b  Deut. 

32.  39;  1  Sam.  2.  6;  John  5.  21. - c  Matthew 

27.  11;  John  18.  37;  Revelation  1.  5. - 6  Or, 

profession. 

to  follow.  A  whole  rank  of  pure 
Christian  virtues,  arrayed  against  the 
opposed  vices  (verses  4,  5)  of  the  error¬ 
ist.  Righteousness,  faith,  etc.,  in  full 
array  against  envy,  strife,  etc.  In 
the  next  verse  commences  the  fight. 

12.  Fight  —  For  such  hostile  foes 
will  not  only  come  to  battle,  but  to 
ceaseless  war.  Good  fight — It  is  the 
battle  of  good  against  evil ;  the  war 
of  right  against  wrong,  for  which 
wrong  is  to  blame ;  for  it  has  no  right 
to  exist,  much  less  to  fight.  Of  faith 

—  Which  means  faith  in  Christ,  in 
God,  in  heaven,  in  holiness,  and  in 
truth.  In  this  great  fight  there  is 
no  room  for  mistake  or  doubt;  or  for 
fear  of  failure,  or  destruction,  if  we 
only  fight.  It  is  the  coward  or  the 
apostate  alone  that  is  ever  conquered 
and  undone.  Lay  hold  on  —  As  a 
prize  of  victory,  eternal  life.  Called 

—  By  a  divine  summons,  as  Paul  him¬ 
self  was  “  called  to  be  an  apostle.” 
Professed  .  .  .  profession  —  Bather, 
hast  confessed  the  good  confession.  This 
refers  not  to  any  one  particular  pro¬ 
fession,  any  more  than  fight  refers  to 
any  particular  battle.  Timothy’s  min¬ 
istry  at  Ephesus  was  to  be  a  fight;  his 
preaching  Jesus  was  the  good  con¬ 
fession  ;  the  many  witnesses  are  not 
only  men  (Heb.  xii,  1)  but  the  elect 
angels,  (v,  21,)  Christ  Jesus,  and  God. 

13.  I... charge — Solemnly  and  re¬ 
peatedly,  (v,  21,  and  i,  18,)  and  this 
before  a  solemn  audience — God  and 
Christ.  Who  before  Pontius  Pilate 
— In  the  face  of  pagan  authority  and 
in  view  of  certain  death.  Witnessed — 
Asserted  as  a  testifier.  A — Rather,  the. 
Good  confession — Namely,  of  a  truth 


440 


I.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  GG. 


keep  this  commandment  without 
spot,  unrebukable,  d  until  the  ap¬ 
pearing  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ: 
15  Which  in  his  times  he  shall 
show,  icJlo  £vethc  blessed  and  only 
Potentate,  f  the  King  of  kings, 
and  Lord  of  lords;  K  Who  only 
hath  immortality,  dwelling  in  the 

tl  Phil.  1.  G,  10;  1  Thess.  3. 13;  5.  23. - eCliap. 

1.  11,  17. - f  Rev.  17.  14. - o  Chap.  1.  17. - 

AExod.  33.  20;  John  6.  4G. - i  Eph.  3.  21  ;  Phil. 

4.  20;  Jude  25,  Rev.  1.  6. 

hated  by  the  world  and  condemning 
the  world. 

1 4.  This  commandment  —  Greek, 
not  this,  but  the.  Commandment  — 

A  different  word  from  that  in  i,  5,  yet 
designating  the  same  thing,  namely, 
the  law  in  the  gospel ;  the  command¬ 
ment  to  live  the  life  of  faith  and  holi¬ 
ness.  Of  that  commandment  to  men 
Timothy  is  the  depositary  and  holder; 
lie  has  it  in  charge ;  and  he  must  keep 
it  without  spot,  so  that  it  be  stainless 
and  unrebukable,  above  all  reproach. 
The  appearing  —  The  epiphany.  See 
note  on  2  Thess.  ii,  2. 

15.  In  his  own  times  —  An  obvious 
allusion  to  Acts  i,  7,  (where  see  notes,) 
and  clearly  indicating  that  St.  Paul 
fully  recognised  that  the  judgment  ad¬ 
vent  is  to  be  at  an  unknown  time. 
Shall  show  —  Shall  exhibit  the  sub¬ 
lime  spectacle  of  Christ’s  epiphany. 
And  now  we  are  told,  in  St.  Paul’s  most 
vivid  style,  who  is  this  He  that  shall 
show  the  final  forthcoming  of  Christ. 
Only  Potentate  —  The  sole  dynast; 
for  what  earthly  sovereign  can  be 
named  as  real  potentate  in  the  com¬ 
parison  ?  King  of  kings— A  sublime 
title,  given  by  St.  John  to  Christ  him¬ 
self,  Kev.  xix,  16.  Philo  has  the 
phrase  King  of  kings  and  God  of  gods. 
We  trace  the  phrase  back  to  David, 
Psalm  cxxxvi,  3,  and  even  to  Moses, 
Dent,  x,  17. 

16.  Only  hath  immortality  —  So 

Justin  Martyr  says:  “God  is  said 
alone  to  have  immortality,  because  he 
has  it,  not  from  another’s  will,  as  all 
other  immortals  have,  but  from  his  own 
essence.”  All  other  substances  disin¬ 
tegrate  ;  all  other  beings  decay  and  die ; 
it  is  only  as  God  holds  them  together, 


light  which  no  man  can  approach 
unto;  b whom  no  man  hath  seen, 
nor  can  see:  'to  whom  he  honour 
and  power  everlasting.  Amen. 
I  7  Charge  them  that  are  rich  in 
this  world,  that  they  be  not  high- 
minded,  k  nor  trust  in  7 1  uncertain 
riches,  but  in  mthe  living  God,  “who 

k  Job  31.  24;  Mark  10.  24;  Luke  12.  21. - 

7  Greek,  uncertainty  op  lichen. - 1  Prov. 

23-  5. - rn  1  Thessalonians  1.  9;  chap.  3.  15. - - 

n  Acts  14. 17. 

and  pours  vitality  into  them,  that  they 
are  kept  in  being  and  life.  And  we 
must  acknowledge  the  same  depen¬ 
dence  upon  God  for  continued  existence 
in  a  thinking  substance,  unless  we 
maintain  that  brutes  and  insects  are 
immortal.  And  so  from  him  comes  the 
power  of  consciousness  in  a  thinking 
intelligence;  unless  we  maintain  that 
our  souls  are  still  conscious,  not  only 
in  sleep,  but  in  a  swoon.  Light.  .  .ap¬ 
proach  unto — Inhabiting  inapproach¬ 
able  light — A  sphere  of  living  light,  too 
intense  and  dazzling  for  finite  mind. to 
face  and  approach.  No  man... can 
see — He  is  so  intensely  luminous  as  to 
be  to  us  a  darkness ;  “  dark  with  ex¬ 
cess  of  light.” 

A  modern  philosopher  doubts  of  God 
because  he  is  a  vast  incomprehensibil¬ 
ity.  He  should  also  doubt  of  light,  for 
the  luminiferous  ether  is  at  once  too 
vast  for  our  mind  to  grasp,  and  too  sub¬ 
tle,  if  not  too  luminous,  for  our  eyes  to 
see.  He  should  doubt  of  gravitation; 
for  he  can  never  see  it,  (but  by  its  ef¬ 
fects;)  he  can  neither  imagine  its  im¬ 
mensity,  nor  draw  around  it  limitations ; 
yet  he  knows  its  existence,  and  that  it 
rules  with  its  forces  every  particle  of 
our  bodies,  every  moment  of  our  lives. 
Honour  and  power — (7 reek,  Kguro^ 
force .  God  is  the  author  and  controller 
of  all  forces.  Note  i,  17. 

17.  Charge  —  Again  this  solemn 
word,  full  of  admonition  to  Timothy 
and  to  the  rich  whom  he  is  to  address. 
In  this  world  —  Who  may  be  mill¬ 
ionaires  here,  and  miserable  paupers 
in  the  world  to  come.  Uncertain  — 
The  wings  with  which  riches  fly  away 
have  long  lived  in  proverb,  and  are  so 
verified  in  experience  as  not  likely  soon 


A.  D.  (36. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


441 


giveth  us  richly  all  tilings  to  enjoy ; 
18  That  they  do  good,  that  °they 
be  rich  in  good  works,  p  ready  to 
distribute,  8  *  willing  to  commu¬ 
nicate  ;  19  r  Laying  up  in  store 

for  themselves  a  good  founda¬ 
tion  against  the  time  to  come,  that 
they  may  8  lay  hold  on  eternal  life. 


20  O  Timothy,  *  keep  that  which 
is  committed  to  thy  trust,  "avoid¬ 
ing  profane  and  vain  babblings, 
and  oppositions  of  science  false¬ 
ly  so  called:  21  Which  some 
professing  Vhave  erred  concern¬ 
ing  the  faith.  Grace  be  with  thee. 
Amen. 


O  Luke  12.  21 ;  Titus  3.  8 ;  James  2.  5.- 

12.  13. - 8  Or,  sociable. - q  Gal.  6. 

13.  16. - r  Matt..  6.  20;  Luke  12.  33. 


-V  Rom. 
6;  Heb. 


«  Verse  12. - 1 2  Tim.  1.  14;  Titus  1.  9;  Rev. 

3.  3. - wChap.  1.  4,  6;  2  Tim.  2.  14;  Titus  1.  14; 

3.  9. - v  Chap.  1.  6,  19;  2  Tim.  2.  18. 


to  die  out.  The  living  God — As  your 
riches  are  a  dead  god.  Richly— The 
apostle  repeats  in  spiritual  connexion 
the  words  of  wealth,  rich  in  good 
works.  Laying  up  (Greek,  treasur¬ 
ing)  in  store.  Richly.  . .  enjoy — Lit¬ 
erally,  affording  to  us  richly  all  things 
for  enjoyment.  It  is  better  to  have  the 
permanent  divine  source  of  wealth  than 
the  transient  wealth  itself. 

18.  They  do  good  —  Wealth  may 
exist  without  sin  ;  but  not  hoarded,  il¬ 
liberal  wealth.  It  would  be  well  for 
every  rich  man  to  take  a  concordance, 
find  the  words  rich  and  riches,  and 
read  with  solemn  appreciation  what 
things  the  Bible  says  upon  that  subject. 
Men  as  they  grow  rich  should  increase 
their  benefactions  faster  than  they  in¬ 
crease  their  personal  expenses.  Rich 
in  good  works — A  double  richness. 
The  possessor  has  all  the  happiness  of 
wealth,  and  the  infinitely  higher  hap¬ 
piness  of  living  in  the  benefactions  he 
bestows.  Distribute — To  adjust  the 
donation  to  the  various  proper  objects. 
To  communicate  —  To  share  with 
others  the  blessings  that  belong  to  you. 

19.  Laying  up — Literally,  treasur¬ 
ing.  Making  their  perpetual  deposits 
in  the  divine  repository.  And  this  will 
prove  a  good  foundation,  an  eternal 
basis,  for  the  time  and  world  to  come. 

20.  0  Timothy  — The  final,  most 
personal,  most  earnest  address  of  all. 
That  which  is  committed  to  thy 
trust  —  In  Greek,  a  single  word,  the 
deposit,  the  intrusted  thing.  The  du¬ 
ties  in  this  epistle  commended  to  him  ; 
his  care  of  his  own  salvation  and  that 


of  his  hearers  ;  his  rebuke  of  errorists 
and  firm  maintenance  of  Christ’s  gos¬ 
pel,  through  the  apostle  intrusted  to 
him.  Vain  babblings  —  Rather,  the 
profane  empty-talkings.  See  note  on 
1  Tim.  i,  6.  Oppositions  of  science 
— A  remarkable  phrase.  Literally,  an¬ 
titheses  of  gnosis.  And  gnosis  (identi¬ 
cal  with  the  English  word  knowledge )  is 
the  word  from  which  subsequently  the 
Gnostics  derived  their  proud  title.  Note, 
Acts  xi,  19.  The  word  gnosis  was  for 
a  while  in  good  repute  in  the  Church, 
(used  Luke  i,  77  ;  Rom.  ii,  20  ;  xi,  13  ; 
and  elsewhere,)  embracing  the  settled 
truths  of  the  gospel.  But  as  used  by 
the  Corinthians,  1  Cor.  viii,  1,  (where 
see  notes,)  it  is  apparently  treated  sar¬ 
castically  by  St.  Paul,  as  it  is  here  rep- 
rehendingly.  As  the  Corinthian  gnosis 
was  a  little  pretentious,  so  this  gnosis. 
being  further  advanced,  is  absolutely 
fictitious,  being  falsely  so  called.  It 
had  already  begun  to  indicate  that  ar¬ 
rogance,  based  upon  purely  imaginary 
superiority,  by  which  the  Gnostics  of 
the  next  century  were  distinguished. 
Note  on  2  Thess.  ii,  7.  What  the  op¬ 
positions,  antitheses ,  were,  is  not  clear. 
They  may  have  been  the  points  op¬ 
posed  to  the  gospel.  More  probably 
they  were  counter  propositions,  balances 
of  phrases,  within  the  gnosis  itself. 
One  is  reminded  of  the  antinomies  in 
the  Kant  philosophy;  consisting  of  a 
series  of  coupled  prepositions  seen  by 
the  mind  to  contradict  each  other,  yet 
both  sides  of  the  contradiction  seem¬ 
ing,  and  claimed  by  the  philosophy,  to 
be  true. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  SECOND  TIMOTHY 


- ♦  - 

Tiie  last  of  the  thirteen  Pauline  epistles.  It  contains  the  death-notes 
of  the  apostle  in  expectancy  of  a  martyrdom  soon  to  be  accomplished. 
It  was  clearly  written  a  brief  period  before  his  last  trial,  and  contains 
references  to  his  first. 

Greatly  resembling  the  first  epistle  in  style,  indicating  that  both 
were  written  at  the  same  general  period,  it  is  less  an  official  charge 

and  more  a  personal  communication. 

- - 

PLAK  OF  THE  EPISTLE. 


L.  Paul’s  Hortatory  Rehearsal  of  the  Past,  preparatory  to 

a  Confirmation  of  Timothy  in  the  Future .  i,  3-)  8 

1.  Faithfulness  of  Timothy’s  parentage  an  incitement  to 

firmness  for  the  glorious  gospel  of  Christ .  i,  3-10 

2.  Paul’s  apostleship  and  committed  trust  of  the  gospel 

doctrine . i,  11-14 

3.  Maintained  amid  apostasies  of  many,  with  rare  exception  i,  15-18 

H.  Confirmation  of  Timothy  in  the  Coming  Future .  ii,  1-26 

1.  Personal  appeal  for  boldness,  hardihood,  endurance  of 

sufferings,  in  hope  of  final  glory . . .  ii,  1-13 

2.  Timothy’s  duty  of  warning  the  people  against  the  noisy 

errors  of  apostates  from  the  sure  foundation . ii,  14-19 

3.  Personally  purged  and  pure,  both  from  lusts  and  heresy, 

he  may  meekly  instruct  others . ii,  20-26 

III.  Prediction  of  the  Apostasy  at  the  Close  of  the  Apostolic 

Age,  and  Confirmation  of  Timothy  against  it . iii,  1-17 

1.  False  and  demoralized  character  of  the  coming  heretics  iii,  1-9 


2.  But  as  Timothy  knows  the  trueness  and  purity  of  Paul,  .iii,  10-13 

3.  So  he  should  also  be  true,  according  to  the  Scriptures, 

inspired  to  furnish  and  qualify  the  minister  of  God. .  .iii,  14-17 
IV.  St.  Paul’s  Closing  Charge  to  Timothy — Salutations  and  Ben¬ 


edictions . iv,  1-22 

1.  Admonition  to  firmness  against  errorists .  iv,  1-5 

2.  Triumphal  anticipation  of  martyrdom .  iv,  6-8 

3.  St.  Paul’s  personal  relations  to  his  fellows  . iv.  9-13 

4.  Reminiscences  cf  his  former  trial . iv,  1-1-18 

5.  Salutations  and  benedictions .  . iv,  19-22 


THE 


SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  TIMOTHY. 


♦h- 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAUL,  a  an  apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ  by  the  will  of  God, 
according  to  Hhe  promise  of  life 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  2  cTo 
Timothy,  my  dearly  beloved  son: 
Grace,  mercy,  and  peace,  from  God 
the  Father  and  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord. 

3  dI  thank  God,  ewhom  I  serve 

a  2  Corinthians  1. 1. - 7)  Ephesians  3.  6;  Titus 

1.  2;  Heb.  9.  15. - cl  Timothy  1.  2. - d  Ro¬ 

mans  1.8;  Ephesians  1.  16. 


from  my  forefathers  with  pure  con¬ 
science,  that  f  without  ceasing  I 
have  remembrance  of  thee  in  my 
prayers  night  and  day ;  4  e  Great¬ 
ly  desiring  to  see  thee,  being  mind¬ 
ful  of  thy  tears,  that  I  may  be  filled 
with  joy ;  5  When  I  call  to  re¬ 

membrance  h  the  unfeigned  faith 
that  is  in  thee,  which  dwelt  first 
in  thy  grandmother  Lois,  and  ‘thy 


e  Acts  22.  3 ;  23.  1 ;  24.  14 ;  27.  23 ; 

Gal.  1.  14. - :/'  1  Thess.  1.  2;  3.  10. — 

9,  21. - hi  Tim.  1.  5. - i  Acts  16.  1. 


Rom.  1.  9; 
-ffChap.  4. 


CHAPTER  I. 

L  Paul  —  Note,  1  Tim.  i,  1.  Ac 
cording  to  the  promise  —  The  word 
rendered  promise  signifies  announce¬ 
ment ;  and  hence  Paul  styles  himself 
an  apostle . . .  according  to,  or  for  the 
purpose  of,  the  announcement  of  the 
life  ...  in  Christ.  Yet  in  the  New 
Testament  this  announcement,  being 
of  a  blessed  result,  becomes  in  effect  a 
promise. 

2.  Beloved— In  1  Tim.  i,  2,  genuine 
son,  (see  note  there,)  a  difference  aris¬ 
ing  from  the  fact  that  the  first  epistle 
is  more  official,  this  more  personal  and 
hearty. 

I.  Paul’s  Hortatory  Rehearsal 
of  the  Past;  preparatory  to  a  Con¬ 
firmation-  of  Timothy  in  the  Future 
3-18. 

1.  Faithfulness  of  Timothy’s  par¬ 
entage  an  incitement  to  firmness 
for  the  glorious  gospel  of  Christ, 

3-10. 

3.  Thank  God  —  For  what  ?  The 
mind  of  the  apostle  looks  to  verse  5, 
overleaping  the  accumulated  particu¬ 
lars  intervening,  for  the  expression  of 
the  object  of  his  thanks,  namely,  the 
hereditary  and  persistent  piety  of  Tim¬ 
othy.  From  my  forefathers  —  Not 


merely  the  forefathers  of  his  nation, 
as  Abraham,  and  others ;  but  rather  his 
own  more  immediate  personal  progen¬ 
itors,  like  those  of  Timothy  in  verse  5. 
Serve  .  .  .  with  pure  conscience  — 
They  served  God  with  a  pure  con¬ 
science  before  Christ  came  ;  he  serves 
the  same  God  with  as  pure  a  con¬ 
science  since  Christ  came.  His  holy 
forefathers  were  in  their  day  as  true 
Christians  as  he ;  he  in  his  day  is  as 
true  Jew  as  they.  See  our  notes  on 
Acts  xx vi,  1,  6. 

4.  Mindful  of — That  is,  recollecting 
thy  tears,  shed  some  time  since,  prob¬ 
ably  when  Paul  first  left  him  at  Ephe¬ 
sus  to  depart  to  Macedonia.  1  Tim.  i,  3. 
That  I  refers  back  to  see  thee. 

5.  When — He  gives  now  his  theme 
of  thanks  in  verse  3.  Timothy’s  faith, 
like  Paul’s,  is  hereditary ;  both  are  firm 
Christians,  as  their  parents  were  devout 
Jews.  Lois  —  Here  only  mentioned. 
Eunice  is  referred  to,  but  not  named,  in 
Acts  xvi,  1,  “which was  a  Jewess,  and 
believed.”  When  Paul  says  that  the 
same  unfeigned  faith  permanently 
dwelt  first  in.  .  .Lois,  he  must  refer 
to  her  previous  faith  as  a  devout  Jew¬ 
ess  before  J esus  was  preached  by  Paid 
in  Lystra.  In  Timothy’s  ancestry,  then, 
as  well  as  in  his  own,  (verse  3,)  Paul 


444 


II.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  1).  G7. 


mother  Eunice;  and  I  am  persuad¬ 
ed  that  in  thee  also.  6  Wherefore 
I  put  thee  in  remembrance,  kthat 
thou  stir  up  the  gift  of  God,  which 
is  in  thee  by  the  putting  on  of  my 
hands.  7  For  'God  hath  not  given 
us  the  spirit  of  fear;  m  but  of  power, 
and  of  love,  and  of  a  sound  mind. 

k  \  Thess.  5.  19;  1  Tim.  4.  14. - ntom.  8.  15. 

- m  Luke  24.  49;  Acts  1.  8. - n  Rom.  1.  16. 

- o  1  Tim.  2.  6;  Rev.  1.  2. - p  Eph.  3.  1; 

Phil.  1.  7. 

recognises  that  devout  Hebraism  was 
one  with  devout  Christianity.  And  in 
this  tender  reminder  of  his  maternal 
home,  the  mind  of  Timothy  is  turned 
back  to  these  past  days  when  the  gos¬ 
pel  came  to  Lystra,  and  perfected  the 
Jewish  faith,  that  there  dwelt,  into 
Christian  faith.  I  am  persuaded  — 
In  spite  of  the  desertion  of  almost  all 
others,  in  thee  also.  Timothy,  he  was 
persuaded,  would  be  found  “faithful 
among  the  faithless  ;  ”  and  thence  he 
expected  that  instead  of  deserting  him, 
like  others,  (verse  15,)  Timothy  would 
hasten  to  Rome  at  his  call.  Chap,  iv,  9. 

6.  Wherefore — In  view  of  thy  he¬ 
reditary  and  unswerving  faith.  Put 
thee  in  remembrance — Not  any  im¬ 
plication  of  remissness,  (as,  most  ab¬ 
surdly,  Alford,)  but  a  permanent  re¬ 
minder  (2  Peter  iii,  1)  to  ministerial 
faithfulness.  Gift — The  gift  of  min¬ 
isterial  power,  imparted  by  the  Spirit 
bestowed  by  Paul’s  putting  of  hands 
on  Timothy.  This  gift  could  slum¬ 
ber,  like  embers  beneath  the  ashes, 
and  wane  away,  unless  the  possessor 
should  stir  up,  that  is,  enkindle  and 
arouse  it,  as  one  does  a  smothered  fire. 
This  is  to  be  done  by  earnest  prayer  and 
diligent  exercise.  Prom  1  Tim.  iv,  14, 
(where  see  note,)  it  appears  that  the 
hands  of  the  presbytery  were  laid  upon 
Timothy  concurrently  with  those  of  St. 
Paul  as  principal. 

7.  For  —  Reason  for  arousing  his 
gift;  that  bestowed  spirit  is  not  the 
spirit  of  fear,  with  which  the  desert¬ 
ers  from  Paul  and  Christ  are  in  these 
trying  times  dismayed.  It  is  rather 
the  spirit  of  power,  by  which  dan¬ 
gers  and  foes  are  encountered  and 
overcome.  Of  love  —  Which  is  the 


8  nBe  not  thou  therefore  ashamed 
of 0  the  testimony  of  our  Lord,  nor 
of  me  Phis  prisoner:  *  but  be  thou 
partaker  of  the  afflictions  of  the 
gospel  according  to  the  power  of 
God;  9  r  Who  hath  saved  us,  and 
“called  us  with  a  holy  calling,  ‘not 
according  to  our  works,  but  uac- 

<7  Colossians  1.  24 ;  chapter  4.  5. - r  1  Timothy 

1.  1;  Titus  3.  4. - ft  1  Thessalonians  4.  7;  He¬ 
brews  3.  1. - 1  Romans  3.  20;  9.  11;  Titus  3.  5. 

- u  Romans  8.  28. 

true  inspirer  and  regulator  of  power. 
Sound  mind  —  Rather,  of  admonition 
or  corrective  reproof  of  others,  the  re¬ 
sult  at  which  Timothy’s  ordination  to 
the  ministrv  aims. 

8.  Be  not.  . . ashamed  —  As  I  am 
not  ashamed,  ver.  12.  Therefore — 
From  the  fact  that  ours  is  the  spirit 
of  power,  able  to  vanquish  all  false 
shame.  Testimony  —  In  behalf  of 
our  Lord ;  or  more  properly  and  for- 
cib \y,  the  Lord’s  testimony,  a  testimo¬ 
ny  to  be  performed  by  us,  but  truly  his. 
And  so  in  the  phrase  his  prisoner, 
Paid  means  to  call  himself,  tersely, 
Christ's  prisoner ;  kept  a  prisoner  by 
Christ  in  behalf  of  his  gospel.  Par¬ 
taker — As  I  am  Christ’s  prisoner,  so 
be  thou  co-sharer  with  me  of  the  af¬ 
flictions  of  the  gospel,  dismissing 
fear  and  shame,  and  maintaining  a  firm 
sympathy.  According  to  —  In  pro¬ 
portion  to  the  power  of  God  viewed 
here  by  St.  Paul  (as  in  Eph.  i,  1 9)  as 
stupendously  displayed  in  the  system 
of  salvation  as  now  described  in  the 
verse  following. 

9.  The  be  not  ashamed  of  the  pre¬ 
ceding  verse  is  now  enforced  by  the 
grandeur  and  eternity  of  God’s  pur¬ 
pose  and  grace ...  in  Christ  J  esus,  a 
purpose  and  grace  in  the  bosom  of 
God  before  the  world  began;  but 
is  now  made  manifest.  Hath  saved 
us — With  a  temporal,  preparatory  to  an 
eternal,  salvation.  Called  us . . .  call¬ 
ing  —  A  calling  become  a  permanent 
state,  in  consequence  of  that  call  to  live 
a  holy  life,  upon  our  first  having  be¬ 
come  believers.  Hence  it  was  a  holy 
calling,  embraced  in  words  like  these  • 
“  As  he  which  hath  called  you  is  holy, 
so  be  ye  holy."  Not.. works — See 


A.  D.  67. 


CHAPTER  I. 


445 


cording  to  his  own  purpose  and 
grace,  which  was  given  us  in  Christ 
Jesus  ''before  the  world  began; 
10  But  w  is  now  made  manifest  by 
the  appearing  of  our  Saviour  Jesus 

v  Rom.  16.  25 ;  Eph.  1.  4 ;  Titus  1.2;  1  Pet.  1.  20. 
- w  Rom.  16.  20;  Eph.  1.  9;  Col.  1.  26;  Titus 

notes  on  Rom.  iii,  24,  27.  His  own 
purpose  —  His  eternal  secret  purpose, 
now  made  manifest,  (next  verse,)  of 
saving  men  on  condition  of  faith.  See 
note  on  Eph.  i,  19.  Given  us  —  As 
believers,  and  conditionally  in  view  of 
our  future  faith.  See  notes  on  Rom. 
ix,  10-13.  But  the  successive  verbs 
here,  saved,  called,  given,  abol¬ 
ished,  speak  of  the  entire  great  scheme, 
which  is  really  in  an  incomplete  pro¬ 
cess,  as  fully  accomplished.  St.  Paul 
speaks  as  from  the  end.  Note,  Rom. 
v,  12;  and  viii,  30.  Before  the  world 
began  —  Literally,  before  ceonic  times; 
before  the  cycles  of  events  began  to 
roll;  from  all  eternity.  Notes  on  Rom. 
xvi,  26;  1  Cor.  ii,  7 ;  Eph.  i,  4. 

2.  Paul’s  apostleship,  and  com¬ 
mitted  trust  of  the  gospel  doctrine, 
11-14. 

10.  Now — In  sublime  antithesis  to 
before  the  world  began.  This  is  the 
epoch  of  divine  revelation  in  contrast 
with  ages  of  concealment.  Appear¬ 
ing — ’Et TKpdveLa,  the  shining  forth,  the 
epiphany ,  (see  notes  on  2  Thess.  ii,  8,) 
including  the  entire  period  of  Christ’s 
first  residence  on  earth.  Abolished 
death  —  First  in  his  own  body,  by  his 
own  resurrection ;  and  then,  by  includ¬ 
ing  the  race  in  his  resurrective  pow¬ 
er.  See  note  on  1  Cor.  xv,  26.  All, 
like  him,  die ;  all,  like  him,  rise  again. 
Brought... to  light  —  Literally,  has 
illuminated,  or  shed  light  upon,  life 
and  immortality.  The  resurrective 
power  lay,  as  yet,  concealed  in  shades 
of  death  and  darkness;  but  the  gos¬ 
pel  pours  light  upon  and  discloses  the 
author,  origin,  and  true  nature  of  life 
and  immortality  to  our  view.  Life 
takes  place  at  the  resurrection,  and 
immortality  is  the  eternal  conse¬ 
quence  of  the  soul’s  enshrinement  in 
the  resurrective  body.  The  apostle  is 
not  speaking  here,  nor  perhaps  any¬ 
where  else,  of  the  metaphysical  im- 


Christ,  x  who  hath  abolished  death 
and  hath  brought  life  and  immor¬ 
tality  to  light  through  the  gospel : 

11  7  Whereunto  I  am  appointed 
a  preacher,  and  an  apostle,  and  a 

1.  3;  1  Pet.  1.  20. - xl  Cor.  15.  54;  Heb.  2.  14. 

- V  Acts  9.  15;  Eph.  3.  7 ;  1  Tim.  2.  7. 

mortality  of  the  soul,  based  on  its  own 
intrinsic  immaterial  nature,  whetlur 
that  be  verity  or  not ;  but  of  that 
life  of  the  soul  consequent  on  the 
restoration  of  the  race  on  the  proba¬ 
tionary  basis  as  correspondent  to  the 
resurrection  of  the  body.  Note  on 
1  Cor.  xv,  14.  Immortality  —  Not 
undyingness ;  not  the  non- annihilation 
of  the  soul ;  but  the  incorruptibility  of 
the  resurrection  body.  Note,  1  Cor. 
xv,  42,  43.  Through  the  gospel 
— For,  as  it  is  Christ’s  epiphany  that 
has  secured  this  resurrective  insol ubil- 
hy,  so  it  is  his  gospel  that  throws 
light  upon  and  discloses  it  to  men.  All 
this  implies  not  that  the  doctrine  of 
future  life  was  previously  unknown  to 
the  wmrld.  On  the  contrary,  it  has  been 
an  almost  universal  thought  in  the  mind 
of  the  race.  Our  love  of  life,  (shared 
with  the  lower  animals,)  united  with 
our  intuitive  idea  of  the  eternal,  (un¬ 
shared  by  lower  races.)  becomes  a  hope 
of  endless  life.  Conscience  adds  the 
thought  of  retribution,  which  finds  its 
realization  only  in  a  future  existence. 
The  earliest  records  of  the  race,  dis¬ 
closed  by  Egyptian  obelisks  and  As¬ 
syrian  bricks,  reveal  the  fact  that  prim¬ 
itive  men  even  clothed  the  conception  of 
immortality  with  an  imaginative  and  oft¬ 
en  fantastic  costume  of  bodily  resurrec¬ 
tions.  It  is  the  gospel  which  presents 
in  Christ  the  definite  cause,  method, 
and  results  of  life  and  immortality. 

11.  Whereunto — To  this  most  glo¬ 
rious  gospel.  Appointed  —  Not  by 
my  own  assumption,  but  by  divine  will. 
Verse  1.  A  preacher — A  herald ;  for 
so  the  Greek  word  signifies.  A  herald 
was  an  appointed  messenger  in  w'ar 
from  one  side  to  the  other,  whose  per¬ 
son  was  sacred  while  in  performance 
of  his  duties.  Often  was  he  the  bear¬ 
er  of  terms  of  peace;  lienee  weapons 
of  war  must  be  quiet  in  his  presence. 
Apostle — Note,  Matt,  x,  1,  2;  Luke  i,  2. 


446 


II.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  67. 


teacher  of  the  Gentiles.  12  zFor 
the  which  cause  I  also  suffer  these 
things  :  nevertheless  I  am  not 
ashamed  ;  a  for  I  know  whom  I 
have  1  believed,  and  am  persuad¬ 
ed  that  he  is  able  to  b  keep  that 
which  I  have  committed  unto  him 
c  against  that  day.  13  d  Hold  fast 

*  Eph.  3.  1. a  \  Pet.  4.  19. 1  Or,  trusted. 

- b  1  Tin).  6.  20. - cCliap.  4.  8;  2  Thess.  1.  10. 

- d  Chap.  3.  14;  Titus  1.  9;  Heb.  10.  23;  Rev. 

Of  the  Gentiles — Which  most  of  the 
Ephesian  Church  were. 

12.  For  the  which  cause — For  this 
divine  and  eternal  purpose  and  salva¬ 
tion  of  vv.  9-1 1.  Suffer. .  .not  ashamed 
— As  he  had  charged  Timothy,  ver.  8, 
to  be  not  ashamed  either  of  the  cause 
or  its  apostle.  For  this  suffer  had  a 
terrible  garb  of  ignominy  about  it.  The 
chain,  the  base  soldier,  the  surrounding 
crowd  of  malefactors,  the  scorn  of  the 
Roman  world,  and  the  withdrawal  of 
even  professing  Christians,  were  al¬ 
most  overwhelming  loads  of  shame. 
Hence  our  apostle  is  obliged  to  say 
even  to  his  beloved  son  Timothy,  be 
not  ashamed,  for  I  am  not  ashamed. 
For — To  give  the  solid  reason  for  his 
not  ashamed.  I  know — There  was 
a  moveless  basis  in  this  I  know.  So 
many  proofs  he  had  had  that  he  rested 
on  the  eternal  rock.  Whom  —  That 
rock  was  Christ.  That  which  I  have 
committed — In  Greek,  a  single  word, 
ihe  deposit.  What  was  the  said  deposit  ? 
Himself;  his  own  entire  being,  tempo¬ 
ral  and  eternal,  devoted  by  faith,  be¬ 
lieved,  committed  to  Christ.  That 
day — The  day  on  which  all  Christian 
thought  was  then  resting,  the  judg¬ 
ment  advent  of  Christ. 

13.  Form  of  sound  words — Type 
of  healthful  doctrine.  Sound  words 
— 'Ihe  same  in  Greek  as  wholesome 
words  in  1  Tim.  vi,  3.  Note,  1  Tim. 
i,  10.  Form  of ..  .words,  therefore, 
does  not  signify  some  verbal  formula 
committed  to  memory,  as  the  Lord’s 
Prayer  or  the  Apostles’  Creed.  Words 
mean  principles  or  doctrines,  and  the 
form  of  sound  words  was  the  type  or 
system  of  healthful  theology  which 
Timothy  had  often  heard  from  St.  Paul, 
and  of  which  9-11  is  a  summary.  It 


ethe  form  of  fscind  words,  *which 
thou  hast  hearc  of  me,  hin  faith 
and  love  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 
14  'That  good  thing  which  was 
committed  unto  thee  keep  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  k  which  dwelleth  in  us. 

15  This  thou  knowest,  that  lall 
they  which  are  in  Asia  be  m  turned 

2.  25. - e  Rom.  2.  20;  6.  17. - f\  Tim,  1.  10. - 

a  Chap.2.  2. - h  1  Tim.l.  14. - i  1  Tim.  6.  20. - 

k  Rom.  8. 11. - 1  Acts  19. 10. - m  Chap.  4.10,  lfi. 

was  to  be  held  in  Timothy’s  firm 
faith,  and  in  that  love  which  in 
Christ  Jesus  animated  his  heart. 

14.  Good  thing  . . .  committed  — 

That  deposit;  namely,  the  gift  of  ver.  G. 
Keep  —  By  faithfulness  in  its  dis¬ 
charge,  not  solely  in  his  own  strength, 
but  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  us — The 
common  inheritance  of  all  Christians. 

3.  Maintained  amid  apostasies  of 
many,  with  rare  exception,  15-18. 

15.  This — The  sad  desertion  of  Paul 
by  his  friends  in  Asia  Minor.  If  we 
accepted  our  English  translation  of  the 
words  we  should  be  inclined  to  adopt 
the  conclusions  of  Renan,  that  all 
Asia  went  over  to  the  Judaists,  adopt¬ 
ing  the  “Petrine  gospel;”  that  Paul 
was,  during  the  first  age,  forgotten ; 
and  that  it  was  not  until  the  Church, 
taught  by  advancing  time,  dismissed 
the  expectation  of  an  approaching  ad¬ 
vent,  and  made  search  for  documents 
to  form  her  future  canon,  that  St. 
Paul’s  numerous  epistles  came  into 
Scripture,  and  renewed  his  fame  in 
the  Church.  But  the  Greek  aorist 
requires  that  be  turned  should  bo 
rendered  simply  turned,  pointing  to 
a  particular  time,  namely,  the  crisis  of 
his  trial ;  the  same  period  as  that  in 
which  Onesiphorus  was  so  faithful. 
The  idea,  then,  is,  that  the  Christians 
in  Asia  deserted  Paul  at  his  moment 
of  need ;  those  who  came  to  Rome, 
Phygellus  and  Hermogenes,  by  as 
strictly  avoiding  him,  and  the  rest  in 
Asia  by  inaction  through  fear,  shame, 
or  negligence,  endorsing  the  avoidance. 
This,  however,  involves  no  permanent 
rejection  of  Paul  or  Pauline  doctrine. 
Wiesinger  thinks,  that  the  all  in  Asia 
were  those  who  had  been  at  Rome  dur 
ing  Paul’s  crisis,  but  had  now  returned 


A.  D.  67. 


CHAPTER  I. 


447 


away  from  me ;  of  whom  are  Phy- 
gellus  and  Hermogenes.  16  The 
Lord  ngive  mercy  unto  *the  house 
of  Onesiphorus  ;  pfor  he  oft  re¬ 
freshed  me,  and  ^was  not  ashamed 
of  rmy  chain:  17  But,  when  he 
was  in  Rome,  he  sought  me  out 

wMatt.  5.  7. - o  Chap.  4.  19. - v  Philem.  7. 

q  Verse  8. r  Acts  28.  20;  Eph.  6.  20. 

to  Asia.  Huther  suggests  the  con¬ 
struction  :  All  they  in  Asia  belonging 
to  Phygellus  and  Hermogenes.  This 
thou  knowest  —  For  thou  art  thyself 
in  Asia,  and  knowest  how  they  in 
Asia  behave.  Asia  —  See  note,  Acts 
vi,  9.  This  Asia  included  the  great 
provinces  of  Mysia,  Lydia,  and  Caria, 
bordering  on  the  FEgean.  Timothy’s 
residence  was  at  its  capital,  Ephesus. 
Turned  from  me  —  Stood  aloof  from, 
deserted  me.  Phygellus  and  Her¬ 
mogenes  —  Mentioned  only  here,  as 
flagrant  specimens  of  those  who  de¬ 
serted  him  in  his  trial,  in  contrast  with 
the  earnest  adherence  of  Onesiphorus 
and  the  firmness  of  Luke.  Chap,  iv,  11. 

1 6.  Onesiphorus  is  one  bright  ex¬ 
ception  to  this  desertion.  House  — 
Implying,  perhaps,  that  he  was  himself 
dead.  Refreshed — As  a  cooling  does 
a  heated  person.  Not  ashamed —  As 
St.  Paul  was  not.  verse  12,  and  Timothy 
should  not  be,  verse  8.  My  chain — 


Sometimes  two  chains.  Note,  Acts 
xii,  6 ;  and  so  Acts  xxi,  33.  Note,  Eph. 
vi,  20. 

17.  But — Contrastive.  He  did  not 
find  business  too  pressing  to  attend  to 
me,  or  find  his  Jewish  or  Roman 
friends  too  respectable  to  condescend 
to  me,  but.  Was  in  Rome — Drawn 
there  by  some  other  call,  as  probably 
business,  which  often  drew  Asiatics  to 


very  diligently,  and  found  me. 
IS  The  Lord  grant  unto  him 
8 that  he  may  find  mercy  of  the 
Lord  ‘in  that  day:  and  in  how 
many  things  he  “ministered  unto 
me  at  Ephesus,  thou  knowest  very 
well. 

s  Matt.  25.  34-40. - £2  Thess.  1.  10;  verse  12. 

u  Heb.  0.  10. 

Rome.  Notes  on  Acts  xix,  1  ;  and  on 
xviii,  19.  Sought  —  For  such  was  the 
obscurity  of  my  condition  that  I  need¬ 
ed  to  be  sought  and  found. 

18.  Lord  grant  —  If  Onesiphorus 
was  deceased,  here,  say  the  Romanists, 
is  a  prayer  for  the  dead.  In  the  early 
epitaphs  of  the  catacombs,  as  Mr. 
Withrow  informs  us,  a  rare  instance 
or  two  is  found  of  a  devout  wish  for 
the  bliss  of  the  dead.  One,  dated  A.  D. 
268,  reads,  “Mayest  thou  live  among 
the  holy  ones.”  Another,  291,  reads, 
“  Refresh  thyself  among  sainted  spir¬ 
its.”  And  so  the  English  service  for 
burial  of  the  dead,  “  Beseeching  Thee, 
that  it  may  please  Thee  of  Thy  gra¬ 
cious  goodness  to  accomplish  the  num¬ 
ber  of  Thine  elect,  and  to  hasten  Thy 
kingdom;  that  we,  with  all  those  that 
are  departed  in  the  true  faith  of  Thy 
Holy  Name,  may  have  our  perfect  con¬ 
summation  and  bliss,  both  in  body  and 
soul,  in  Thy  everlasting  glory.”  Wes¬ 
ley,  in  his  Journal,  thus  describes  the 
tomb  of  Bishop  Bedell:  “A  plain  flat 
stone,  inscribed,  ‘  Depositum  Gulielmi 
Bedell ,  quondam  Episcopi  Kilmorensis :  ’ 
over  whom  the  Rebel  army  sung,  LRe- 
quiescat  in  pace  ultimus  Anglorum  ’ — 
May  he  rest  in  peace,  last  of  the  En¬ 
glishmen.”  All  these  ejaculations  were 
not  prayers  for  the  redemption  of  the 
wicked  dead,  but  devout  accords  with 
the  divine  will  in  the  final  glorification 
of  the  holy  dead,  with  us.  Of  the 
Lord  —  A  similar  repetition  of  thf 
word  Lord  in  Gen.  xix,  24.  Proba 
bly  St.  Paul,  in  the  course  of  writing 
the  sentence,  remembers  that  Christ  is 
judge  in  that  day  without  taking  into 
view  the  fact  that  he  had  already  men¬ 
tioned  him  as  Lord.  Thou,  as  being 
at  Ephesus,  knowest  very  well ; 
Greek,  better ,  that  is,  than  I;  or  better 
than  you  know  his  well-doing  in  Rome. 


448 


II.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  67 


CHAPTER  II. 

^rHIOU  therefore,  a  my  son,  b  be 
I  strong  in  the  grace  that  is  in 
Christ  Jesus.  2  cAnd  the  things 
that  thou  hast  heard  of  me  1 * 3 4 5  among 
many  witnesses, d  the  same  commit 
thou  to  faithful  men,  who  shall  be 
eable  to  teach  others  also.  3  1  Thou 


a\  Tim.  1.  2. - &Eph.  6.  10. - cChap.  1.  13; 

3.  10. - 1  Or,  by. - d  1  Tim.  1.  18. - e  1  Tim. 


CHAPTER  II. 

II.  Confirmation  of  Timothy  in 
THE  COMING  FUTURE,  1-26. 

1.  Personal  appeal  for  boldness, 
hardihood,  endurance  of  sufferings, 
in  hope  of  final  glory,  1-13. 

1.  Thou  —  The  Greek  thou,  in  itself 
emphatic,  and  also  by  position  in  strong 
antithesis  to  the  deserters  of  i,  15,  and 
in  accordance  with  Onesiphorus.  Chap, 
i,  16-18.  Be  strong— Warned  by  the 
first  and  confirmed  by  the  second. 

2.  Not  only  must  Timothy  be  strong 
for  the  gospel,  but  he  must  plan  for  its 
future  permanence.  Heard.  .  .among 
..  .witnesses  — The  Greek  aorist  re¬ 
quires  not  hast  heard,  but  heardst, 
that  is,  heard  on  a  particular  occasion, 
namely,  at  his  ordination.  Chap,  i,  6  ; 
and  1  Tim.  iv,  14.  The  Greek  is,  through 
many  witnesses,  referring,  perhaps, 
to  the  elders  present  at  the  laying  on  of 
hands, through  whom, as  testifiers,  Paul's 
charge  was  confirmed  unto  Timothy. 

This  verse  commends  successionalism 
as  a  method  of  continuing  faith  and 
piety  in  the  Church  ;  a  successionalism 
authenticated  by  ordination.  But  the 
succession  and  the  ordination  are  a 
means,  and  not  an  end.  The  end  is  the 
transmission  of  a  true  doctrine  and  a 
genuine  piety.  Where  the  ordination 
would  transmit  a  false  doctrine  and  a 
spurious  piety  the  ordination  loses  its 
power.  The  ordination  is  as  truly  test¬ 
ed  by  the  faith  and  piety,  as  the  faith 
and  piety  by  the  ordination. 

The  verse  also  indicates  that  a  gen¬ 
uine  tradition,  handed  down  from  apos¬ 
tolic  authority,  has  a  valid  authority. 
Only,  first ,  its  genuineness  is  to  be  com¬ 
pletely  proved;  and,  second ,  it  must  ap¬ 
pear  that  the  tradition  was  intended  by 


therefore  endure  hardness,  *as  a 
good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ.  4  hNo 
man  that  warreth  entangleth  him¬ 
self  with  the  affairs  of  this  life; 
that  he  may  please  him  who  hath 
chosen  him  to  be  a  soldier.  5  And 
1  if  a  man  also  strive  for  masteries, 
yet  is  he  not  crowned,  except  he 

3.  2;  Titus  1.  9. — -/Chap.  1.  8;  4.  5. - g\  Tim. 

1.  18. - hi  Cor.  9.  25. - i  1  Cor.  9.  25,  26. 


the  apostolic  authority  to  be  a  law  for 
the  Church.  But  as  complex  doctrinal 
traditions,  orally  transmitted,  are  liable 
to  corruption,  we  have  the  written  word 
as  the  sure  ultimate  test.  This  is  re¬ 
corded  tradition,  and  where  the  text  is 
well  verified,  this  becomes  the  safe  cri¬ 
terion  of  doctrine.  It  is  notable,  that, 
though  Paul  claims  apostolic  authority 
in  delivering  sure  Christian  truth,  he 
claims  not,  nor  seems  to  realize,  that  his 
own  written  words  were  to  be  the  future 

Scripture  of  the  Church.  By  the  mind 
of  the  Church  it  was,  that  when  the 
spoken  words  of  the  apostles  began  to 
fade  from  memory,  the  written  word 
was  placed  in  the  position  of  Scripture 
authority. 

3.  Endure — The  English  translation 
omits  the  prefix  that  implies  fellowship 
of  endurance ,  co-suffering  ;  endure- 
hardness-with-me ;  co-suffer  as  a  good 
soldier,  who  shares  with  a  fellow, 
shoulder  to  shoulder,  the  privation  and 
the  fight.  And  this  endurance  St.  Paul 
now  enforces  from  the  analogy  of  the 
soldier,  the  gymnast,  and  the  husband¬ 
man. 

4.  Warreth — Is  engaged  in  the  ac¬ 
tual  war.  Affairs — Mercantile  or  other 
engagements.  Him  —  His  general  or 
his  king.  The  rule  excluding  the  sol¬ 
dier  from  trade  or  other  civil  employ¬ 
ments  is  strongly  expressed  by  ancient 
writers.  “  Unworthy  and  disgraceful 
to  a  man  in  arms  is  business.  ’  He 
who  fights  for  a  commander  is  prohibit¬ 
ed  from  undertaking  litigation,  the  prac¬ 
tice  of  law,  and  mercantile  occupation.’’ 

5.  Crowned — Notes  on  1  Cor.  ix.  25. 
Lawfully — This  implies  not  only  that 
he  loses  his  crown  by  any  unfairness, 
or  violation  of  rule  in  the  race,  but  by 
any  such  violation  of  the  laws  of  diet 


A.  D.  67. 


CHAPTER  II. 


449 


strive  lawfully.  6  k  2  The  husband¬ 
man  that  laboureth  must  be  first 
partaker  of  the  f  ruits.  7  Consider 
what  I  say  ;  and  the  Lord  give 
thee  understanding  in  all  things. 

8  Remember  that  Jesus  Christ 1  of 
the  seed  of  David  m  was  raised  from 
the  dead,  n  according  to  my  gospel : 

9  •  Wherein  I  suffer  trouble,  as  an 


i  evil  doer,  v  even  unto  bonds;  *  but 
the  word  of  God  is  not  bound. 
10  Therefore  rI  endure  all  things 
for  the  elect’s  sakes,  8  that  they 
may  also  obtain  the  salvation  which 
is  in  Christ  Jesus  with  eternal  glo¬ 
ry.  11  xIt  is  a  faithful  saying:  For 
uif  we  be  dead  with  Mm ,  we  shall 
also  live  with  Mm:  12  vIf  we 


k  1  Cor.  9.  10. - 2  Or,  The  husbandman, 

labouring  first,  must  be  partaker  of  the 

fruits. - ZActs  2.  30;  13.  23;  Rom.  1.  3,  4. - 

m  1  Cor.  15.  1,  4,  20. - n  Rom.  2.  16. - o  Acts 

9.  16;  chap.  1.  12. 


V  Eph.  3.  1 ;  Phil.  1.  7 ;  Col.  4.  3,  18. —  q  Acts 

28.  31;  Eph.  6.  19;  Phil.  1.  13. - r  Eph.  3.  13; 

Col.  1.  24. - %  2  Cor.  1.  6. - 1 1  Tim.  1.  15. - 


u  Rom.  6.  5 ;  2  Cor.  4. 10. 
4.  13. 


r  Rom.  8.  17 ;  1  Pet. 


and  training  as  were  necessary  to  his 
ability  to  win. 

6.  First — Many  commentators  think 
that  St.  Paul’s  first  should  be  so  placed 
as  to  qualify  laboureth,  and  so  should 
mean  that  there  must  first  be  labour 
before  there  can  be  enjoyment  of  fruits. 
But  the  emphasis  must  be  on  labour¬ 
eth,  and  the  meaning  is,  that  it  is  he 
who  laboureth  that  has  the  first,  and 
best,  and,  in  truth,  only,  right  to  the 
fruits.  He  who  laboureth  but  slight¬ 
ly,  or  not  at  all,  comes  after,  or  is  no¬ 
where. 

7.  Consider  —  A  cautionary  hint, 
not  based  upon  the  difficulty  of  inter¬ 
preting  the  above  figures,  but  upon  the 
weightiness  of  the  meaning  they  em¬ 
brace.  Hence  they  are  to  be  revolved 
in  the  highest  region  of  mind,  and 
transformed  into  permanent  principle 
of  action.  Understanding — The  high¬ 
est  intuitive  penetration,  the  deepest 
spiritual  insight,  in  all  things  of  di¬ 
vine  truth  and  ministerial  management. 

8-13.  Incitements  from  the  truths 
of  Christ’s  incarnation  and  resurrec¬ 
tion. 

8.  Remember — Hot  only  consider, 
verse  7,  but  the  antithesis  of  the  two 
foundation  truths  do  you  remember. 
Seed  of  David — And  so  a  true-born 
man.  Raised  from  the  dead — And 
so  exalted  to  the  head  of  humanity. 
My  gospel — Note,  2  Cor.  iv,  3.  The 
gospel  by  me  now  most  carefully  com¬ 
mitted  to  your  charge. 

9.  Suffer  trouble — Fair  justification 
for  calling  it  my  gospel.  Word  — 
That  same  gospel.  Not  bound — The 
apparent  defeat  of  the  preacher  pre¬ 
rents  not  the  triumph  of  his  gospel. 

Vol.  IV.— 29 


10.  Therefore — The  commentators 
seem  to  miss  the  inference  indicated  by 
this  connective.  Bengel  and  Huther 
interpret  it :  The  word  of  God  is  not 
bound,  therefore  I  endure,  etc.  But 
Alford  clearly  shows  that  this  is  nei¬ 
ther  the  inference  nor  a  valid  one.  But 
Alford  equally  misses  by  making  the 
therefore  indicate  a  reason  about  to  be 
given,  namely,  the  elect’s  sake.  But 
clearly  therefore  connects  back  with 
verse  8,  my  gospel,  as  embracing  the 
two  memorable  facts  of  the  incarnation 
and  resurrection.  Christ  was  born  and 
raised  according  to  my  irrepressible 
gospel,  therefore  do  I  endure  all 
things  for  the  elect’s  sakes.  And 
then  he  runs  the  antithesis  of  the  born 
and  raised,  the  incarnation  and  the 
exaltation,  through  every  verse  to  18. 
And  thus  verse  8  is  keynote  to  the 
whole  paragraph,  and  verse  9  is  no  in¬ 
terruption  between  8  and  10.  For  the 
elect’s  sakes  —  Those  elect  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  faith ;  but  whose  future  ob¬ 
tain  the  salvation  is  dependent  upon 
the  three  ifs  of  the  three  following 
verses. 

11-13.  The  dead,  suffer,  believe, 

of  these  verses  present  us  in  the  hum¬ 
ble  side  of  the  antithesis  of  ver.  8.  The 

live,  reign,  abideth,  furnish  the  ex¬ 
alted  side. 

11.  Saying — Rather,  faithful  is  the. 
saying ;  for  (omitted  in  the  English) 
it  is  a  changeless  truth  that  if  we,  etc. 
Be  dead — Christ’s  human  antecedent 
before  his  resurrection.  But  the  Greek 
aorist  requires  the  rendering,  If  we 
died  with  him.  Hence  many  commen¬ 
tators  refer  it  (Rom.  vi,  8)  to  spiritual 
death,  “  the  negative  side  of  our  regen- 


450 


II.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  67 


suffer,  we  shall  also  reign  with 
him:  w  if  we  deny  him,  he  also  will 
deny  us:  13  x  If  we  believe  not, 
yet  he  abideth  faithful:  *  he  cannot 
deny  himself. 

14  Of  these  things  put  them  in 
remembrance,  z  charging  them  be¬ 
fore  the  Lord  *  that  they  strive 

7 d  Matt.  10.  33;  Mark  8.  38;  Luke  13.  0. - 

x  Rom.  3.  3;  9.  6, - i/Num.  23.  19. - z  1  Tim. 

eration,”  as  Huther  expresses  it.  Al¬ 
ford  fixes  the  time  at  baptism.  Hu- 
ther,  perhaps  more  correctly,  refers  it 
to  the  real  or  virtual  martyrdom  the 
Christian  undergoes  in  identity  with 
Christ’s  death,  quoting  Phil,  iii,  10. 
Live — The  glorified  life  of  Rev.  xx,  4. 

13.  Abideth  faithful — Faithful 
to  what?  Not  faithful  to  restore  us 
from  our  apostasy  and  still  save  us. 
Nor,  as  Alford,  (and,  indeed,  all  the 
commentators  we  consult  seem  to  miss 
here,)  faithful  to  his  promise  above  to 
deny  us  if  we  believe  not.  But  faith¬ 
ful  to  the  very  one  to  whom  we  are 
unfaithful  and  unbelieving  —  himself. 
He  will  be  true  to  his  own  identity,  his 
own  glorious  self.  That  he  will  be  firm 
to  his  purpose  to  deny  us  for  our  un¬ 
faithfulness  is,  however,  inferentially 
included.  Cannot  deny  himself — 
His  own  glorious  nature  will  forever 
unequivocally  assert  itself,  both  in  be¬ 
ing  what  he  is,  and  doing  with  absolute 
perfectness  all  that  becomes  his  nature. 
And  that  nature  will  take  ail  who  are 
in  accordance  with  it  into  glorious  uni¬ 
ty  with  itself,  and  reject  all  that  are 
discordant  with  it  from  itself. 

2.  Timothy’s  duty  of  warning 
the  people  against  the  noisy  errors 
of  apostates  from  the  sure  founda¬ 
tion,  14-19. 

14.  These  things — The  entire  state¬ 
ment  of  my  gospel,  8-13;  namely, 
Christ’s  incarnation  and  resurrection , 
with  our  parallelism  thereto.  Them — 
The  errorists ;  especially  in  regard  to  the 
resurrection,  verse  18;  who  are  hith¬ 
erto  unnamed  but  not  far  out  of  mind 
Before  the  Lord — 1  Tim.  vi,  13. 
Strive  not  about  words — Not  prac¬ 
tice  logomachy ,  or  word-fight.  1  Tim. 
vi,  4.  These  dreamers,  having  little 
real  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  things , 


not  about  words  to  no  profit,  but 
to  the  subverting  of  the  hear¬ 
ers.  15  Study  to  show  thyself 
approved  unto  God,  a  workman 
that  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed, 
lightly  dividing  the  word  of  truth. 
16  But  bshun  profane  and  vain 
babblings:  for  they  will  increase 

5.  21;  6. 13;  chap.  4.1. alTim.  1.  4;  6.  4;  Titus 

3.  9,  ii. - bl  Tim.  4.  7;  6.  20;  Titus  1.  14. 

formed  systelns  of  words  for  which 
there  was  no  answering  object.  The 
realistic  sense  of  St.  Paul  rejected  such 
word-fabrics  without  ceremony.  Sub¬ 
verting — Overthrow,  as  of  a  house  or 
city. 

15.  Study  —  Be  earnest  or  zealous 
A  workman — A  labourer,  whethei 
husbandman  or  artisan.  Rightly  di¬ 
viding  the  word  —  Commentators 
greatly  differ  as  to  the  figure.  Me- 
lanchthon  supposed  the  allusion  to  be 
made  to  the  priest  dividing  the  sacri¬ 
ficial  victim ;  but  this  suits  not  the 
word  workman.  A  similar  objection 
lies  against  Calvin’s  applying  it  to  a 
carver  cutting  bread.  The  applying 
it  to  a  ploughman  cutting  a  furrow 
makes  no  apposite  illustration.  The 
most  suitable  is  the  image  of  a  car¬ 
penter  or  architect  rightly,  with  square 
and  compass,  dividing  the  parts  of  a 
timber.  The  thought  as  regards  the 
preacher  is  not  so  much  that  he  divides 
for  each  class  of  persons  their  own 
appropriate  share ;  but  that  he  so  dis¬ 
tributes  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel  as 
to  give  each  its  proportion,  place,  and 
measure,  so  as  to  preserve  the  symme¬ 
try  of  Christian  truth,  in  order  to  assign 
to  each  class  of  errorists  their  proper 
representation  and  antidote. 

16.  Babblings — Greek,  empty -vocal - 
ities ;  like  logomachy ,  words  to  which 
there  were  no  correspondent  things. 
Both  designate  those  truthless  systems 
set  by  Timothy’s  opposers  over  against 
St.  Paul’s  type  of  saving  doctrine  (see 
note,  i,  13)  given  in  8-13,  especially 
as  appears  by  verse  18  against  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  the  resurrection.  Unto 
more  ungodliness  —  From  their  un- 
meanings  they  will  advance  to  bad 
meanings,  and  from  bad  meanings  to 
bad  purposes  and  actions.  This  is  in- 


A.  D.  67. 


CHAPTER  II. 


451 


nnto  more  ungodliness.  17  And 
their  word  will  eat  as  doth  a 
0  canker  :  of  whom  is  c  Hymene- 
us  and  Philetus  ;  1§  Who  con¬ 
cerning  d  the  truth  have  erred, 
e  saying  that  the  resurrection  is 
past  already;  and  overthrow  the 

3  Or,  gangrene. - cl  Tim.  1.  20. - d\  Tim. 

6.  21. - e  1  Cor.  15.  12. - -f  Matt.  24.  24 ;  Rom. 

dicated  by  St.  Paul’s  prophetic  descrip¬ 
tion  of  their  future  in  iii,  1-9.  It  is  the 
impiety  resulting  from  errorism  that 
awakens  St.  Paul’s  deep  concern  and 
calls  forth  his  warnings  to  Timothy. 

17.  Canker — A  gangrene ;  called  by 
some  “  an  incipient  mortification.”  A 
corrupted  spot,  eating  in  every  direc¬ 
tion  from  its  centre,  until  it  corrupts 
and  destroys  the  whole.  So  one  fatal 
error  or  sin  may  spread  its  influence 
over  the  whole  character,  destroying 
the  moral  nature.  And  so,  collectively, 
(as  St.  Jerome  quoted  by  Huther  says,) 
“a  perverse  doctrine,  commencing  with 
one  individual,  at  first  scarce  finds  two 
or  three  listeners,  but  by  degrees  it 
creeps  like  a  canker  over  the  whole 
body.”  Philetus  —  Only  mentioned 
here.  Hymeneus — Note,  1  Tim.  i,  20. 

18.  Resurrection  is  past — As  be¬ 
ing  nothing  more  than  the  spiritual  re¬ 
covery  of  man’s  dead  soul  to  life.  By 
this  view,  the  true  identification  of  our 
life  and  glorification  with  the  incarna¬ 
tion  of  Christ  and  his  glorification  (vv. 
8,  10-13)  is  obscured.  Overthrow 
the  faith  —  As  a  structure  is  over¬ 
thrown. 

19.  Nevertheless  —  Although  the 
faith  of  some  is  overthrown,  the  basis 
of  faith  is  permanent ;  for  God's  foun¬ 
dation  standeth  (as  Alford  rightly  ren¬ 
ders)  firm.  What  is  that  foundation  ? 
Alford  and  Huther  both  answer,  the 
Church.  But  surely  the  Church  has  a 
deeper  foundation  than  itself,  namely, 
the  incarnate  and  risen  Saviour  of 
verse  8 ;  the  relation  of  the  Church  to 
whom  is  described  in  vv.  11-13.  And 
although  the  denial  of  the  resurrec¬ 
tion,  verse  18,  obscures  Christ,  and 
overthrows  the  structure,  of  the  faith 
of  some,  still  that  foundation,  Jesus 
Christ,  born  and  raised,  standeth 
sure,  the  moveless  basis  of  -the  faith 


faith  of  some.  19  Nevertheless 
fthe  foundation  of  God  standeth 
4  sure,  having  this  seal,  The  Lord 
e  knoweth  them  that  are  his.  And, 
Let  every  one  that  nameth  the 
name  of  Christ  depart  from  ini¬ 
quity^ _ 

8.  35;  1  John  2.  19. - 4  Or,  steady. - g  Nah. 

1.  7;  John  10.  14,  27;  see  Nmn.  16.  5. 


of  all  persevering  believers.  Having 
this  seal — The  seal  suggests  the  motto 


inscribed  upon  the  seal ;  yet  the  seal 
itself  implies  the  surety  of  the  founda¬ 
tion.  Motto  first:  Lord  knoweth — 
An  allusion  to  JSIum.  xvi,  5,  “The  Lord 
will  show  wno  are  his ;  ”  in  the  Septua- 
gint,  “  The  Lord  knoweth  (or  knew)  who 
are  his.”  That  is,  Jehovah  knew  who 
of  Israel  were  true  worshippers,  in  con¬ 
trast  to  Korah  and  his  company.  That 
seal-motto  St.  Paul  declares  is  still  un¬ 
obliterated.  Those  who  suffer  and  be¬ 
lieve  with  him,  vv.  11-13,  will  be  by 
him  confessed.  Motto  second:  De¬ 
part — A  clear  allusion,  as  Ellicott  right¬ 
ly  suggests,  to  Num.  xvi,  26,  where  the 
true  Israel  are  bidden  to  “  Depart . .  . 
from  the  tents  of  these  wicked  men,” 
the  Korahites.  So  must  the  true  be¬ 
lievers  in  Christ  depart  from  the  in¬ 
iquity  of  these  deniers  of  the  resur¬ 
rection.  Nameth  the  name— As  ac¬ 
knowledging  him  to  lie  what  his  name 
means,  the  Lord. 


II.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  67. 


452 


20  h  But  in  a  great  house  there 
are  not  only  vessels  of  gold  and 
of  silver,  but  also  of  wood  and  of 
earth;  ‘and  some  to  honour,  and 
some  to  dishonour.  21  k  If  a  man 
therefore  purge  himself  from  these, 
lie  shall  be  a  vessel  unto  honour, 
sanctified,  and  meet  for  the  mas¬ 
ter’s  use,  and  1  prepared  unto  every 
good  work.  22  rn  Flee  also  youth¬ 
ful  lusts:  but  follow  righteousness, 
faith,  charity,  peace,  with  them 


h  1  Tim.  3.  15. - i  Rom.  9.  21. - k  Isa.  52.  11. 

- 1  Chap.  3.  17;  Titus  3.  1. - m  Psa.  119,  9. 

- n  Acts  9.  14;  1  Cor.  1.  2. - o  1  Tim.  1.  5; 

4.  12. - v  1  Tim.  1.  4;  4.  7;  6.  4;  verse  16; 


3.  Personally  purged  and  pure 
both  from  lusts  and  heresy,  he  may 
meekly  instruct  others,  20-26. 

20.  But — Although  this  separation 
of  characters  is  necessary,  yet  there 
surely  will  be  a  mixed  whole.  A  great 
house  —  The  Church ,  as  Alford  and 
Huther  say.  But  were  the  errorists 
(who  are  clearly  represented  by  the 
vessels  to  dishonour)  part  of  the 
Church?  More  strictly  the  house  is 
the  great  body  of  thinkers  with  whom 
Timothy  had  to  do ;  and,  perhaps  still 
more  comprehensively,  the  great  world 
of  free  agents,  as  the  same  two  classes 
of  vessels  in  Rom.  ix,  21,  22,  signify. 

21.  Purge  himself  (in  obedience  to 
the  second  motto  in  verse  19)  from 
these  modern  Korahites,  the  vessels 
of  dishonour.  The  simile  is  carried 
out  with  much  completeness.  The 
cleaned  dish  is  ready  for  all  cleanly  use 
by  the  owner. 

22.  Also — More  truly,  hut ,  the  incor¬ 
rect  rendering  of  which  obscures  the 
connexion.  But  in  order  to  purge  thy¬ 
self,  as  just  directed,  flee. .  .youthful 
lusts.  The  connexion  is  not,  as  Alford 
thinks,  back  to  verse  16,  nor  is  the  in¬ 
tervening  part,  17—21,  “a  digression;  ” 
but  the  line  of  direct  thought  is  carried 
on  from  verse  21.  Lusts  —  In  the 
Greek  not  mainly  a  sexual  term.  It  is 
used  in  a  good  sense  as  desire  in  Phil, 
i,  23;  so  worldly  lusts,  Titus  ii,  12. 
Timothy  was  now  near  forty,  and  it 
was  doubtless  time  to  renounce  the  im¬ 
pulses  and  ambitions  of  a  young  man. 


that  "call  on  the  Lord  #out  of  a 
pure  heart.  23  But  p  foolish  and 
unlearned  questions  avoid,  know¬ 
ing  that  they  do  gender  strifes. 

24  And  q  the  servant  of  the  Lord 
must  not  strive;  but  be  gentle  un¬ 
to  all  men,  rapt  to  teach,  6 patient; 

25  8  In  meekness  instructing  those 

that  oppose  themselves;  ‘if  God 
peradventure  will  give  them  re¬ 
pentance  u  to  the  acknowledging 
of  the  truth ;  26  And  that  they 


Titus  3.9. - q  Titus  3.2. - r  1  Tim.  3.  2,3; 

Titus  1.  9. - 5  Or,  forbearing. - %  Gal.  6.  1; 

1  Tim.  6.  11;  1  Pet.  3.  15. - *Acts  8.  22. - 

u  1  Tim.  2.  4 ;  chap.  3.  7 ;  Titus  1.  1. 


But  (in  contrast  flee)  follow  right¬ 
eousness,  or  rectitude  of  conduct. 
Them. .  .heart  —  In  distinction  from 
the  errorists,  with  whom  peace  may 
be  impracticable. 

23.  But  —  In  order  to  attain  peace, 
even  with  these,  avoid  foolish  ques¬ 
tions,  inquiries,  and  discussions  about 
subtle  unrealities.  Strifes — Literally, 
fights ;  that  is,  quarrels ;  contests  where 
truth  is  not  the  object,  but  in  which 
the  selfish  or  malign  emotions  are  en¬ 
gaged. 

24.  Servant  of  the  Lord  —  Who 

serves  or  represents  the  Lord’s  side  in 
the  great  discussion.  Strive  —  Our 
translators  have  consistently  given  the 
verb  strive  to  correspond  to  strifes  in 
the  previous  verse,  but  it  fails  to  corre¬ 
spond  in  meaning  because  our  English 
word  strive,  unlike  its  noun,  is  almost 
uniformly  used  in  a  good,  or  at  least 
innocent,  meaning.  The  word  quarrel 
would,  perhaps,  serve  in  both  places 
both  as  noun  and  verb.  The  Greek 
is,  literally,  fight,  used  in  both  cases 
with  a  malign  sense. 

25.  Meekness  —  Disarming  hostile 
feeling  in  order  to  give  fair  play  for 
conviction.  Give  them  repentance 
— In  consequence  of  their  readiness  of 
conviction  produced  by  your  mildness 
of  dealing.  Repentance — That  is,  the 
power,  not  the  act ,  of  repentance;  name¬ 
ly,  from  their  guilty  error,  which  be¬ 
comes  a  conversion  to  the  acknowl¬ 
edging  of  the  truth. 

26.  That — Supplied  by  the  transla* 


A.  D.  67. 


453 


CHAPTER  III. 

i 


may  6  recover  themselves  w  out  of 
the  snare  of  the  devil,  who  are 
7  taken  captive  by  him  at  his  will. 

CHAPTER  III. 

HIS  know  also,  that  a  in  the 
last  days  perilous  times  shall 
come.  2  For  men  shall  be  b lov¬ 
ers  of  their  own  selves,  c  covetous, 

6  Gr.  awake. - w  1  Tim.  3.  7. - 7  Gr.  taken 

alive. - a  1  Tim.  4.  1 ;  2  Peter  3.  3;  1  John 

’>.  18  ,  Jude  18. - b  Phil.  2.  21. - c2  Pet.  2.  3. 

— tfJude  16. el  Tim.  6.  4. 

tors,  is  superfluous.  May  recover 
themselves — Literally,  may  aviake  in 
soberness ;  a  metaphor  taken  from  per¬ 
sons  who  have  been  asleep  in  drunk¬ 
enness.  By  a  slight  but  not  ungrace¬ 
ful  mixture  of  metaphor  the  drunken¬ 
ness  is  a  snare  of  the  devil.  They 
awake  sober  from  the  devil’s  snare. 
Taken  captive — Carrying  out  the  im¬ 
age  of  a  snare.  By  him — The  devil. 
At — Captured  by  him  into  (into  obedi¬ 
ence  to)  his  own  will. 

From  the  fact  that  him  and  his  in 
this  last  clause  are  different  pronouns, 
(avrov  and  ekelvov  )  Eiiicott,  Alford,  and 
others  refer  the  last  his  to  God ;  cap-, 
tured  by  the  devil  into  God’s  will !  The 
only  reason  for  this  preposterous  per¬ 
version  Is,  that  such  a  use  of  different 
pronouns,  though  confessedly  referable 
to  the  same  person,  requires  that  the 
last  pronoun  should  be  emphatic.  Yet 
that  requirement  is  amply  satisfied  (as 
Huther  truly  notes)  by  the  rendering  : 
Captured  by  the  devil  at  his  own  will. 

CHAPTER  III. 

III.  Prediction  of  the  Apostasy 
at  the  Close  of  the  Apostolic  Age, 
and  Confirmation  of  Timothy  against 
it,  1-17. 

1 .  False  and  demoralized  charac¬ 
ter  of  the  coming  heretics,  1-9. 

1.  This  know  —  Of  this  prediction 
we  may  note,  1.  That  verse  5  shows 
that  the  apostasy  described  was  to  be 
in  the  Church ;  and,  2.  That  it  should  be 
in  Timothy’s  time.  3.  Verse  9  shows 
that  the  apostasy  would  be  exposed 
(not  cut  off)  by  the  second  advent  of 
Christ.  4.  The  whole,  with  iv,  6,  shows 


d  boasters,  6  proud,  f  blasphemers, 
s disobedient  to  parents,  unthank¬ 
ful,  unholy,  3  h  Without  natural 
affection, *  1 * 2 3 4 5  truce -breakers,  1  false 
accusers,  k  incontinent,  fierce,  de- 
spisers  of  those  that  are  good, 
4  1  Traitors,  heady,  high-minded, 
m  lovers  of  pleasures  more  than  lov¬ 
ers  of  God ;  5  Having  a  form  of 

f\  Tim.  1.  20;  2  Pet.  2.  12;  Jude  10. - g  Rom. 

1.  30. - h  Rom.  1.  31. - i  Rom.  1.  31. - 1  Or, 

makebates. - k  2  Pet.  3. 3. - 12  Pet.  2. 10. - 

m  Phil.  3, 19 ;  2  Pet.  2.  13 ;  Jude  4,  19. 

that  it  is  to  take  place  after  St.  Paul’s 
departure,  (as  in  Acts  xx,  29,  uttered 
to  this  same  Ephesus,)  and  so  at  the 
close  of  the  apostolic  age.  Last  days 
— Note,  1  Tim.  iv,  1.  Perilous — Diffi¬ 
cult  times  for  a  Timothy  to  deal  with. 
Shall  come — Shall  gradually  set  in. 

2.  Men — The  men  with  the  article ; 
the  people,  that  is,  of  the  Church  and 
professedly  religious  community,  (and 
much  worse  as  in  Rom.  i,  25-32.)  This 
catalogue  of  qualities  belonged,  of 
course,  to  the  paganism  of  the  age,  as 
the  history  of  the  times  plentifully  and 
sadly  shows.  Lovers  of  their  own 
selves — Not  merely  possessing  ra¬ 
tional  self-love  but  selfishness.  Cov¬ 
etous —  Silver-loving.  Note  on  Luke 
xvi,  14.  Boasters — Braggarts  of  qual¬ 
ities  superior  to  others.  Proud  — 
With  a  reserved  sense  of  their  own  ex¬ 
cellence.  Blasphemers  —  Reproach- 
ers  not  only  of  God,  but  of  man  also. 
Unholy — Unjust  and  irreligious. 

3.  Truce-breakers  —  Who  would 
seldom  form  any  treaty,  and  disregard 
it  if  formed.  Incontinent  —  Uncon¬ 
trolling  of  themselves.  Fierce — The 
reverse  of  mild,  passionate  and  cruel. 
Despisers.  .  .good — With  no  sympa¬ 
thy  or  respect  for  the  pious  and  excel¬ 
lent. 

4.  Traitors  —  Ready  to  sacrifice  a 
friend  for  self-interest.  Heady  — 
Headstrong,  impetuous,  rushing  heed¬ 
less  in  their  own  course.  Highmind- 
ed — Puffed  up  and  swelling  with  self- 
conceit.  Lovers  of  pleasures . . .  God 
— A  clear  and  striking  antithesis,  but 
too  descriptive  of  most  of  the  world. 

5.  Over  these  vices  these  men  would 
contrive  to  throw  a  form  of  piety  ;  but 


454 


A.  D.  67. 


II.  TDIOTIIY. 

* 


godliness,  but  "denying  the  power 
thereof:  "from  such  turn  away. 
6  For  Pof  this  sort  are  they  which 
creep  into  houses,  and  lead  captive 
silly  women  laden  with  sins,  led 
away  with  divers  lusts,  7  Ever 
learning,  and  never  able  Ho  come 

n  1  Tim.  5.  8;  Titus  1.  16. - o  2  Thess.  3.  6; 

1  Tim.  6.  5. - v  Matt.  23.  14;  Titus  1.  11. - 

q  1  Tim.  2.  4. 

the  power  by  which  piety  removes 
actual  wrong  conduct  and  character 
they  would  be  ever  practically  deny¬ 
ing.  It  would  be  an  age  of  antinomi- 
anism,  in  which  doctrine  and  profes¬ 

sion  would  be  contradicted  by  immo¬ 

rality  of  heart  and  life.  Turn  away — 

Have  no  fellowship  with  a  piety  devoid 

of  honesty. 

6.  St.  Paul  now  shows  one  of  the 
arts  by  which  these  antinomians  gain 
adherents,  namely,  by  appealing  to  the 
weaknesses  of  weak  women.  St.  Paul 
more  than  once  found  noble  women 
who  were  converted  by  his  public 
preaching.  Acts  xvii,  4.  But  these 
proselytes  crept,  like  serpents,  into  the 
women’s  apartments  to  suit  their  doc¬ 
trines  to  their  tempers.  Creep — Met¬ 
aphor,  perhaps,  from  serpents.  Silly 
women — The  Greek  diminutive,  wom- 
anlings ,  females  of  a  smaller  intellect¬ 
ual  magnitude  than  the  average.  La¬ 
den  with  sins  —  With  remorseful 
views  of  past  courses,  and  so  looking 
for  some  method  of  absolution.  So  the 
Jesuits  have,  during  their  whole  histo¬ 
ry,  held  the  secrets  of  families  in  pos¬ 
session  through  means  of  the  female 
confessional.  Women  laden  with  a 
life  of  sins  found  the  convent  their  last 
resource.  Led . .  .  lusts  —  The  word 
lusts,  same  as  ii,  22,  where  see  note. 
Here  the  strong  impulses  and  passions 
of  the  feminine  sex  are  meant,  by  which 
the  proselytes  gained  them  over. 

7.  Ever  learning  —  Being  con¬ 
tinually  poring  over  the  doctrines  of 
their  visionary  teachers,  and  trying  to 
obtain  satisfactory  discoveries.  Never 

able  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of 

the  truth — Forever  led  on  with  the 

expectation  of  firm  result,  yet  forever 

tantalized  that  no  sure  result,  no  firm 

foundation,  is  attaint. 


to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth. 

8  r  Now  ns  Jannes  and  Jambres 
withstood  Moses,  so  do  these  also 
resist  the  truth: * * * * * 6 7  8 * * * men  of  corrupt 
minds,  12 reprobate  concerning  the 
faith.  9  But  they  shall  proceed 
no  further:  for  their  folly  shall  be 

r  Exod.  7. 11. - #1  Tim.  6.  5. - <Rom.  1.  28; 

2  Cor.  13.  5 ;  Titus  1.  16. - 2  Or,  of  no  judg¬ 

ment. 

8,  9.  St.  Paul  here  seems  to  describe 
a  future,  the  type  of  which  occurs  at 
this  same  Ephesus  in  Acts  xix,  13-20, 
where  see  notes,  including  the  notes 
on  the  remainder  of  that  chapter. 

8.  Jannes  and  Jambres — The  tra¬ 
ditional  names  of  the  magicians  who  at 
Memphis  withstood  Moses  with  their 
false  miracles  opposed  to  the  true. 
Exod.  vii,  11,  22.  Origen  says,  that 
the  account  was  preserved  in  a  secret, 
or  apocryphal,  Jewish  volume  entitled 
“Jannes  and  Jambres.”  The  names 
are  found,  variously  spelled,  in  the  Tar- 
gum  of  Jonathan  on  Exod.  vii,  11,  and 
Num.  xxi,  22.  Says  Alford : — 

“  They  were  the  sons  of  Balaam — 
prophesied  to  Pharaoh  the  birdi  of 
.  Moses,  in  consequence  of  which  he 
gave  the  order  for  the  destruction  of 
the  Jewish  children — and  thencefor¬ 
ward  appear  as  the  counsellors  of  much 
of  the  evil — in  Egypt,  and  in  the  des¬ 
ert  after  the  Exodus — which  happened 
to  Israel.  They  were  variously  report¬ 
ed  to  have  perished  in  the  Red  Sea,  or 
to  have  been  killed  in  the  tumult  con¬ 
sequent  on  the  making  the  golden  calf, 
which  they  had  advised.  Origen  Con¬ 
tra  Cels.,  iv,  51,  vol.  i,  p.  543  ’ )  mentions 
the  Pythagorean  Noumenius  as  relating 
the  history  of  Jannes  and  Jambres  ;  so 
alsoEuseb.,  (Prap.  Evang.,  ix,  8, vol.  iii, 
[Migne,]  p.  412.”)  Pliny  (“  H.  Xat., 
xxx,  1  ”)  says  :  “  There  is  another  per¬ 
formance  of  magic,  namely,  by  Moses, 
and  Jannez  and  Jotapez,  among  the 
Jews,  but  many  thousands  of  years  af¬ 
ter  Zoroaster.”  Reprobate — Reject¬ 
ed,  not  able  to  stand  the  test  when  tried 
by  the  true  doctrine  of  Christ  as  sum¬ 
marized  in  ii,  8-13. 

9.  Proceed — In  success  and  ascen- 

dencv  no  further  than  Jannes  and 

•» 

Jambres  did,  who  came  to  total  over- 


A.  D.  67. 


CHAPTER  III. 


455 


manifest  unto  all  men,  uas  theirs 
also  was. 

10  v  But* *  3  thou  hast  fully  known 
my  doctrine,  manner  of  life,  pur¬ 
pose,  faith,  longsuffering,  charity, 
patience,  11  Persecutions,  afflic¬ 
tions,  which  came  unto  me  wat  An¬ 
tioch,  xat  Iconium,  ?at  Lystra; 
what  persecutions  I  endured :  but 
2  out  of  them  all  the  Lord  delivered 

u  Exod.  7.  12;  8.  18;  9.  11. - x>  Phil.  2.  22; 

ITim.  4.  6. - 3  0c,  thou  hast  been  a  diligent 

follower  of. - w  Acts  13.  45,  50. - x  Acts  14. 

2,  5 - y  Acts  14. 19. z  Psa.  34.  19 ;  2  Cor.  1. 10 ; 

throw.  The  similar  words  in  ii,  16, 
described  their  increase  or  advance, 
not  in  success,  but  in  ungodliness. 
Strange  that  Alford  should  find  “  an 
apparent  inconsistency  between  the  two 
assertions.”  For — Showing  how  their 
overthrow  would  be  accomplished,  not 
by  destruction  (as  at  the  advent)  but 
by  exposure.  Theirs  —  Jannes  and 
Jambres.  Exod.  viii,  18;  ix,  11. 

10-17.  To  the  above  terrific  delinea¬ 
tion  St.  Paul  now  draws  a  contrastive 
picture  for  and  of  Timothy  himself  in 
that  approaching  future.  Taking  the 
suffering  and  heroic  Paul  as  his  pat¬ 
tern,  10-12,  in  contrast  with  these  se¬ 
ducers,  13,  and  in  full  accordance  with 
his  childhood’s  training  in  the  Scrip¬ 
tures,  14,  15,  which  are  the  inspired 
guide  of  his  life,  15,  16,  he  will  find 
himself  fully  fitted  for  every  demand, 
for  every  good  work. 

2.  But  as  Timothy  knows  the 
trueness  and  purity  of  Paul,  10-13. 

10.  But  —  Contrastfve;  introducing 
a  picture  antithetic  to  the  above  gloomy 
portraiture.  Thou — Greek,  emphatic, 
both  by  insertion  and  position;  in  an- 
tiiLesis  to  the  errorists  above  de¬ 
scribed.  Hast  fully  known — With 
thorough  study  and  acquaintance  as  of 
a  pattern  and  lesson.  Timothy’s  ac¬ 
quaintance  with  Paul’s  example  as  an 
eyewitness  commenced  at  Lystra,  but 
the  report  of  his  previous  endurances 
at  Antioch  and  Iconium,  Acts  xiv, 
must  have  been  perfectly  known  to 
him  at  the  time.  Lystra — The  apos¬ 
tle  stops  his  enumeration  in  precise  ac¬ 
cordance  with  the  history  in  Acts  xiv, 
20,  21,  where  see  notes. 


me.  12  Yea,  and  aall  that  will 
live  godly  in  Christ  Jesus  shall 
suffer  persecution.  13  bBut  evil 
men  and  seducers  shall  wax  worse 
and  worse,  deceiving,  and  being 
deceived. 

14  But  c  continue  thou  in  the 
things  which  thou  hast  learned 
and  hast  been  assured  of,  knowing 
of  whom  thou  hast  learned  them ; 

chap.  4.  17. - a  Psa.  34.  19;  Matt.  16.  24;  John 

17.  14 ;  Acts  14.  22 ;  1  Cor.  15.  19 ;  ]  Thess.  3.  3. 

- &2  Thess.  2.  11;  1  Tim.  4.  1;  chap.  2.  16. - 

cChap.  1.  13;  2.  2. 

12.  Yea  —  What  Paul  has  suffered 
Timothy  must,  more  or  less,  expect  to 
suffer.  The  apostle  does  not  invite  his 
pupil  to  ease  and  fortune,  but  to  trial 
and  persecution.  All  —  Explicitly 
affirmed  only  of  the  apostle’s  own  age ; 
but  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  appli¬ 
cable,  in  fact  or  in  spirit,  to  all  ages. 
Yet  we  are  not  to  consider  persecu¬ 
tion  a  test  of  our  piety.  Shall  suffer 
— The  simple  future  will  suffer. 

13.  But — In  contrast  to  10-12,  St. 
Paul  makes  again  a  brief  reference  to 
the  corrupt  sorcerers  of  verse  8.  Se¬ 
ducers  —  Literally,  sorcerers  or  jug¬ 
glers  ;  like  the  opponents  of  Moses 
in  Exodus,  or  Elymas,  and  the  follow¬ 
ers  of  Diana  in  Acts.  Deceiving, 
and  being  deceived — By  a  perpetual 
community  of  error  mutually  deluding 
each  other,  and  so  wax  worse  and 
worse  by  going  deeper  and  deeper 
into  a  series  of  delusions.  Such,  in 
fact,  was  the  history  of  Gnosticism. 

3.  So  he  should  also  be  true,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  Scriptures,  inspired 
to  furnish  and  qualify  the  minister 
of  God,  14-17. 

14.  But — Resuming  Timothy’s  con¬ 
trast  of  character  over  against  the  er¬ 
rorists.  Knowing  of  whom  —  The 
whom  is  plural,  referring  not  (as  Al¬ 
ford)  to  Timothy’s  parents,  but  to  Paul 
and  the  original  apostolic  eye  and  ear 
witnesses  of  the  doings  and  teachings 
of  Christ.  This  perfect  preservation  of 
the  original  type  was  the  bulwark  of 
the  Church  of  St.  Paul  and  Timothy 
against  the  Gnostics  and  all  other 
heretics.  And  when  that  doctrine  was 
recorded  in  the  apostolic  writings  and 


456 


II.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  67. 


15  And  that  from  a  child  thou 
hast  known  dthe  holy  Scriptures, 
which  are  able  to  make  thee  wise 
unto  salvation  through  faith  which 
is  in  Christ  Jesus.  10  e  All  Scrip¬ 
ture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God, 

d  John  5.  39. - e2  Pet.  1.  20,  21. - -/Rom.  15.  4. 

became  the  rule  of  faith,  it  is  the  bul¬ 
wark  alike  to  the  present  day,  against 
all  innovations  and  variations,  whether 
of  Kornanism  or  Rationalism. 

15.  And  —  This  Christ  history  de¬ 
rived  from  the  original  witnesses  was 
fully  in  accord  with  the  Old  Testament, 
in  which  Timothy’s  childhood  was  in¬ 
doctrinated.  Holy  Scriptures — The 
Old  Testament,  either  in  the  Hebrew, 
or  in  the  Septuagint  translation  there¬ 
of  into  Greek,  or  both.  For  although 
Eunice’s  husband  was  a  Greek,  the 
old  Bibie  ruled  in  her  system  of  educa¬ 
tion.  Are  able  —  With  thy  proper 
use  of  them.  To  make  thee  wise — 
Being,  as  they  are,  predictive,  both  by 
spoken  prophecy  and  by  sacrificial  ritu¬ 
al,  of  the  true  Saviour.  Unto  salva¬ 
tion — From  Jewish,  pagan,  and  Gnos¬ 
tic  error,  from  sin,  condemnation,  and 
death.  Through  faith — Since  it  is 
only  as  our  faith  embraces  them  that 
they  are  powerful  in  us. 

16.  The  divine  suitableness  of  Scrip¬ 
ture  to  fit  the  miuister  for  his  work. 
All  Scripture  —  The  Greek  word  for 
Scripture,  ypatyr).  simply  signifies  writ¬ 
ing  ;  hence  in  verse  15  the  adjective 
holy,  and,  perhaps,  here  the  adjective 
God-breathed ,  (which  is  the  literal  Greek 
of  the  full  phrase  given  by  inspira¬ 
tion  of  God,)  are  used  to  qualify  the 
word  as  meaning  the  sacred  writings. 
Yet  of  the  fifty  times  in  which  the 
Greek  word  ypatyr]  occurs,  it  does  not 
once  designate  any  thing  else  than  the 
sacred  canon.  Scholars  find  two  in¬ 
terpretations  for  this  passage.  One  is 
clearly  expressed  in  our  English  trans¬ 
lation  :  All  scripture  is  inspired  and 
profitable ,  etc.  But  the  verb  for  is,  not 
being  in  the  Greek,  can  be  supplied  at  a 
different  place ;  and  the  Greek  for  and 
can  be  emphatic,  also.  We,  then,  may 
have  the  rendering,  All  inspired  scrip¬ 
ture  is  also  profitable ,  etc.  In  the  former 


rand  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for 
reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruc¬ 
tion  in  righteousness:  17  *That 
the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect, 
b  thoroughly  4furnished  unto  all 
good  works. 

0 1  Tini.  6. 11. - ZtChap.2.21. - 4  Or,  perfected. 

interpretation  the  inspiration  of  Scrip¬ 
ture  is  affirmed,  in  the  latter  case  as¬ 
sumed.  Either  interpretation  is  sus¬ 
tainable  by  the  Greek.  Ellicott,  Alford, 
and  Iluther  prefer  the  latter;  in  which 
they  are  sustained  by  Origen,  Grotius, 
Erasmus,  Whitby,  and  Hammond ;  al¬ 
so  by  the  Syriac,  V ulgate,  and  Luther’s 
version.  The  latter  meaning  lies  most 
clearly  in  the  train  of  thought. 

That  thought ,  and,  perhaps,  words , 
should  be  God-breathed  into,  or  on,  a 
human  being,  is  a  conception  familiar 
to  ancient  pagan  as  well  as  Hebrew 
and  Christian  writers.  Josephus  says  : 
“The  prophets  learned  the  highest 
and  most  ancient  things  by  the  in¬ 
spiration  (breathing  on)  that  is  from 
God.”  Plutarch  speaks  of  “  the  God- 
breathed  dreams.”  Cicero  says,  “No 
man  was  ever  great  without  some  di¬ 
vine  afflatus,  (breathing -on.)  Either 
the  thought  might  be  imparted  to  the 
man,  and  then  the  thought  was  in¬ 
spired;  or  the  man  might  be  elevated 
to  a  higher  tone,  and  so,  speaking  spon¬ 
taneously,  his  words  would  have  some¬ 
thing  divine  about  them.  2  Pet.  i,  21 ; 
Matt,  xxii,  43,  seems  to  describe  the 
latter  inspiration. 

Scripture,  Paul  tells  Timothy,  is 
profitable,  positively  for  doctrine,  or 
teaching  positive  truth ;  negatively  for 
reproof,  or  rather,  refutation  of  error; 
disciplinarily  for  correction  of  con¬ 
duct  ;  formatively  as  a  whole  for  right¬ 
eousness  or  rectitude  of  character. 

17.  Man  of  God  —  The  Christian 
minister.  Huther  objects  that  Paul  does 
not  here  prescribe  Scripture  as  an*  in¬ 
strument  to  use  in  morally  forming  oth¬ 
ers,  but  in  forming  one’s  self.  A  ery  true. 
But  it  is  for  forming  one’s  self  to  be  a 
perfect  former  of  others.  et  while 
addressed  to  Timothy  as  pastor  in  Eph¬ 
esus,  it  implies  inclusively  every  man 
who  is  zealous  unto  all  good  woiks. 


A.  D.  07. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


4o  / 


CHAPTER  IV. 
a  CHARGE  thee  therefore  before 
God,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
6  who  shall  judge  the  quick  and 
the  dead  at  his  appearing  and  his 
kingdom;  2  Preach  the  word;  be 
instant  in  season,  out  of  season;  re¬ 
prove,  c  rebuke,  d  exhort  with  all 
longsuffering  and  doctrine.  3  e  For 
the  time  will  come  when  they  will 
not  endure  f sound  doctrine;  &but 

a  1  Tim.  5.  21;  6.  13;  chap.  2.  14. - b  Acts 

10.  42. - cl  Tim.  5.  20;  Titus  1.  13;  2.  15. - 

d  1  Tim.  4.  13. c  Chap.  3.  1. — / 1  Tim.  1.  10. 

- g  Chap.  3.  6. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

IV.  St.  Paul’s  Closing  Charge  to 
Timothy — Salutations  and  Benedic¬ 
tions,  1-22. 

1 .  Charge  to  firmness  against  er- 
rorists,  1-5. 

1.  This  charge  has  the  nature  of  an 
oath,  by  which  the  imposer  assumes  to 
bind  his  disciple  before  God  by  the 
solemnities  and  penalties  of  the  final 
judgment  to  do  certain  things  which 
are  specified  in  ver.  2.  Therefore — Is 
to  be  omitted  as  a  spurious  reading;  so 
also  at  before  appearing.  Quick  and 
the  dead  —  Both  those  that  live  and 
those  deceased.  Appearing  —  Gov¬ 
erned  as  the  objective  of  an  oath  by 
understood.  I  charge  thee. .  .before 
. . .  Christ,  by  his  appearing. 

2.  What  he  is  charged  to  do.  Preach 
—  Proclaim  as  a  herald,  the  word 
which,  as  herald,  thou  bearest  from  God 
to  man.  Be  instant — Or  urgent  and 
pressing,  as  becomes  God’s  herald,  to 
force  thy  message  on  men’s  atten¬ 
tion.  Out  of  season — As  they  may 
esteem  it ;  yet  it  will  be  in  season  if 
its  very  abruptness  makes  it  effectual. 
Methods  of  the  message.  Men  are  en¬ 
tangled  in  sophisms,  therefore  reprove, 
that  is,  refute ,  convince  them :  they  are 
persistent  in  known  wickedness,  there¬ 
fore  rebuke :  they  are  slow  to  good, 
therefore  exhort,  incite,  encourage, 
urge  them.  Tempers — longsuffering, 
for  they  will  be  long-trying ;  and  doc¬ 
trine — for  they  will  need  teaching,  a 
continual  inculcation  of  truth. 

3.  For  —  Reason  for  this  urgent 


after  their  own  lusts  shall  they 
heap  to  themselves  teachers,  hav¬ 
ing  itching  ears;  4  And  they  shall 
turn  away  their  ears  from  the  truth, 
and  h shall  be  turned  unto  fables. 
5  But  watch  thou  in  all  things, 
•endure  afflictions,  do  the  work  of 
kan  evangelist, *  1 2 3  make  full  proof 
of  thy  ministry. 

6  For  ]I  am  now  ready  to  be 
offered,  and  the  time  of  mmy  de- 

h  1  Tim.  1.  4;  4.  7;  Titus  1.  14. - iChap.  1.  8; 

2.  3. - k  Acts  21.  8;  Eph.  4.  11. - 1  Or,  fulfil, 

Rom.  15.  19;  Col.  1.  25;  4.  17. - ZPhil.  2.  17. - 

m  Phil.  1.  23;  2  Pet,  1.  14. 

charge.  The  falling  away,  predicted, 
iii,  1-9  ;  1  Tim.  iv,  1-3.  Sound  words, 
i,  13.  Itching  ears — Ears  that  itch  for 
pleasant  doctrines,  rather  than  severe 
truth. 

4.  From  the  truth  —  Which  does 
not  soothe  the  above  itch ;  they  turn 
away  their  ears  towards  the  fables 

which  do. 

5.  Watch — Literally,  wake ;  be  wide 
awake.  An  evangelist — An  evangel- 
izer,  who  imbues  the  people  with  the 
gospel.  Full  proof — Literally,  fill 
the  full  measure  of  thy  ministry. 

2.  Triumphal  anticipation  of  mar¬ 
tyrdom,  6-8. 

6.  For — St.  Paul  now  furnishes  the 
reason  for  this  urgent  charge  just  given, 
and  for  the  solemnity  of  the  charge  of 
this  entire  epistle.  He  was  about  ex¬ 
changing  labour  for  reward.  His  place 
in  the  Church  below  will  soon  be  va¬ 
cant;  and  0  that  Timothy  might  fill 
the  blank  as  a  second  Paul !  Ready 
to  be  offered  —  The  elder  biblical 
scholars  literally  translated  the  words, 

I  am  already  poured  upon  with  the  liba¬ 
tion.  The  allusion  was  to  the  ancient 
sacrificial  custom  of  pouring  a  libation 
of  wine  upon  the  living  victim  the  mo¬ 
ment  before  his  slaughter.  Hence 
Paul’s  meaning  would  then  be,  as  in  the 
English  version,  I  am  ready  to  be 
offered.  But  later  critics  maintain  that 
the  accurate  rendering  of  orcevdofiaL  is 
not  to  be  poured  upon ,  but  to  be  poured. 
What  St.  Paul,  then,  literally  says  is: 

II  I  am  already  poured  as  a  libation.” 
He  was  not  then  the  victim  moistened 
with  the  drink  offering,  but  the  drink 


458 


II.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  07. 


parture  is  at  hand.  7  n  I  have 
fought  a  good  light,  I  have  fin¬ 
ished  my  course,  I  have  kept  the 
faith  :  §  Henceforth  there  is  laid 

uj)  for  me  °a  crown  of  righteous¬ 
ness,  which  the  Lord,  the  right¬ 
eous  judge,  shall  give  me  Pat  that 
day:  and  not  to  me  only,  but  un¬ 
to  all  them  also  that  love  his  ap¬ 
pearing. 

n,  1  Cor.  9.  24,  25;  Phil.  3.  14;  1  Tim.  6.  12; 

Heb.  12.  1. - ol  Cor.  9.  25;  James  1.  12;  1  Pet. 

5.  4;  Itev.  2.  10. - v  Chap.  1.  12. - q  Col.  4.  15; 

Philem.  24. 

offering  itself.  And  then  the  allusion 

is  to  his  own  blood  poured  forth  under 

the  Roman  axe.  Yet  as  this  event 
seems  not  to  have  taken  place  until 
after  the  ensuing  winter,  the  word 
already  appears  hardly  fulfilled.  The 
answer  is,  that  he  viewed  his  present 
sufferings  as  part  of  his  martyrdom. 
Nor  must  the  words  be  viewed  as  an 
exact  prophecy,  but  as  a  personal  an¬ 

ticipation.  Departure — An  allusion, 

perl  laps,  to  a  ship’s  loosening  for  sailing 

forth. 

7.  Fought. .  .fight — The  words  in¬ 
clude  not  merely  allusion  to  real  battle 
but  palestric  combats.  I  have  conlested 
the  noble  contest  Not  a  good  fight, 
but  the  good  fight,  namely,  the  main¬ 
tenance  of  the  Christian  faith.  Course 
—  An  allusion  to  the  prize  runner. 
The  faith — The  doctrine  of  the  cross. 

8.  Henceforth — Paul  speaks  as  from 
the  moment  of  his  martyrdom.  It  is  to 
bo  noted  that  he  looks  for  his  crown, 
not  as  bestowed  in  the  intermediate 
and  disembodied  state,  but  at  the  judg¬ 
ment.  In  the  happiness  of  that  inter¬ 
mediate  state  he  fully  believes,  (Phil, 
i,  23,)  but  his  thought  glances  to  the 
advent  as  the  time  of  his  coronation. 
Crown  of  righteousness — So  James 
i,  12,  the  crown  of  life.  1  Peter  v,  4, 
the  crown  of  glory ;  that  crown  so 
glorious  as  to  be  made  of  glory;  a 
crown  so  living  as  to  be  made  up  of 
life ;  a  crown  so  holy  as  to  be  made 
up  of  righteousness.  In  all  these 
oases  the  blessedness  bestowed  upon 
the  man  is  idealized  into  a  crown. 
Love  his  appearing — For  fearful  as 
is  that  day  to  the  wicked,  so  fearful 


9  I)o  thy  diligence  to  come 
shortly  unto  me:  10  For  I)emas 
hath  forsaken  me,  r  having  loved 
this  present  world,  and  is  depart¬ 
ed  unto  Thessalonica  ;  Crescens 
to  Galatia,  Titus  unto  Dalmatia. 
1 1 * * * * * * 7  8  Only  1 * 3  Luke  is  with  me.  Take 
uMark,  and  bring  him  with  thee: 
for  he  is  profitable  to  me  for  the 
ministry.  12  And  vTychicus  have 

r  1  John  2.  15. - h  Chapter  1.  15. - 1  Col. 

4.  14;  Philem.  24. - u  Acts  12.  25;  15.  37;  Col. 

4.  10. - v  Acts  20.  4;  Eph.  6.  21 ;  Col.  4.  7 ;  Titus 

3.  12. 

that  the  righteous  may  well  tremble,  it 

is  still  to  the  latter  the  day  of  his  vin¬ 
dication  and  his  crown. 

3.  St.  Paul’s  personal  relations  to 
his  fellows,  9-13. 

Of  the  seven  of  his  fellow  labourers 

here  noted,  four  had  left  him;  one, 

Demas,  voluntarily  and  blamably ;  two, 

Crescens  and  Titus,  voluntarily,  but 

unblamed;  a  fourth,  Tychicus,  sent 
away.  One  only,  Luke,  was  with  him, 
and  two,  Timothy  and  Mark,  are  re¬ 

quested  to  come  to  him. 

10.  Demas — Joined  in  greeting  in 
Col.  iv,  14;  Philn.  24.  Loved. .  .world 
— So  that  he  left  the  dangerous  post 
of  fellow  ministry  with  Paul ;  perhaps 
abandoned  the  Christian  faith.  Thes¬ 
salonica  was  probably  his  home. 
Galatia — The  true  reading  is,  perhaps, 
Gallia,  that  is,  Gaul,  France. 

1 1.  Luke — See  notice  of  Luke,  vol. 
2,  p.  11,  and  note  Acts  xiii,  1.  Mark 
— According  to  Col.  iv,  10,  he  is  com¬ 
mended  to  Colosse.  Timothy  might 
easily  take  Mark  from  there  if  he  re¬ 
ceived  this  epistle  at  Ephesus. 

12.  Tychicus ..  .sent  —  This  verso 
is  the  strong  proof  adduced  to  show 
that  Timothy  was  not  at  Ephesus  when 
this  epistle  was  written  to  him.  To 
obviate  the  objection  Alford  would  em¬ 
phasize  sent,  and  make  Paul  assure 
Timothy  that  Tychicus  did  not  leave 
him  voluntarily,  but  by  command.  And 
we  may  also  suggest  the  query,  How 
was  it  certain  that  in  those  days  of  un¬ 
certain  travel  lie  should  arrive  where 
he  was  sent?  Or  how  should  Paul  be 
so  sure  that  he  had  arrived  as  to  make 
him  omit  the  mention  of  the  sending4 * * * * * 10 11 12 


A.  D.  67. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


459 


I  sent  to  Ephesus.  13  The  cloak 
chat  I  left  at  Troas  with  Carpus, 
iv hen  thou  comest,  bring  with  thee, 
and  the  books,  but  especially  the 
parchments. 

14  w  Alexander  the  coppersmith 
did  me  much  evil :  x  the  Lord  re¬ 
ward  him  according  to  his  works : 

w  Acts  19.  33;  1  Tim.  1.  20. - x  2  Sam.  3.  39; 

Psa,  28.  4;  Rev.  18.  6. - 2  Or,  our  preachings. 

Perhaps  he  might  have  written  less 
concisely:  “  I  sent  Tychicus  to  fill  your 
place  at  Ephesus,  and  hope  you  have 
seen  him.”  There  are,  indeed,  many 
suppositions  that  would  explain  the 
case,  but,  from  absence  of  documents, 
no  one  that  we  know  to  be  the  true 
one. 

13.  The  cloak  —  The  Greek  term 
(pe?i ovrjv  seems  to  have  been  a  form  of 
the  Latin  word  pcenula ,  signifying  an 
overcoat,  or  over  wrapper.  Cicero  ar¬ 
gues  that  Milo  could  not  have  come 
on  to  the  ground  for  the  purpose  of 
murdering  Clodius,  for  he  came  in  a 
pcenula.  Many  able  scholars  prefer 
to  interpret  the  word  book-bag,  or  port¬ 
manteau.  But  as  Alford  well  argues, 
the  form  of  the  sentence  opposes  such 
a  view:  The  book-bag  bring  me  which , 
etc.,  also  the  books ,  etc.  Any  man 
would  have  said,  bring  me  the  bag 
of  books.  Perhaps  Paul  needed  the 
books,  that  is,  papyrus  rolls ,  (see  note 
Matt,  i,  2,)  and  parchments,  in  evi¬ 
dence  at  liis  approaching  trial,  and  his 
cloak,  in  view  of  the  coming  winter, 
verse  21. 

This  passage  seems  to  prove  that 
Paul  writes  in  a  second  imprisonment. 
He  must  have  lately  been  at  Troas  and 
left  his  overcoat  and  books.  But  if  in 
his  first  imprisonment  it  was  five  years 
since  he  had  been  at  Troas,  and  Timo¬ 
thy  had  been  with  him  since  at  Rome. 
He  must,  therefore,  have  been  released 
and  have  visited  Troas,  and  again  have 
been  imprisoned. 

4.  Reminiscences  of  his  former 
trial,  14-18. 

14.  Alexander  the  coppersmith 

— Or  rather,  brazier.  See  note,  Acts 
xix,  33.  He  was  probably  a  resident 
of  Ephesus,  but  went  to  Rome  as  wit¬ 
ness  or  prosecutor  against  Paul  at  his 


15  Of  whom  be  thou  ware  also ; 
for  he  hath  greatly  withstood  2our 
words.  16  At  my  first  answer  no 
man  stood  with  me,  y  but  all  men 
forsook  me:  z  I  pray  God  that  it 
may  not  be  laid  to  their  charge. 
17  a  Notwithstanding  the  Lord 
stood  with  me,  and  strengthened 

y  Chapter  1.  15. - z  Acts  7.  60. - a  Matthew 

10.19;  Acts  23.  11;  27.  23. 

trial.  The  Lord  reward — The  best 
authorities  read  will  reward  ;  making 
the  words  a  prediction  rather  than  an 
imprecation.  The  position  of  both  Al¬ 
ford  and  Fairbairn  is,  that  the  impreca- 
tive  form  presents  no  greater  theologi¬ 
cal  difficulty  than  the  predictive.  One 
of  the  most  solemn,  yet  approvable, 
passages  of  the  Apocalypse,  vi,  9,  10, 
is  imprecative.  An  inspired  prayer  may 
anticipate  and  invoke  the  just  judg¬ 
ment  that  a  holy  God  is  about  to  exe¬ 
cute.  Yet  upon  such  passages  scepti¬ 
cal  cavil  will  always  be  offered. 

15.  Be  thou  ware  —  Do  thou  be¬ 
ware.  The  words  imply  treachery  in 
Alexander,  perhaps  the  use  and  per¬ 
version  of  facts,  documents,  or  doc¬ 
trines  confidentially  intrusted  to  him. 
This  disclosure  of  his  treason  may  pre¬ 
serve  Timothy  from  a  similar  betrayal. 
Withstood  our  words  —  Our  doc¬ 
trines;  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel; 
which,  as  appears  by  verse  17,  Paul 
boldly  stated  and  maintained  in  his  de¬ 
fence  at  his  arraignment. 

16.  My  first  answer — It  is  plaus¬ 
ibly  maintained  that  at  his  second  im¬ 
prisonment,  St.  Paul  underwent  two 
arraignments.  The  first  has,  at  this 
present  writing,  taken  place,  and  re¬ 
sulted  in  no  conviction ;  the  second, 
anticipated  in  6-8,  proved  fatal. 

17.  The  Lord  stood  with  me  — 
An  advocate  and  coadjutor,  better 
than  any  man.  The  charge  against 
Paul  probably  was  the  introduction  of 
a  new  religion,  unknown  to  his  ances¬ 
tors.  Rome  permitted  every  conquered 
people  to  adhere,  each,  to  its  own  na¬ 
tional  faith;  but  inflicted  death  on  in¬ 
novators  and  inventors  of  new  faiths. 
See  note,  Acts  xxvi,  1.  Paul  maintained 
that  his  faith  was  no  new  invention, 
but  the  true  historical  continuity  and 


460 


II.  TIMOTHY. 


A.  D.  67. 


me ;  b  that  by  me  the  preaching 
might  be  fully  known,  and  that  all 
the  Gentiles  might  hear:  and  I 
was  delivered  cout  of  the  mouth 
of  the  lion.  18  dAnd  the  Lord 
shall  deliver  me  from  every  evil 

&  Acts  9.  15;  26.  17,  18;  Ephesians  3.  8. - 

C  Psalm  22.  21 ;  2  Peter  2.  9. - d  Psalm  121.  7. 

- e  Romans  11.36;  Galatians  1.  5;  Hebrews 

development  of  old  Hebraism.  And 
lie  re  we  can  see  how  Alexander,  who 
had,  we  suppose,  been  both  Jew  and 
Christian,  might  be  able  to  withstand 
St.  Paul’s  words,  by  maintaining  that 
Christianity  was  a  contradiction  of  the 
old  faith.  This  would  draw  Paul  out  to 
a  full  statement  of  Christianity.  And 
thereby  we  can  see,  first,  how  the 
Lord,  standing  by  him,  would  be  a 
powerful  inspirer  and  confirmer  in  un¬ 
folding  the  glorious  truths  of  the  gos¬ 
pel  ;  and,  second ,  how  Paul  can  jubi¬ 
lantly  boast  that  all  the  Gentiles 
would  hear  his  plea  for  Christ.  The 
trial  was  probably  held  in  one  of  the 
large  basilicas,  and  attended  by  a  vast 
crowd  of  Romans.  Mouth  of  the 
lion — Nero ,  as  all  the  old  writers  used 
to  say.  Yet  it  is  probable  that  Nero 
was  at  this  time  absent  from  Rome. 
Hence,  different  commentators  have 
each  suggested  a  different  lion.  Whit¬ 
by  and  others  name  Helius,  the  admin¬ 
istrator  in  Nero’s  absence ;  Wieseler, 
the  Jewish  prosecutor;  others,  the  lions 
of  the  amphitheatre.  Huther  and  Fair- 
bairn  take  lion’s  mouth  as  a  single 
metaphorical  phrase  to  express  danger 
and  death. 

18.  Preserve  me — Whether  from 
death,  as  at  bis  first  arraignment,  or 
through  death,  as  at  his  second.  For 
the  real  preserve  consists  in  securing 
his  transit  unto  his  heavenly  king¬ 
dom.  And  so  rich  in  both  arraign¬ 
ments  is  St.  Paul’s  triumph,  that  he  fin¬ 
ishes  his  account  of  this  first  one  with 
a  doxology,  as  he  had  (in  vv.  G-8)  the 
second  with  a  pean. 

It  seems  surprising,  at  first,  that 
while  St.  Paul  is  in  prison  and  on  trial 
for  life  for  his  Christianity  any  of  his 
fellow  Christian  preachers  should  dare 
to  visit  and  associate  with  him,  bring¬ 
ing  him  aid  and  carrying  his  letters. 


work,  and  will  preserve  me  unto 
his  heavenly  kingdom:  eto  whom 
he  glory  for  ever  and  ever.  Amen. 

19  Salute  fPrisca  and  Aquila, 
and  *  the  household  of  Onesipbo- 
rus.  20  hErastus  abode  at  Cor- 

13.21;  Revelation  1.  6. - /Acts  18.  2;  Romans 

16.  3. - g  2  Timothy  1.  16. - h  Acts  19.  22  ;  Ro 

mans  16.  23. 

But,  similarly,  Socrates  in  Athens  while 
condemned  as  a  false  teacher  was  vis¬ 
ited  by  his  disciples  in  his  prison  and 
discoursed  with  them  at  length  upon 
his  philosophy.  So  Christian  martyrs, 
subsequent  to  St.  Paul,  as  St.  Ignatius 
and  Cyprian,  were  allowed  visits  and 
correspondence.  The  pagan  satirist, 
Lucian,  in  the  early  half  of  the  second 
century  describes  the  career  of  a  Chris¬ 
tian  itinerant  in  his  day,  named  Pere- 
grinus,  and  narrates  the  eager  zeal  of 
Christians  in  ministering  to  his  wants 
in  prison.  “  From  early  dawn  old 
women,  widows,  and  orphan  children 
might  be  seen  waiting  about  the  doors 
of  his  prison ;  while  their  eminent 
men,  by  feeing  the  keepers,  were  al¬ 
lowed  to  pass  the  night  with  him  in 
his  prison . . .  Moreover,  deputies  came 
from  certain  cities  of  Asia  from  the 
Christian  associations  to  assist,  advise, 
and  console  the  man.  They  show,  in¬ 
deed,  incredible  dispatch  in  any  under¬ 
taking  which  would  aid  a  common  in¬ 
terest.  Sums  of  money  so  large  were 
contributed  as  to  furnish  no  little  reve¬ 
nue  to  Peregrinus.”  The  government 
seemed  satisfied  with  destroying  the 
apparent  leader,  expecting  that  his  fol¬ 
lowers  would  come  to  nothing ;  and  the 
immediate  jailers  were  ready  to  grant 
privileges  for  a  consideration. 

5.  Salutations  and  benedictions, 
19-22. 

19.  Prisca  —  Notes,  Acts  xviii,  2; 
and  Rom.  xvi,  4.  Household — Note, 
i,  16. 

20.  Erastus  —  Mentioned  as  city 
treasurer  of  Corinth  in  Rom.  xvi.  23; 
as  going  by  *Y>mmission  from  St.  Paul 
to  Corinth  from  Ephesus  with  Timo¬ 
thy,  (Acts  xix,  22,)  and  here  as  being 
with  Timothy  at  Ephesus.  He  proba 
bly  ceased  from  the  treasurership  when 
he  took  up  the  gospel. 


A.  D.  67. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


461 


inth  :  but  '  Trophimus  have  I  left 
at  Miletum  sick.  21  kDo  thy  dili¬ 
gence  to  come  before  winter.  Eu- 
bulus  greeteth  thee,  and  Pudens, 

i  Acts  20.  4 ;  21.  29. - k  Verse  9. 

Trophimus  —  Known  only  as  men¬ 
tioned  in  Acts  xx,  4,  and  xxi,  29  ; 
where  see  notes.  Trophimus  could  not 
have  been  left  at  Miletus  on  Paul’s 
journey  to  his  first  imprisonment  at 
Rome,  of  which  we  have  a  full  narra¬ 
tive  in  Acts  xxviii.  Paul,  therefore, 
writes  this  from  a  second  and  last  im¬ 
prisonment. 

21.  Before  winter — When  the  an¬ 
cient  vessels  were  mostly  laid  up,  and 
voyage  across  sea  impossible.  Such  a 
delay  might  postpone  Timothy’s  com¬ 
ing  until  after  Paul’s  martyrdom.  Eu- 
bulus — Nowhere  else  mentioned.  Pu¬ 
dens  . . .  and  Claudia — An  epigram  of 
the  Roman  poet,  Martial,  written  not 
long  after  this  time,  celebrates  the 


and  Linus,  and  Claudia,  and  all 
the  brethren.  22  1  The  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  be  with  thy  spirit.  Grace 
be  with  you.  Amen. 

I  Gal.  6.  18 ;  Philem.  25. 


marriage  of  Pudens  and  Claudia. 

English  scholars  have  found  proofs  that 
Martial’s  Claudia  was  daughter  of  a 
British  prince,  and  was  a  Christian  la¬ 
dy  at  Rome.  Hence  a  plausible  and 
pleasing  theory  identifies  Paul’s  Pu¬ 
dens  and  Claudia  with  Martial’s.  See 
Alford’s  Prolegomena,  and  Conybeare 
and  Howson,  vol.  ii,  pp.  500-502.  Li¬ 
nus — Irenaeus  says:  “The  apostles.  . . 
conferred  upon  Linus  the  office  of  the 
episcopate  [at  Rome.]  Of  this  Linus 
Paul  makes  mention  in  his  epistles  to 
Timothy.”  All  the  brethren  — From 
which  it  appears  that  the  Church  had 
not  been  wholly  scattered  by  persecu¬ 
tion.  And  this  was  destined  soon  to  be¬ 
come  “  the  Church  of  the  Catacombs.” 


WHEDON’S  COMMENTARY 

ON  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT,  IN  FIVE  VOLUMES. 

Four  volumes  are  issued ,  and  a  fifth  is  in  preparation. 


NOTICES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PRESS. 

Clearness  and  compactness,  which  often  remind  us  of  Bengel— sometimes 
brings  out  the  thought  upon  you  with  a  kind  of  surprise.— Evangelical  Lu¬ 
theran  Quarterly  Review. 

His  views  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  as  they  are  presented,  are  particu¬ 
larly  worthy  of  study. — Bibliotheca  Sacra. 

Seldom  get  hold  of  a  book  of  “Notes  on  the  Scriptures”  that  we  feel  like 
sitting  down  to  read  carefully  through ;  yet  such  has  been  our  desire  with  these 
successive  volumes. — Ladies'  Repository. 

By  a  single  stroke  he  frequently  opens  up  a  text  which  has  proved  too  hard 
for  many  a  commentator. — Nashville  Christian  Advocate. 

In  its  own  field  it  is  matchless. — N.  W.  Christian  Advocate. 

- - ♦ - - 

NOTICES  BY  THE  BRITISH  PRESS. 

The  Bishop  of  Gloucester  and  Bristol  says:  “Dr.  Whedon’s  Commentary 
on  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark  is  a  very  useful  Commentary  for  general  readers. 
The  notes  are  plain  and  clear,  and  in  all  matters  connected  with  history  and 
topography  very  full  of  serviceable  illustration.” 

The  Dean  of  Canterbury  says:  “Very  often  exceedingly  happy  in  bringing 
out  the  meaning  of  a  passage  in  a  fine  and  striking  way.” 

Dr.  W.  L.  Alexander  says:  “The  author  has  condensed  into  small  space  a 
large  amount  of  material,  and  in  aiming  to  be  brief  has  not  become  obscure.” 

Remarkable  terseness  and  fulness  of  information  at  once  apt  and  accurate.— 
London  Standard. 

Distinguished  by  great  fulness,  accuracy,  and  breadth. — Preachers'  Lantern. 


WHEDON’S  COMMENT  A  RY— NOTICES. 

Indeed,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  commentary  upon  Romans  is  a 
work  of  sanctified  exegetical  genius,  drained  scholarship,  keenly  accurate  logic, 
powerful  original  thinking,  minute  carefulness,  have  produced  an  exposition  as 
fresh  and  startling  as  it  is  truthful  and  vigorous.—  City  Road  (Lond.)  Mag. 

Hodder  &  Stoughton  have  done  a  good  thing  in  republishing  this  Com¬ 
mentary. — British  and  Foreign  Quarterly  Review. 

The  class  for  whom  it  is  intended  will  not  be  disappointed.— The  British 
Quarterly  Review. 

Of  the  numerous  popular  and  portable  commentaries  which  have  appeared, 
this  is  undoubtedly  the  best.  It  is  learned,  clear,  terse,  and  forcible,  and  im¬ 
parts  in  a  brief  form  a  large  amount  of  information.  There  is  in  it  no  parade 
of  scholarship,  yet  only  a  scholar,  and  a  ripe  one,  could  have  produced  it.  In 
all  the  qualifications  essential  to  a  commentator  Dr.  Whedon  is  second  to  none, 
so  that  he  may  be  ta*en  as  a  safe  and  sure  guide  of  the  Inspired  Word. _ Wes¬ 

leyan  Methodist  Magazine. 

We  noticed  the  first  volume  of  this  Commentary  very  favourably.  An 
examination  of  the  two  volumes  now  before  us  fully  confirms  what  we  then 
said  of  Dr.  Whedon  s  work.  Though  his  notes  are  condensed  as  regards  length, 
and  popular  as  regards  style,  he  is  very  thorough,  and  conscientiously  faces 

every  difficulty ;  and  his  explanations  are  generally  able,  lucid,  and  accurate. _ 

Church  Sunday-School  Magazine. 

The  present  volume  (vol.  iii)  of  this  admirable  Commentary  is  even  superior 
to  those  which  preceded  it. ...  We  observe  the  same  acumen  and  independence 
in  all  that  Dr.  Whedon  writes ;  no  difficulty  is  shirked ;  the  historical  refer¬ 
ences  in  the  Book  of  Acts  are  satisfactorily  treated,  and,  as  usual,  the  topog¬ 
raphy  of  sacred  places  is  carefully  elucidated.  The  notes  on  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  are  remarkable  for  their  arrangement  and  distinctiveness. — Irish 
Ecclesiastical  Gazette . 


COMMENTARY  ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


VOL.  III. 

JOSHUA.  By  D.  STEELE,  D.D. 

JUDGES  to  IL  SAMUEL.  By  Bov.  M.  S.  TEERY  A.M. 

VOL.  IV. 

KINGS  to  ESTHER.  By  Bev.  M.  S.  TERRY,  A.M. 

D.  D.  WHEDON,  LL.D.,  General  Editor. 

NOTICES  OF  THE  PRESS. 

These  notes  cover  a  portion  of  Scripture  on  which  there  are  few  accessible 
helps  There  “an  u.msual  fulness  of  detail  on  the  little  things  which  we  al 
deshe  to  know,  but  which  are  seldom  found  in  similar  works. -6.  S.  Tunes. 

We  do  not  know  of  any  other  Commentary  that  has  used  the  recent  discoveries 

co— • h,“s.d  ?» „ 

The  work  is  almost  purely  exegetical,  and  very  comprehensive.  In  the  fewest 
po^bllwords  tlm  exict  meaning  of  the  text  is  g^ern  These  volumes  lead  the 
list  of  Biblical  hand-books  of  interpretation.— Zion  s  Het  aid. 

The  volumes  abound  in  excellent  maps  and  illustrations,  which  add  materially 
to  the  interest  of  its  pages  .—Michigan  Christian  Advocate. 

The  work  seems  really  all  that  we  hoped  for.  Its  numerous  maps  and  pictorial 

IheworK  seems  red  v  oil  ^  ^  who  mav  use  it.  In  research,  Mr. 

illustrations  wil iaff  jiving-  under  contribution  all  that  recent  exploration 
Terry  is  mitefatuable,  «  within  his  reach.  He  shuns  no  difficulty  and 

shirkT  no  labour  “'in  our  judgment  these  volumes  are  fit  companions  to  those  on 
the  New  Testement,  which  the  Church  has  already  stamped  with  the  seal  of  its 
acceptance. — New  York  Christian  Advocate. 

TVl:fl  volume  is  a  duodecimo  of  558  double  column  pa^es,  uniform  m  shape, 

•  f  fn  jiX  of  a^anvement  with  Dr.  AVhedon’s  on  the  New  Testament.  It  is 

instance,  Adam  »rk®  ,  ^  ,  volume  beyond  our  fondest  expectation. 

S5&1  iA  fulness  about  it,  a  perfection  in  detail,  which  it  is  due  to  it  to  say,  we 

a  «m*>  SJBSl  i"?"'  vi,„. ... 

Length,  breadth,  hei  ,  .^  str’eam  desert,  and  plain.  AVe  are  particularly 

given,  of  land,  lake,  V  accuracy  0f  little  matters,  usually  overlooked, 

us 

cost  but  a  trifle  c,om^ 'T'f  .‘rried  in  the  saddle-pockets  or  chrpet-sack,  and 

HiasaipESS 

nation  producing  it.- Atlanta  Methodist  Advocate. 


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